Mayor de Blasio sent the city’s police unions a stern message Friday: butt out of the stop-and-frisk case!
Zachary Carter, de Blasio’s handpicked corporation counsel, filed legal papers with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals saying the city is withdrawing prior support under the former Bloomberg administration of the unions appealing Manhattan federal Judge Shira Scheindlin’s ruling that found stop-and-frisk unconstitutional.
“The city has now reached a voluntary agreement in principle with … plaintiffs on reforming NYPD stop-and-frisk policies and practices,” Carter wrote. “ The police unions’ involvement as an intervenor at this juncture, and the delay caused by further litigation, may hinder that settlement.”
“Moreover, the public interest favors the expeditious resolution of these cases and implementation of the reform process. Allowing police unions to intervene at this stage would frustrate this interest.”
Carter’s motion is in response to the unions filing legal papers with the appellate panel last week seeking to block a settlement.
They said Scheindlin’s findings “unfairly besmirch the reputations of the men and women of the NYPD” and that the appellate panel – not the new mayor – should decide whether the judge legally ordered the changes.
Carter claims the unions assertions of cops’ reputations being harmed are “purely speculative” because Scheindlin “imposed liability on the city, not the unions which bear no responsibility for setting NYPD’s policies.”
Al O’Leary, a spokesman for Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, declined comment on the city’s new filings, saying “the documents we submitted” last week “speak for themself.”
Those filings were in response to DeBlasio asking the panel to formerly let the city withdraw an appeal made by the Bloomberg administration late last year in the hopes of reaching a settlement with the plaintiffs.
Scheindlin in August ruled stop-and-frisk illegally targeted minorities, and ordered sweeping reforms, including appointment of an outside monitor.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg filed an appeal shortly before leaving office, objecting to having an outside monitor micromanage cops and potentially halt strategies that led to historic crime reductions.
De Blasio has said he wants NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton to implement changes to make searches constitutional and noted that a new inspector general will regularly review policing.
Scheindlin through her lawyers on Friday also filed court papers with the appellate panel objecting to the unions’ motion to appeal her ruling.
The panel is not expected to rule for months on whether the appeal can go forward. It set a schedule to accept legal arguments from all sides through April 4.
The panel on Friday also agreed to let lawyers for former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and former US Attorney General Michael Mukasey submit briefs in support of the police unions’ motions.