POLICING
AND POLITICS DO NOT MIX
DE BLASIO
HAS MUCH TO LEARN
IF PICTURES
SAY A THOUSAND WORDS,
WHAT DOES
THIS PHOTO SAY?
(AP photo)
TAGS:
CHIEF OF DEPARTMENT PHILIP BANKS III RESIGNS,
SAW
PROMOTION AS DEMOTION, MAYOR DE BLASIO CAUGHT
OFF
GUARD, NYPD COMMISH BILL BRATTON ALSO CAUGHT FLAT FOOTED,
THIS
DAY WAS INEVITABLE, NYC POLITICS, NYPD
(Originally published Oct.
31)
LINKS UPDATED NOV.1ST.
(Friday, October 31, 2014 Pearl
St., NYC) New York City Police
Commissioner Bill Bratton was dealt quite a body blow at 8:30 this
morning. The Chief of Department, Philip
Banks III submitted his letter of resignation.
Banks is the third highest ranking official (the top position in
uniform) in his current position and had just earlier this week been promoted
to Deputy Commissioner. Originally Banks
agreed to accept the promotion but his mind had changed by today. Citing long talks with his family and hours
of private contemplation, as well as viewing the promotion as more of a desk
job than his current position, he made his surprising decision and that was
that. Bratton who was reportedly
“shocked” when Chief Banks handed him his letter of resignation, hastily
arranged a private meeting with Mayor de Blasio, Banks and himself. Apparently, no matter what line they were
feeding him in the hopes he would reconsider, he was just not having any of it. He had made his decision and that was that.
When word of Chief Banks
resignation hit the Precincts, newsrooms and streets, there was a great deal of
speculation, rumor and innuendo regarding the back story of this latest
development in what is increasingly becoming a more fractured relationship
between NYPD Commish Bratton and Mayor de Blasio. Many among NYPD MOS and close observers claim
that the atmosphere in One Police Plaza (1PP) at the highest levels among the
Brass is rapidly devolving into a quagmire of a sort; a muddy slosh pit where
de Blasio and Bratton will ultimately square off. This town just isn’t big enough for both of
them, a lesson one would think Bratton had learned during his successful tenure
as Commissioner in the first term of Giuliani’s Administration. Rudy simply could not abide by the notion that
Bratton was receiving all the credit for the monumental reductions in
crime. Giuliani was unwilling and, perhaps,
constitutionally unable to share the tough “law and order” spotlight with
anyone.
THE LEFT TURN
Mayor de Blasio is a proud
Liberal Democrat and won his Office by capturing the votes of a broad coalition
comprised of racial and ethnic “minorities” which is simply a code phrase for
Black and Hispanic voters. After 20
years of the winning brand of NYC styled “Republican”, Giuliani and “Independent”,
Bloomberg, Mayors who rescued NYC from the depths of urban blight and decay in
all its sordid manifestations and making it the “Safest Big City” in the world,
the masses were clamoring once again for a true “Liberal”, a candidate that
would support their issues, advocate for their causes and represent their
needs. Bill de Blasio emerged late in
the campaign and captured the coveted Office of Mayor of NYC.
But de Blasio’s victory came
at a cost, a debt that he is being called upon to pay off now that he resides
in Gracie Mansion. He is learning the
hard way the enormous gulf between campaign rhetoric and practical
governance. A mere 10 months into his
Administration and already the realities of the Office are threatening to
overwhelm him. He is finding that it is
far more difficult and perilous to apply influence to the NYPD then he thought
as a candidate. His hand-picked NYPD
Commissioner, Bill Bratton, seems to have inexplicably hitched his fortunes and
failures to an untested Mayor determined to, even if only cosmetically, make
changes in the Department that would appease the Black and Hispanic
communities. It is one thing to have a
diverse Police force; quite another to have diversity implemented in the hierarchy
of the largest Police Department in the country based predominately on race.
THE RACE RACE
Much of Mayor de Blasio’s
campaign was based on promoting ideas and making promises to the Black and
Hispanic communities. That is just a
simple fact. He was particularly
strident in his criticism of the NYPD especially of what had become a
controversial issue known as “Stop and Frisk”.
He took the position that yes; this practice was disproportionally
applied to Black and Hispanic young men and had no real impact on crime
reduction. The actual policy was called
“Stop, Question and Frisk” (SQF) and its shortened version was a derisive label
applied by its opponents. There are
competing statistics regarding the efficacy of SQF but the reality of its
success was tangible. But by the time
the Mayoral campaign hit full stride it was a hot button issue in the Black and
Hispanic bloc of voters and de Blasio preyed on their enthusiastic disdain for
SQF; he sided with the opponents and vowed to defang the NYPD and “abolish” the
practice entirely. This was a central
plank in his campaign platform that was generally aimed at appeasing the “long
disenfranchised” minorities in NYC.
