Al Sharpton is the real sheriff in this town.
The firebrand reverend laid down the law on how he wants the NYPD run to a neutered Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton at City Hall on Thursday — threatening to be their “worst enemy” if they don’t oblige.
He also vowed a full-frontal assault on the “broken windows” crime-fighting tactic that has kept the city safe for 20 years.
Sharpton, who helped handcuff the cops with the virtual elimination of stop-and-frisk, made a slew of brash statements that include:
- Claims that cops tackling small-time crime unfairly target minorities — conveniently leaving out how blacks and Hispanics commit these crimes in far greater numbers than their percentages in the city’s population, which statistics plainly show.
- Chiding Bratton for his belief that race did not play a role in the “chokehold” arrest that led to the death of Staten Islander Eric Garner.
- A proposal that cops who are accused of wrongdoing be paraded in front of the media in a “perp walk” to teach them a lesson.
De Blasio convened the “Roundtable on Police-Community Relations” because of Garner’s death on July 17 — and the public backlash it incited.
But Sharpton used the meeting to get on his soapbox.
If Dante wasn’t your son, he’d be a candidate for a chokehold.
- The Rev. Al Sharpton to Mayor Bill de Blasio
“The fact of the matter is, given the data that we are seeing in terms of these Broken Window kind of operations, it’s disproportionate in the black and Latino community,” he thundered.
He later elaborated on that thought to reporters in demanding reform.
“I want it refined in a way that we do not have a disproportionate impact on people like [selling] loosies [single cigarettes], rather than things that are really criminal,” he said.
Bratton sat idly by during the meeting as Sharpton mocked his call for better training for the police in response to the Garner incident.
“You don’t need training if a man is saying 11 times ‘I can’t breathe!’ and you still holding him in a grip lock. You don’t need training, you need to have people that understand the law is what they protect and uphold. They are not above the law,” he declared.
Sharpton — one of the architects of the infamous 1987 Tawana Brawley rape hoax — threatened that his National Action Network will strike fear in the city if cops don’t toe his line.
“We’ve got to do it with real engagement . . . If we are going to just play spin games, I’ll be the worst enemy because I am tired of seeing people bury their kin,” he said.
Veteran law enforcement sources were furious over Sharpton’s attack on “Broken Windows” — the highly successful practice implemented by Mayor Rudy Giuliani that targets low-level offenders like squeegie men and loiterers to prevent an outgrowth of bigger crimes.
“If ‘broken windows’ was gone, the city would plunge back into the horrible ’80s era. The city was flooded with guns and murders. We averaged 2,000 a year. It was total anarchy and the city was a hellhole,” said a source.
“What Sharpton failed to mention is that minorities are beating and killing other minorities. Look at who is getting arrested. It’s not about cops picking on minorities, they’re picking on criminals,” another source told The Post.
“We might as well raise the white flag around the whole city. If that’s the case, I feel sorry for the citizens of New York City because they will all be the victims,” said a third law enforcement veteran.
De Blasio had nothing but warm words after Sharpton’s comments, cooing that “Reverend Sharpton is exactly right” about police-community relations.
“Reverend Sharpton had strong views and I welcome the display of strong views on the pathway to figuring out how we can work together and make change,” he said.
Bratton politely challenged Sharpton’s criticism.
“One of the areas that has clearly been a focus of our attention — it was referenced by the Reverend Sharpton, but I would disagree in some respects with him on the issue — is that of training,” Bratton said.
Additional reporting by Yoav Gonen and Jamie Schram