NYPD-Mayor Tensions Mount Over Arrest Death

Police have become increasingly at odds with Mayor Bill de Blasio over the appearance he is taking sides against them after the chokehold death of a black suspect last month — a conflict that has prompted the city’s top law- enforcement official to do damage control by calling the mayor “very pro-cop.”

What angered many was a recent forum in which Al Sharpton, one of the biggest police critics, was seated alongside the mayor, a liberal Democrat, and the police commissioner as he lambasted law enforcement and suggested the mayor’s black son would be a “candidate for a chokehold” if he were an ordinary New Yorker.

The image was seized on by critics of the administration and plastered on a tabloid cover with the headline “Who’s the Boss!”

“It is outrageously insulting to all police officers to say that we go out on our streets to choke all people of color as Al Sharpton stated while seated at the table right next to our mayor at City Hall,” said Patrick Lynch, head of the powerful Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association. Another union official, Ed Mullins of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, hinted at a work slowdown at the nation’s largest police department.

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani even weighed in, saying in a radio interview that de Blasio made a “big mistake … setting up a press conference like that and putting a police commissioner in that situation. That’s extremely damaging to the police commissioner, to keep up the morale of the police.”

In recent days, emails have circulated among police officers showing a mock identification card with a picture of Sharpton and the title “Police Commissioner.” The controversial pastor has shot back by claiming he has the ear of federal officials who have the authority to bring civil rights charges in the death of Eric Garner.

Police Chief William Bratton responded to the uproar by giving a series of interviews Friday defending his department’s record on race and de Blasio’s attitude toward the department.

“We are not a racist organization,” Bratton told The Associated Press. “And I will challenge anybody despite their perceptions of police on that issue. This is a department that goes where the problems are — whether it’s crime or disorder.”

The rift stems from Garner’s arrest on suspicion of selling loose, untaxed cigarettes in Staten Island. Amateur video, of which only parts were released, appears to show an officer putting the asthmatic, 350-pound father of six in a banned chokehold after he refused to be handcuffed.

A city medical examiner found Garner was killed by a chokehold, which increased the likelihood the case will be presented to a grand jury to determine whether any of the arresting officers will face criminal charges. It also has fueled the biggest crisis yet for de Blasio, who took office vowing to achieve two goals that, at times, can be contradictory: He said he would drive down crime and repair strained relations between police and the community.

“Every law enforcement official, every officer has to serve the people in this city,” the mayor said. “The vast majority of people in the NYPD take that very, very seriously. If some individuals don’t, that’s a problem for us because we need people to go out there and do our jobs and do them well.”

Garner’s death has also forced Bratton to defend his tactic called broken windows — the idea that going after smaller crimes helps stop greater ones. Some say the decades-old theory no longer applies to a city with far less crime.

Bratton has insisted that the NYPD will stick with the tactic. He also has defended the powwow with Sharpton, derided by Mullins as a rabble rouser.

“Whether you like Al Sharpton or not, he clearly is a spokesperson, particularly for African-Americans, and that is reality,” Bratton said.

This article appeared in print on page 1 of the August 11th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.