And then there is the matter
of Mrs. De Blasio, Chirlane McCray.
McCray a former political speechwriter married de Blasio in 1994. She is African American and proving to be a
force to be reckoned with as her husband’s closest and most trusted
advisor. By news accounts she has been
far more involved in the nuts and bolts of the machinations of City Hall and a
vocal proponent of increasing the racial makeup of City agencies from FDNY to
NYPD and beyond.
While candidate de Blasio was
lagging far behind the crowded field of primary contenders in the mayoral race,
he shamelessly paraded his biracial family out in front of his campaign. Even the least cynical among us saw this as a
crass political charade but, it proved to be the difference. Once his family joined him on the stump he
vaulted far ahead of the other contenders.
Since becoming Mayor in January McCray has proven to be a political
force of her own with staff and controversial Chief of Staff, Rachel Noerdlinger,
a close associate of the bellicose agitator Al Sharpton. The Reverend Sharpton has been granted
unprecedented access to the Mayor in a high profile manner that has many New
Yorker’s angry and concerned given Sharpton’s ugly past as a self-appointed
“Black activist”. Recently it has been
revealed that Noerdlinger lied to investigators conducting a routine background
check prior to her assuming her position as McCray’s Chief of Staff. She failed to mention that she lives with a
convicted murderer, Hassaun McFarlan.
THE DYE HAD BEEN CAST
So, in a way, a day like this was
merely just a matter of time. It was
inevitable. Try as one might, a square
peg cannot be fitted into a round hole.
An organization such as the proud NYPD is steeped in tradition and not
easily changed. While today’s Department
is vastly different than it was during Bratton’s first go round as NYPD Commish,
institutionally it is resistant to the vagaries of politicians and politics
and, that is how it should be. The
internecine battles in City Hall are little noticed by the rank and file but
when there is a political shadow hovering over 1 Police Plaza every MOS takes
note. They are all too cognizant of how
decisions made for political expedience can impact the way they conduct
themselves on the streets and could in fact result in one of them being gravely
injured or killed.
The fact that the Mayor’s wife
appears to be a driving force in City Hall and obviously wears the pants in
that family should also not be a surprise.
Besides granting one of her closest associates, Al Sharpton unfettered
access to City Hall, she has long and loudly opined about who should be in the
top slots in the NYPD based solely on race.
Actually, as has been reported, she advocated strongly for Philip Banks
III to be Police Commissioner rather than Bratton.
OIL AND WATER
Policing and politics do not
mix; they exist at the polar opposites of virtually every social and civil
issue. The NYPD is particularly wary of
political interference because in the past they have seen the disastrous
effects of that unholy wedding between the two before. The NYPD is a “quasi-military” force with a well-defined,
unambiguous chain of command. As an
urban Police Department they are empowered to literally “enforce the law”,
particularly the State and City laws, statutes, ordinances and to assist with
other federal agencies when required.
Their mission is a direct descendant of the American Constitution and
their oath to “uphold” the law could not be clearer. Virtually everything they
do is the line of duty is rooted in our criminal justice system and in
accordance with Constitutional rights of those suspected of or arrested for a
crime.
Politics, by comparison, is
dirty and muddy and usually totally devoid of truth. Politicians have come to routinely live as
though they are somehow “above the law” and, in some instances that surely
appeared to be true. Politicans delve
into areas they have little or no practical knowledge in or experience with and
it is that power to intrude, at least as it has often played out here with
former Mayor’s, that can make or break an administration. The fact that de Blasio’s candidacy was so disrespectful
of the NYPD and almost vitriolic; it was a foregone conclusion when the results
came in on election night showing he would be the next Mayor of NYC that the
NYPD would be in for a very rough ride. Bratton,
no doubt, took the job with any number of beefs, personal vendettas, scores to
settle and a deep jealousy of the man who he replaced, Ray Kelly. Bratton likely made some calculations of the
risks and rewards of accepting the job and likely felt that de Blasio would
leave him alone and not get involved with the upper echelons in 1PP. He is learning these days that his calculus
was skewed, his points of reference no longer reliable or even relevant.
The Bill and Bill show
announced this afternoon in a show of feigned harmony that next Wednesday the
replacement for the job that was to be Banks would be filled. There still remain at least two empty desks
on the 14th floor of 1PP and it is very likely that Bill and
Chirlane will be burning the midnight oil in search of candidates they see as
politically correct and politically expedient as they work to please the
minority communities.
So much for “Blind Justice”,
the metaphor we’ve used for decades to define our system of jurisprudence as
being totally objective, unbiased and otherwise impartial. It is within that one simple phrase that the
gapping divide between politicians and Police Officers differ.
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