Does Police Commissioner Bill Bratton realize there is no compromising with the Rev. Al Sharpton and the NYPD’s critics?
On Thursday, Sharpton warned he’d be Mayor de Blasio’s “worst enemy” if the NYPD doesn’t abandon the “Broken Windows” policing that has so vastly reduced crime in the city.
On Friday, Sharpton called for the immediate filing of charges against officers involved in the death of Eric Garner. On Saturday, the Rev demanded that the feds take over the Garner case. What’s next?
All this, after Sharpton, a private citizen, was put on the dais alongside the mayor and commissioner at Thursday’s “roundtable” — and proceeded to lecture in no uncertain terms about how he wants the police department run. (Incidently, no pro-cop civilians seem to have gotten invites to speak at the meeting.)
This was no roundtable. It was a trial with the NYPD in the dock and Sharpton as the prosecutor.
To compound matters, Bratton’s responses keep playing right into the police critics’ hands.
Almost the commissioner’s first reaction to the Garner tragedy was a plan to retrain all 35,000 officers on how not to use excessive force, which Staten Island officers allegedly used in Garner’s arrest.
Why is it necessary to bring 35,000 cops back to the Police Academy to tell them not to use chokeholds, when most of them have never done it and have no intention of doing it? Clearly, it would make more sense to simply retrain officers whose service records indicate possible problems in this area.
Is Bratton going to send the whole force back to school every time something bad happens, such as a questionable shooting by police?
The “training” response, in short, seemed like a diversion to stall for time. Are officers going to learn in two days training what they failed to learn in seven months at the Police Academy?
In addition, as any veteran cop knows, you’re not taught the job in a school room, but in the precinct under sergeants and experienced colleagues. That is where the department needs to concentrate.
Sharpton quickly picked up on this Thursday, declaring, “You don’t need training if a man is saying 11 times ‘I can’t breathe.’ ”
Another misstep: Asked if race played a part in Garner’s death, Bratton said it didn’t. Since race relations is one of the biggest problems in America, it would’ve been wiser to say, “You can never rule out race, but so far the investigation hasn’t found any indications of it.”
To his credit, the commissioner has stood firm in defending “Broken Windows” policing, even as the critics thunder that such quality-of-life enforcement impacts minorities to a much greater extent than other people. Indeed, on other occasions Bratton has declared “stop and frisk” is still a useful tool.
The Thursday affair did nothing to stop the assault on the NYPD. The leader of the New York Civil Liberties Union declared that she was “really, really, really disappointed” in Bratton.
On “Broken Windows,” the commissioner must also deal with the charge that he is a general fighting the last war. Rather than merely play defense, he needs to put forth some new ideas and challenge his critics.
For example, Bratton could propose introducing the quadrant system. Put simply, this involves throwing a cordon around a location where a crime has just occurred and questioning individuals who fit the description of the offenders as they attempt to exit through the police blockade.
Whatever one thinks of Rev. Al, he is not afraid to speak frankly. Instead of following the roundtable script that called for all to smile and shake hands, he went on the attack with his demand for an end to proactive policing and his threat to become the new city administration’s “worst enemy.”
Coming from a leader of the forces that put de Blasio, and thus also Bratton, in office, this is a threat both men must take very seriously.
By rejecting cosmetics and photo-ops, Sharpton and the police critics have cut to the chase. The issue is now defined: Will the NYPD retain or abolish proactive policing? It will be interesting to see what side the majority of New Yorkers — and their mayor — comes down on.