If the NYPD treats the mayor
this bad in public, imagine what they do to black men when no one is looking
Opinion
by David A. Love |
et’s talk about the police,
specifically the NYPD. New York’s finest have not been acting so fine in recent
days, disrespecting Mayor Bill de Blasio and residents of the Big Apple in the
process.
Now, if the police will openly
defy and disrespect their boss and commander in public, can you imagine what
they do to black men when the cameras are nowhere in sight?
One of the more conspicuous
voices of defiance and disrespect emanating from the NYPD is Patrick Lynch, the
leader of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association. Following the December 20
execution of police officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos by crazed gunman
Ismaaiyl Brinsley in Brooklyn, Lynch placed the blame for the murders on Mayor
de Blasio. Lynch said “There’s blood on many hands tonight,” adding, “That
blood on the hands starts at City Hall in the Office of the Mayor.” The PBA
head also talked of the NYPD becoming a “wartime police department,” as if he
is planning a coup, and declaring war against the citizens of New York City,
particularly its black residents.
The ultimate humiliation for
the mayor came when hundreds of officers turned their backs on him while he
spoke at the funeral of Officer Ramos. Meanwhile, the same police who have
opposed the anti-police brutality demonstrations chose the funeral of a fallen
cop to protest the mayor and call for his ouster, all while drinking in
uniform. And on Monday, de Blasio was greeted with boos and jeers as he spoke
at the police academy graduation ceremony.
What’s going on here? We must
remember why a certain segment of the force is angry at Mayor de Blasio. He has
supported the #BlackLivesMatter protests and spoken out on the need for reform
in the police department and made this one of his campaign themes. Moreover, as
a father of a young black man, he did what any parent would do, which is
instruct his son on how to conduct himself when in the presence of the police.
“Chirlane and I have had to
talk to Dante for years about the dangers that he may face. A good young man,
law-abiding young man who would never think to do anything wrong,” de Blasio
said. “And yet, because of a history
that still hangs over us, the dangers he may face, we’ve had to literally train
him — as families have all over this city for decades — in how to take special
care in any encounter he has with the police officers who are there to protect
him.”
And why would anyone — in this
case, police officers — object to the mayor’s heartfelt words, his truth
telling, unless they truly lack sensitivity to the challenges facing the black
community? Why would they take offense to the mayor unless they carry around a
sense of entitlement, a belief they can do whatever they want to whomever they
please, and no one should tell them what to do?
The NYPD, like other police
departments around the country, suffers from a toxic culture problem and a
leadership crisis. And if nothing else is clear, it is most certain the swamp
must be drained.
Although some sources would
spin the data differently, the fact remains that New York City is a
predominantly black and brown city with a majority white police department. And
the reactionary culture of that department — based not only on recent events
but by years of evidence — is dominated by white working-class bullies who operate
through intimidation and with utter contempt for the communities of color they
purportedly serve.
For years, through the infamous
“stop and frisk” policy, the NYPD maintained an illegal tactic that amounted to
the nearly exclusive harassment of black and Latino men. For example, in 2011,
of the 685,724 people stopped and questioned by police, around 9 in 10 were
members of so-called minority groups.
One former narcotics detective,
Stephen Anderson, admitted it was common practice for cops to plant evidence
and frame innocent people in order to inflate the arrest stats and meet their
quotas. A high-ranking police officer
was caught on tape ordering a Latino cop, a whistleblower, to target “male
blacks 14 to 21” for stop and frisk because they commit crimes. One federal
judge said the force is plagued by “widespread falsification” on the part of
arresting officers. The corruption is put into its proper context when one
considers that 5 percent of NYPD officers make 4o percent of resisting arrest
charges, and 15 percent of cops account for nearly three-quarters of such
arrests.
Meanwhile, of the 179
fatalities by NYPD officers over 15 years — 86 percent of whom were black or
Latino where information on race was available — only three cases led to
indictments, and only one resulted in a conviction. Given these unresolved and
unaddressed racial problems in the department, it is no wonder that NYPD Chief
of Department Philip Banks — the highest ranking black cop on the force —
resigned. And it is no wonder that black officers feel threatened when they are
off duty, out of uniform, and racially profiled by their white peers.
“As an officer, I’ve been
thrown against the wall. As an officer, I’ve been shown no respect,” said NYPD
Officer Adhyl Polanco on Democracy Now! “And I’ve been thrown against the wall
off-duty, because…the mentality that Patrick Lynch and many other officers
don’t want to hear about. They don’t have to speak to their kids,” he added.
Polanco spoke out against stop and frisk and taped department conversations
detailing the policy, which punished officers that failed to meet a quota of
stops.
Speaking of de Blasio, Polanco
said the mayor inherited a police department with many issues: “Mayor de Blasio came with the attitude that
‘I can fix this police department.’ But this police department has a culture
that is going to make whoever tried to change that culture and life impossible,
including the mayor. It’s absolutely wrong to turn their back on the mayor.”
He elaborated: “How can a
parent who has a black child… that [has] seen millions of kids being stopped by
stop-and-frisk… how can parents [who] see black kids get killed by police over
and over, how can parents that see kids being summonsed illegally, being
arrested in their own building for trespassing…not from all officers, because
not all officers are the same — how can you not responsibly…have that
conversation with your son? You have to.”
Abusive police who unleash
violence against black or brown bodies may also do the same to their spouses or
girlfriends. According to the National Center for Women and Policing, studies
have found between 24 and 40 percent of police officer families experience
domestic violence, making domestic abuse 2 to 4 times more common among law
enforcement families than in the general population. Often, these cases are
swept under the rug by fellow cops, with few abusive officers arrested,
prosecuted or fired, but many promoted.
And it would seem some violent
cops have unleashed their hostility and aggression on Mayor de Blasio and black
New Yorkers in general. We’ve been down this road before. In September 1992,
then-mayoral candidate Rudolph Giuliani participated in a drunken police union
protest against the black mayor, David Dinkins. Around 10,000 officers participated
in the PBA-led riot on City Hall, hurling racial epithets, beating journalists
and blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge, incensed that Dinkins would
propose an independent civilian agency to investigate police misconduct.
After Giuliani was elected,
racism and brutality thrived in the NYPD. Anthony Baez was choked to death in
1994 for hitting a police car with a football. Abner Louima was tortured and
sodomized with a broom handle inside a Brooklyn precinct bathroom in 1997, and
an unarmed Amadou Diallo was killed in a hail of 41 police bullets outside his
home in 1999. Countless others were violated while in police custody, and the
city paid out $70 million in awards for police abuse claims between 1994 and
1996 alone.
At their best, police are partners
with the community. But at their worst, their actions are reminiscent of the Ku
Klux Klan. A police leadership that threatens coups and race wars must be
replaced, if public confidence in law enforcement is to be restored. Mayor de
Blasio must be supported in his quest for reform, but he has his work cut out
for him.