NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton faced a major backlash Monday from politicians, pedestrians and his own police force over the jaywalking crackdown that ended with cops bloodying an elderly man on the Upper West Side.
“To go from no enforcement to this aggressive action was overkill,” said Councilman Mark Levine (D-Upper West Side).
He called the ticket blitz “excessive,” saying he would have preferred “a period of intensive outreach at that corner.”
Cops from the 24th Precinct were out in force Sunday following the third pedestrian fatality this month near West 96th Street — handing out 10 jaywalking violations that cost up to $250 each.
Those ticketed included 84-year-old Kang Wong, a Chinese immigrant who could not understand the cops and was left bloodied when he resisted.
“Strange day in NY when u get arrested & beaten for crossing street but can kill someone while driving recklessly & no charges #BizzaroWorld,” tweeted city Councilman David Greenfield (D-Brooklyn).
Some veteran cops said the crackdown was the wrong approach to the spate of street deaths.
“The new regime has to educate the public before bringing out a hammer,” a police source said.
Bratton and Mayor de Blasio insisted the blitz was ordered up by the precinct’s brass — and was not part of a citywide effort.
A police official said the captain “may not have looked at the big picture.”
“What was he hoping to accomplish? It was a poor decision for the right reasons. It may have been a bit of a panicked response,” the official said.
Fred Jenkins, 52, of Harlem, wanted to see cops focus “more on those in the vehicles.”
“They just come through here without abandon. That’s why there are so many accidents,” he said at the intersection of 96th Street and Broadway.
The cabby who fatally struck 9-year-old Cooper Stock on Jan. 10 was let go with just a summons for failure to yield and allowed to keep his hack license.
Keegan Stephan, of the traffic-safety group Right of Way, said that focusing on pedestrians is “victim-blaming.”
“It’s a very strange tactic to take. Bratton lauded how Los Angeles cracked down on jaywalking, that was his shining example,” he said.
But Stephan said it’s “crazy” to compare the Big Apple with LA, because “LA is very dominated by car culture, hardly anybody walks there. New Yorkers want New York to be a pedestrian city.”
Transportation economist Charles Komanoff said he was “appalled” by the ticket blitz.
“Why do people jaywalk? One big reason is that it’s a way to avoid in many circumstances being hit by a turning vehicle,” said Komanoff, the Right of Way founding member who worked on the statistical study “Killed by Automobile” for the organization.
“If Bratton doesn’t target law-breaking driving, he’s going to lose New Yorkers’ trust faster than any police commissioner in history.”
Bratton said the jaywalking tickets were a “very last resort.”
De Blasio called the crackdown “appropriate.”
Additional reporting by Yoav Gonen, Philip Messing and Jamie Schram