NYPD's Work Stoppage Backfire: Arrest Rates Plummet At No Cost to Public Safety

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/activism/nypds-work-stoppage-backfire-arrest-rates-plummet-no-cost-public-safety



Members of the New York Police Department are currently engaged in a nonviolent campaign against New York City officials. Almost immediately following the killing of NYPD officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu on December 20, department members began to publicly dissent against both Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner William Bratton.

On December 27, hundreds of police officers turned their backs to de Blasio at the funeral services for Ramos, as he addressed the crowd that had gathered outside the chapel. The mayor then faced a similar response at the Madison Square Garden graduation of 884 new officers last Monday. On Friday, Bratton issued a firmly-worded memo ahead of Liu’s Sunday funeral, saying that the service should be about “grieving not grievance.” This call for decorum went unheeded, as hundreds of officers, yet again, turned their backs to de Blasio, during the eulogy he delivered for Liu.

In a statement that might seem ironic to protesters who’ve encountered the NYPD at marches and demonstrations, Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, stated, in response to Bratton’s memo, that, “I remind my members of their first amendment right to expression … It’s your choice.” Police unions have been some of de Blasio’s harshest critics, with Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch taking to the airwaves immediately after the deaths of Ramos and Liu to chastise the mayor for having “blood on his hands.”

The NYPD’s most notable action, however, has been the “work stoppage” reported in the New York Post last week. Arrests for minor offenses dropped by 94 percent in late December compared with the same period in 2013, while arrests overall are down 66 percent. The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association has strongly suggested officers not make arrests unless “absolutely necessary,” which —it’s worth noting — should probably be standard operating procedure rather than a protest tactic.

[DinahMoeHum]

1. Heh heh. Let the arrest quota queens learn the hard way. . .

. . .that the "Broken Windows" policy is a failure, a waste of time and paperwork, a drain on their resources and that their services are better put elsewhere - or not needed, period.

[brooklynite]

3. Are you aware that Mayor De Blasio has already said "broken windows" is staying as a policy?

[DinahMoeHum]

5. Yes, but he can always change that, as it was not his idea. . .

. . .but his predecessor's.

Let's keep watching for what happens.

[brooklynite]

8. Actually it was the idea of Commissioner Bratton under....

...David Dinkens

[branford]

19. The "broken windows" policing policies

were started when Bratton was appointed NYPD Police Commissioner under Rudy Giuliani in 1994.

Bratton was only Chief of the NY Transit Police for a short time under Dinkins, and Bratton was the head of the Boston PD for much of Dinkins' term. In fact, Dinkins' first police commissioner, Lee Brown, was widely blamed for many of the problems of the administration, including Crown Heights, which helped lead to Brown's subordinate, Ray Kelly, to ultimately become police commissioner.

Trying to rehabilitate Dinkins' reputation by associating him with Bratton's NYPD leadership is disingenuous. I would even suggest that Mayor deBlasio is looking back at the Dinkins' administration as an abject lesson in how not to deal with the NYPD, and the reason why deBlasio has studiously avoided criticizing the NYPD since becoming mayor, despite the police unions very public and disparaging remarks about him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bratton#New_York_City

http://www.houstonpress.com/1997-07-17/news/lee-brown-s-crown-heights-problem/

[Vattel]

2. I think this is good for the rank and file officers. They don't like the broken windows policies

that put pressure on them to inflate arrest numbers and ticket everything and harass people on the street.

[sabrina 1]

21. Plus, it led to a lot of corruption. Trying to meet quotas pressured many of them to falsify the

crime numbers. The cop who exposed the corruption was sent to a psychiatric ward for six days.

But he had the evidence. Tapes, and it all made it into the papers.

That Dept is corrupt and needs a complete revamping.

De Blasion ran on reforming the Department and won with an overwhelming majority.

So let them show the people of NYC how money of their tax dollars have been going to pay for an over-sized police force who have been doing nothing but harassing people.

[Vattel]

22. That is all true. But doesn't Bratton really like the broken windows approach?

[Man from Pickens]

27. not really

the lack of public safety decline in the wake of a 90%+ drop in "enforcement" basically means the vast majority of them are completely useless at best, and a menace to society at worst.

[Live and Learn]

4. I thought quotas were eliminate along time ago, for good reason.

Apparently. I was wrong.

[fredamae]

6. Seriously, on many levels

This is Such a Great thing for "main street/mom & pop shops"....Folks are more relaxed, People aren't paying ridiculous fines for say.....wearing "mis-matched socks" etc? They'll spend it on goods and services which is a great Boost to the economy!

[jtuck004]

7. It appears to have improved public safety for a minority of the population. n/t

[bemildred]

9. I could have told you that. Cops create lots of the crime we have.

No cops, no crime, and nobody much cares.

There is lots of real crime out there, violence and property crime, but you can get hurt going after those criminals, and you can get in trouble going after white collar crime, which is everywhere, so coward cops stick to the poor and weak and mentally ill, who are not as much of a threat.

[xchrom]

10. +1

[raouldukelives]

15. +1 Yep, see it all the time. nt

[marble falls]

11. The golden sentence:

"The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association has strongly suggested officers not make arrests unless “absolutely necessary,” which —it’s worth noting — should probably be standard operating procedure rather than a protest tactic."

Lets fire up the layoff printer.

[DetlefK]

12. Wait until deBlasio says "Crime is down, we cut your budget."

THAT's when the howling will begin.

"How dare you fire cops! This is political retaliation! This is totally not like firing teachers! If you fire us, the city will go belly-up!"

[freshwest]

23. What about the no-work no pay rule? Time for lay offs, clearly some of them aren't needed.

[JackInGreen]

13. Funny how that works

you take the authoritarian revenuers off the street and the only thing you see is fewer people being fined and jailed, safety and order remains by and large the same.

[Vinca]

14. Time to lay off a few cops.

[Javaman]

16. This reminds me of when the yellow cabs went on strike and...

everyone loved it. LOL

[bettyellen]

17. they have been avoiding taking reports on violent crime for years to massage the quality of life

index. They should be tasked with real police work, but no one is going to like what will happen to the stats then. It will create the appearance of artificial increase in violent crime.

[uponit7771]

18. They don't care about the crime, the NYPD knows the money will be missing and they'll be back

... to arresting people for inhaling while black in full force.

I pray the mayor of NY and other cities stand up to this back door taxation

[libdem4life]

20. I'm pro union until they do the inevitable...and overreach, just like the non union capitalists.

Nothing new under the sun.

[adigal]

24. I guess we don't need as many cops in NYC as we have

Time for cuts in hiring, encourage retirements.

[Trillo]

25. Thanks for keeping this in the news cycle.

It seems the Paris killings knocked our domestic police and related problems out of the news cycle.

[Jesus Malverde]

26. Fascinating how new years went off without a hitch.

It's fascinating to see we don't need thousands of citations from the men in blue when people go about their business.

The police have overplayed their hand.