Mayor Bill de Blasio Losing War of Words with NYPD

NYPD De Blasio

Embattled New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is not only losing ground in his war of words with New York City Police Department union leaders angry at comments that have stoked hatred of the police, he is also losing hundreds of millions of dollars in parking and moving violation tickets that are not being written by rank and file officers seeking to reduce their “risk profile” with the public.

Some say de Blasio is reaping what he has sown.

In his 2013 mayoral run for Mayor – a race he won with more than 73% of the vote – de Blasio ran on a platform wreaking of anti-police policies that would surely place police officers at greater risk of harm if implemented including:

  • Firing the widely popular Police Commissioner Ray Kelly who had a reputation for being a fair arbiter in matters of police discipline and misconduct,
  • Creating a position of “independent inspector general” to second guess NYPD officers who make split-second decisions when confronting criminal behavior,
  • Ending the “Broken Window” policy of policing designed to apprehend criminals for minor crimes such as vandalism before these same criminals escalate into bigger, more serious crimes. And most importantly,
  • Ending so-called “discriminatory” stop and frisk policy widely credited with preventing thousands of gun deaths – mostly within black neighborhoods – since being implemented by Mayor Rudolf Giuliani in the 1990’s.

However, police concerns over these policy changes have been dwarfed by what Mayor de Blasio has said and done since taking office in 2014.

STRIKE ONE:

Following a decision by a Staten Island grand jury not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of Eric Garner during his arrest for selling black market cigarettes on a city street in early December, de Blasio told reporters how he had to train his biracial son “how to take special care in any encounter he had with the police officers”.

Writing in the New York Daily News, Erin Durkin reported that:

“Patrick Lynch, head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, said the mayor threw police under a bus for his comments following the start of Wednesday’s protests. The mayor said he had to train his son ‘how to take special care in any encounter he had with the police officers who are there to protect him.’

As hundreds of cops were standing toe-to-toe with protesters, Mayor de Blasio was busy throwing New York’s Finest under a bus, the head of the city’s largest police union said…”

STRIKE TWO:

In an article printed in the New York Post in mid-December, Kirstan Conley, Michael Gartland and Bruce Golding reported that:

“Mayor Bill de Blasio has again spit in the face of city cops — using the word “allegedly’’ to describe the vicious mob attack on two NYPD lieutenants, outraged police reps said Sunday.

Bending over backward to praise the city’s anti-cop protesters for their “peaceful’’ behavior – even as some chanted on Saturday night, “What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want it? Now!” – May de Blasio “said the attack was “an incident . . . in which a small group of protesters allegedly assaulted some members of the NYPD.”

The two lieutenants were punched and kicked in their faces and heads when they went to arrest a protester as the protester tried to throw a garbage can onto other cops from an elevated walkway.

STRIKE THREE:

The December 20 “assassination-style” shooting deaths of two New York City police officers let to cries that Mayor de Blasio had blood on his hands as a result of comments he made earlier in the month supporting “police brutality” protesters.

The NYPD identified the officers as Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. They were on special patrol doing crime reduction work in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.

Animus directed against de Blasio what heightened by the presence of the “Rev.” Al Sharpton – an activist who profits in both money and influence by fanning the flames of racial hatred against police.

The attacker, 28-year-old Ismaaiyl Brinsley, wrote online that he was planning to shoot two “pigs” in retaliation for the police chokehold death of Eric Garner”… and that “I’m putting wings on pigs today. They take 1 of ours, let’s take 2 of theirs” investigators said.

This led tens of thousands of police officers from around the country and within the NYPD to turn their backs on Mayor de Blasio when he spoke at the funerals of Ramos and Liu.