Posted on 12/30/2014 2:24:10 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The metropolitan police department for the largest city in the United States is ceasing to function, according to a report in The New York Post.
While the New York Police Department has continued its work of policing dangerous and violent criminal activity, quality of life policing has nearly come to a complete halt when statistics from December 20 to December 30, 2013 are compared with that same period this year.
Citations for traffic violations fell by 94 percent, from 10,069 to 587, during that time frame.
Summonses for low-level offenses like public drinking and urination also plunged 94 percent from 4,831 to 300.
Even parking violations are way down, dropping by 92 percent, from 14,699 to 1,241.
Drug arrests by cops assigned to the NYPDs Organized Crime Control Bureau which are part of the overall number dropped by 84 percent, from 382 to 63.
The move is seen by most as a form of protest against the citys administration, and specifically New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Police blame de Blasio and his ideological allies for inflaming a tense situation after a grand jurys decision not to indict the officer responsible for the death of Eric Garner.
This virtual work stoppage, as The Post called it, is an extension of protests which have been ongoing since the assassination of two police officers on December 20. After those execution-style murders, NYPD officers have literally turned their backs on the mayor when he has appeared before audiences composed of cops.
Well, The New York Times has just about had it with the NYPDs snarling sense of victimhood a sense they earned when de Blasio emerged hours after the grand jurys decision, blamed it on racial antipathy despite the presence of numerous African-American members on that panel, and confessed that he had taught his own biracial son to fear the police force he commands.
With these acts of passive-aggressive contempt and self-pity, many New York police officers, led by their union, are squandering the departments credibility, defacing its reputation, shredding its hard-earned respect, The Times roared.
By taking the opportunity of de Blasios address to police during the funeral of slain Officer Rafael Ramos to protest the mayor, The Times declared that the NYPD had also “turned their backs” on the grieving family of one of their own.
While The Times conceded that “there is some thanklessness to being a cop,” they note that it has “always been that way.”
But none of those grievances can justify the snarling sense of victimhood that seems to be motivating the anti-de Blasio campaign — the belief that the department is never wrong, that it never needs redirection or reform, only reverence. This is the view peddled by union officials like Patrick Lynch, the president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association — that cops are an ethically impeccable force with their own priorities and codes of behavior, accountable only to themselves, and whose reflexive defiance in the face of valid criticism is somehow normal.
The Times closed by noting that de Blasios actions speak louder than his words; hiring Commissioner Bill Bratton and increasing the forces funding suggests that he has an honest desire to do right by the NYPD. But The Times places no onus on de Blasio to repair the mistrust he has sown. The present conflict is one that has been simmering since his mayoral campaign, one in which the candidate focused heavily on the supposed evils associated with the policing policy dubbed Stop and Frisk.
The Times has a point. The NYPD is aggrieved, and they could end up alienating an otherwise sympathetic public with excessive protests or displays of contempt for the mayor. But The Times has avoided confronting the fact that this air of mistrust is not one that the president of the police union invented. He merely gave voice to the concerns shared by thousands of his organizations members. It was de Blasio and an intellectual ethos infatuated with the idea that policing creates an incentive for the susceptible to engage in criminality, a ethos in which The Times editorial board is steeped, that inculcated this supposedly toxic sense of victimhood in the citys police culture.
It takes two to tango, and The Times retreat to its ideological corner is not helping anything. Both the NYPD and the mayor need to set aside their pride and find a compromise so that they can get back to doing the work they have chosen: Keeping millions of New Yorkers safe.
“Quality of life policing”? I have never thought of traffic tickets that way. More like “unvoted for tax increases”, or “new furniture for the Mayors office”.
In other news, the crime rate surrounding the NYTs building will now undoubtedly skyrocket.
The NY Times has a new mascot....Snarlin' Dog
Wow! The New York Times has finally found someone they don’t think has a claim to being a victim.
Project much, nyt?
Obviously, the paper has not thought through the impact of 25,000 simultaneous subscription cancellations.
TIMES TO NYPD: “SHUT UP AND SIT IN THE BACK!”
Is there ever any time the NYTimes won’t support a Marxist? Seems they loved Joe Stalin and defended him too.
That was probably not the wisest thing for one to post on the internet! Be careful. LOL.
“In context”
Which of course is never going to happen. They aren’t even going to be as sensible as Detroit and encourage citizens to pack and protect themselves.
Yep.
If the people of NYC love their barbarians so much they shouldn’t mind dealing with them personally.
A virtual work shutdown by the NYPD on the eve of New Year’s in Times Square?
This is not going to end well.
Those of us in flyover country might as well break out the popcorn tomorrow night and wait for much more than just the ball dropping at midnight.
Like maybe NYC bridges clogged with hordes of frightened refugees trying to escape enraged mobs of gibsmedats & Occupyers.
Who are they going to call when they’re mugged or robbers/terrorists break into their office building and take hostages?
The DNC hacks in and out of the press have been beating the drum and whipping people up into a “snarling sense of victimhood” for months now which is what got those two officers killed.
Mayor de Blasio has poisoned the political environment with his words and his barely concealed contempt for the NYPD. If he truly cares about the city he should resign and let his successor start fresh. Yeh, right, that’ll take place sometime about next never...
The Slimes only approves of victimhood for classes of people of its choosing.
May the posse of pajama boys go bankrupt.
The NYT can go commit an unnatural act with itself; that is what they like. What they don’t like is police arresting people for what the NYT considers minor offenses, so the NYPD is giving them what they say they want.
What I was thinking.
Talk about an easy score for robbery, burglary or a good beat-down here and there (Noah) in the hall.
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