Should NY cops who disrespected Mayor de Blasio be reprimanded?

Should NY cops who disrespected Mayor de Blasio be reprimanded?

Yes.

On Saturday, after two New York police officers were ambushed and slain by a deranged ex-felon and prison gang member, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio met privately with the officers’ families, and also went to the hospital where the officers were taken after being shot. As he arrived, a number of cops who had already gathered there turned their backs on the mayor as a deliberate show of disrespect.

We’re a democracy. Government is accountable to the people through free elections. Military and police authorities are accountable to elected officials. Back in 1951, when President Truman fired General MacArthur, he did so not because of personal animosity between the men, but because MacArthur had disrespected the civilian authority he was answerable to.

I don’t have a problem with these cops criticizing the mayor. That’s free speech, and they have a right to do that. But they don’t have a right to do it on duty, while in uniform. As a citizen, that makes me uncomfortable, because of what it implies for the lines of authority in the city’s structure of government.

These police officers have the same right to free speech as the ordinary citizens protesting against police brutality in Ferguson, New York, Seattle, and other cities. But they don’t have a right to be police officers, nor any right to associate their personal views with the badge and uniform they wear in the public’s name. No one should have difficulty understanding this, because nearly everyone is familiar with the principle that private companies don’t allow their employees to engage in political activity on company time or invoke the company’s name when expressing personal views.

In other words, these cops can criticize the mayor to their hearts’ content on their own time. But they can’t do it at work or in uniform, because the uniform doesn’t belong to them. The citizens of New York City who entrusted them with the badge and uniform did not give them permission to use it to further an agenda of undercutting the lines of authority that flow from citizens to elected officials to subordinates employed to exercise the power and authority of government in their name.

This has nothing to do with whether their feelings about Bill de Blasio as a person or politician. It’s about respecting the office and acknowledging their subordinate role to civilian authority.

I think NYDP administrators should seek to identify the uniformed officers who turned their backs on the mayor, using surveillance videos and other means, and then counsel them on the chain of command and place letters of reprimand in their personnel files so they won’t forget where authority resides in our system of government. These letters should make clear the officers are not being reprimanded for their opinions. They can simply be “reminder” letters of what the chain of command is, and I would be okay with making them temporary, i.e. removing them from the personnel files after a period of time if there are no further problems along these lines.

Black NYC cops fear white cops, complain of being profiled

NYPD is notorious for its blatant racial profiling, from which its own black officers aren’t exempt. Reuters, a news agency, interviewed 25 black male officers of the NYPD, 15 retired and 10 active, and “all but one said that, when off duty and out of uniform, they had been victims of racial profiling,” which “included being pulled over for no reason, having their heads slammed against their cars, getting guns brandished in their faces, being thrown into prison vans and experiencing stop and frisks while shopping. The majority of the officers said they had been pulled over multiple times while driving. Five had had guns pulled on them.”

There have even been cases where black cops were killed by white cops who assumed they were criminals, and partly for this reason, many black cops are afraid of their white fellow cops.

The black officers said they were profiled only by white cops, and if they complained, their superiors did nothing and they suffered retaliation. Names of officers filing complaints with Internal Affairs are supposed to be kept confidential but are often leaked. Police also targeted citizen activists who videotaped police activity or organized protests against police practices.

The public’s perception that NYPD police are becoming more aggressive isn’t imaginary. Since 2000, the number of lawsuits filed against police has risen 214% and the cost of settlements is up 74%.

Defenders of racial profiling claim blacks are more crime-prone and assert the NYPD’s controversial random “stop and frisk” practices, which overwhelmingly targets minorities, dramatically reduce crime. But police statistics show that 9 of every 10 people stopped by police in these sweeps are innocent citizens going about their business. Last year a federal judge ruled the “stop and frisk” policy is unconstitutional and ordered it halted. Her rulings were modified by a federal appeals court, in a way that doesn’t outlaw the practice altogether, but under a new and more liberal mayor, the city is going ahead with “stop and frisk” reforms.

http://www.aol.com/article/2014/12/23/off-duty-black-officers-in-new-york-say-they-fear-fellow-cops/21120634/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D588182

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/11/30/edwards-black-cop-mistaken-for-suspect-and-shot-dead-by-nypd-officer/

Fox affiliate caught faking “kill a cop” protest chant

What the protesters chanted: “We won’t stop. We can’t stop. Until the killer cops. Are in cell blocks.”

How Fox 45 in Baltimore cut, pasted, edited, and aired it:  “We won’t stop. We can’t stop. Kill a cop.”

The TV station has since apologized and pulled the clip. Which is what media liars usually do after they get caught red-handed at faking a news story.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/22/1353665/–Go-Kill-a-Cop-chant-a-Fake-Duplicitous-Editing-Job-by-Fox-Affiliate?detail=email#

(Note:  You may wonder whether this video clip sparked the New York police murders. The killer was from Baltimore, which is where this video clip was aired. I wondered about that, but it appears this video clip was broadcast yesterday, after the murders had been committed, so I don’t think we can say that Fox 45 has “blood on its hands.” But that doesn’t change the fact this was irresponsible and dishonest journalism, and if Fox 45 wants to retain any vestige of credibility, they need to fire whoever did this. )

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