NYPD Lets the Terrorists Win

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Back in September of 2001, the New York Police Department (NYPD) lost many heroic souls when the Twin Towers collapsed and several of their members involved with rescue operations died.  Their image has largely been untarnished since that year in the eyes of their countrymen.

Earlier this year, on July 17, Eric Garner, a heavyset black man had just helped break up a fight when the NYPD that were summoned in response to the altercation began talking with him.  In the video taken by a bystander, Garner does not get any reasonable articulation of why he is being harassed by the police other than what he did in the past. 

His past involved selling untaxed cigarettes to other people, which happens to be a minor infraction where the only 'victim' is the State of New York, who gets robbed of their cut of unearned income.  The action goes from talking to subduing, in an action which reminds one of a pack of wolves going after an elephant, who then post a perimeter to keep the hyenas out.

The death of Garner took on extra significance with the events happening in Ferguson, Missouri, where another incident of alleged police brutality didn't have such damning video to back it up.  When the grand jury in that case made a decision not to charge the officer with any crime, and the corresponding riots were half-hearted at best due to the presumption that there may have been no wrongdoing of the police officer involved, the nation's attention then went up to New York, where this case had grown in profile. 

The same grand jury process, which usually has the ability to find ham sandwiches guilty of any crimes alleged, found that the NYPD Cop was innocent of all charges, proving that if a prosecutor wanted to, they could also not indict a ham sandwich.  The workings of that grand jury have been mostly suppressed, and many citizens of New York, and the rest of America, feel that justice may not have been served. 

Which self-admittedly led to an execution of two NYPD police officers by a Baltimore man who wanted to avenge the death of Garner.  With the exoneration of the 'choke-hold cop' and this tragedy, the NYPD were once again poised to become America's police once again like they were back in 2001.  But then, they and their allies began to squander their political capital by doing a bunch of infantile acts. 

The calls for retributive strikes against the public by the police (mostly diehard union hacks) were mostly muted and undirected, but just before Christmas, peaceful protestors chanting calls for justice were perverted into a violent message by the news media, where "We won't stop, We can't stop, Until killer cops, are in cell blocks." was actively edited to say "We won't stop, we can't stop, so kill a cop." 

The NYPD decided to wage a political war on the mayor who had expressed some concern over how the Eric Garner incident was handled, and hasn't been a cheerleader for the NYPD like most mayors have been.  This 'war' had them wanting to ban the mayor from the funerals for the officers, and when the mayor did wind up showing for the funeral, they decided to turn their backs to him.  This action was generally deemed inappropriate and childish even by the newspapers that have generally been supportive of the NYPD.

Amazingly, NYPD traffic tickets and summonses for minor offenses have dropped off by a staggering 94 percent following the execution of two cops — as officers feel betrayed by the mayor and fear for their safety according to the New York Post, who says such action is a bad thing.  This virtual work stoppage by the NYPD, if in force around July 17, would ironically have saved the life of Eric Garner who would have never been harassed for his past sale of untaxed cigarettes. 

The NYPD’s failure to arrest and cite people will also end up costing the city huge amounts of money that it won’t be able to seize from its citizens, which is likely the real point. That’s the "punishment" for the de Blasio administration for not supporting them. One has to wonder if they even understand, or care, that their "work stoppage" is giving police state critics exactly what they want—less harsh enforcement of the city’s laws.

Ironically, it may also show that in a singular terrorist strike with one individual that involved the shooting of two cops sitting peacefully in their car, is able to achieve what a much grander strike on September 11, 2001 in New York wasn't able to.  The neutralization of America's premier police force, and the exposure of the soft underbelly of a corrupted system.

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Just a couple days after the execution of the two NYPD officers a rather brazen assault on a subway worker was carried out by a brutish man caught on subway video (albeit the assault wasn't, he was captured on footage and circulated through the NY boroughs). 

It turns out, the assailant was an off-duty cop, obviously distraught enough over the NY situation to engage in bestial brutality without the benefit of his uniform.  Although it's noted that such an attack on a subway worker in NY is a felony punishable by up to 7 years, and the subway was originally wanting such punishment meted out to the perpetrator, that was before the power of the badge came into play.  Will this obvious assault become just a matter of police privilege?  Read more here

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 The NYPD had a chance to redeem themselves today, but they went further into the abyss.  The funeral for the second officer assassinated while sitting in their police car took place today, and even though NYPD Commissioner Bratton reminded them that they were grieving not airing grievances, a significant portion of attending NYPD officers turned their backs when the mayor dutifully made his eulogizing remarks. 

If I was a citizen of New York, I would be demanding that these insubordinate officers, who as we have seen are far from perfect in their actions as public servants, need to find new positions outside the realm of police work.  If they can't take orders from their commissioner, can't respect their civil commander (the mayor), and can't enforce the law equally on their fellow officers, then they are only a liability to the public.