I just want to bang on the drum all day:
It’s not a slowdown — it’s a virtual work stoppage.
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, The Post has learned.
The dramatic drop comes as Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio plan to hold an emergency summit on Tuesday with the heads of the five police unions to try to close the widening rift between cops and the administration.
The unprecedented meeting is being held at the new Police Academy in Queens at 2 p.m., sources said.
Angry union leaders have ordered drastic measures for their members since the Dec. 20 assassination of two NYPD cops in a patrol car, including that two units respond to every call.
It has helped contribute to a nose dive in low-level policing, with overall arrests down 66 percent for the week starting Dec. 22 compared with the same period in 2013, stats show.
Citations for traffic violations fell by 94 percent, from 10,069 to 587, during that time frame.
Summonses for low-level offenses like public drinking and urination also plunged 94 percent — from 4,831 to 300.
This makes no sense. If they are not doing their jobs, then why are they not being fired? Second, this really makes no sense:
The Post obtained the numbers hours after revealing that cops were turning a blind eye to some minor crimes and making arrests only “when they have to” since the execution-style shootings of Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu.
Maybe I do not understand police work, but why the hell are they arresting people unless they have to? Not arresting people when you don’t have to seems to be what you would aim for, wouldn’t it? And turning a blind eye to minor offenses is what is known as showing “discretion,” something this police chief in Nashville seems to know a thing or two about.
Speaking of, I was talking to Harry (the owner and manager of our general store in town- well, our only store in town), who is three years older than me, and we were talking about the former town cop whose name was Larry but everyone knew him as Larry Law. This was back when my dad was Mayor and de facto Chief of Police and used to right around with him on big college party nights to help keep people safe and quiet. At any rate, we were talking about how we thought we were so smooth and got away with everything and Larry was just a dunce, when it turned out when Harry saw Larry years later, Larry said “I had you all dead to rights on so many things, but you weren’t hurting anything and everyone was safe, so I just watched to make sure no one got hurt. You were just kids being kids” That’s what he felt his job was- keeping the town safe. What a concept.
It’s really eye opening how truly bad and dysfunctional the NYPD is these days (or always has been).
chopper
I’m sure union rules make it hard to fire em. But you can sure as shit threaten to cut their budget, since apparently a bunch of cops are running idle.
Calouste
And how is this a bad thing again?
KG
it’s an interesting situation. on the one hand, i’m all for cops not arresting people unless it’s absolutely necessary. i’m also for lighter enforcement of low level crimes (arresting a homeless guy, or somebody who got wasted, because they’re pissing in an alley seems like a waste of resources). on the other hand, it’s essentially an illegal strike/work stoppage. the happy middle ground might be “well, you’ve shown that the vast majority of your work is unnecessary, so we are laying 75% of you off.” two birds, one stone and all that.
JPL
I imagine someone is selling cigarettes on the street cornered without being hassled.
KG
also, relatedly… this is probably an off shoot of “run the government like you run a business”. In business, you give employees goals/standards/quotas to meet. If you are a salesperson and you sold X last year, you need to sell X+5 this year to get a bonus. With cops, the obvious quota is arrests/tickets/citations. Just like with prosecutors, the standard is conviction rate (usually including plea deals – though a few years back Riverside County here in California had a nightmare scenario with this kind of thing).
Time Travelin'
They’re just holding their breath and stamping their feet. They are nothing more than armed children.
LT
It’s fucking extortion. I wish a big pol would have the guts to drop the hammer on fuckers like these. So goddammed dangerous.
cmorenc
FauxNews has been banging hard for several days about how terrible it is that Mayor Deblasio is responsible for undermining and putting the NYPD and public safety in jeopardy. They repeatedly associate Al Sharpton as a bad influence/close advisor to both Deblasio and especially Barack Obama, whom they’re repeatedly criticizing for allegedly staying silent about the two assassinated NYPD officers but supposedly spoke out immediately in favor of protesters. Rudy Giuliani is a frequent guest commentator saying that the acrimonious split between NYPD and the mayor urgently needs to be healed – starting with an apology by Deblasio for his allegedly derogatory comments about them (despite Giuliani also acknowledging that Deblasio’s advice to his son re: not resisting police is good advice).
Meanwhile, not ONE peep out of Fox about the NYPD officer who admitted that many police falsely plant evidence on citizens to make arrests and meet quotas. Not ONE.
Tripod
Pining for the good old days of Rudy, and his fascist bullshit that harassment leads to reduced crime rates.
It’s not 1994, and de Blasio isn’t going anywhere. Union leadership is getting out over their skis and it’s not going to end well.
Southern Beale
Just in time for New Year’s Eve, huzzah! Public drinking and urination FOR EVERYONE!
Caprice
@cmorenc:
Yes, that false evidence stuff is horrifying. They essentially ruined lives, tagging them with a felony that affected future employment and housing prospects. And to meet a quota?
Running government like a business: “Your numbers are a bit low this month; go to the evidence locker and do some distribution among the populace.” Like working in sales?
Caprice
@Southern Beale:
I don’t know about that… somebody decided to take advice from Ellen Degeneres and do the dance challenge (dance behind somebody’s back!) behind a cop. It ended badly, of course.
Tenar Darell
@Southern Beale: I was gonna say “feel free to blaze up,” but “whip it out and piss in the gutters” works too. /grin
CONGRATULATIONS!
Again, as I previously said, this can be Blasio’s Reagan moment. Declare an emergency, call up the National Guard and fire every single New York cop and let the courts deal with the fallout. No current cop eligible for rehire.
Reagan did it to the air traffic controllers, and there are laws that specifically apply to striking public safety workers that can, and in this case I think should, be used.
I am as pro-union as it gets but goddamn it, this kind of behavior is why the anti-union forces have gotten so much traction in our society.
DianeB
Quite a few of the blues make some very nice overtime money. I can’t help wondering if they realize what this slowdown is going to do to their next few paychecks, and I can’t help smiling thinking of the reaction.
srv
de Blah needs to triangulate. He should annouce hearings on privatizing the NYPD.
Caprice
@KG:
They can transition to the private sector, doing security work for celebrities and gated communities. Non-union, but the pay is probably just as good.
Caprice
@DianeB:
I don’t know… I’m sure they’ll still put in the overtime hours for the extra pay… they just won’t do anything.
gene108
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Air traffic controllers had a legitimate grievance, from what I’ve been told about work hours being too long and creating dangers for airlines and passengers.
The NYPD not so much.
The two issues are not the same.
EDIT:
The biggest anti-union voices are all backing the NYPD on this.
There’s a hierarchy of dangers to America and police keep many of those dangers in line, like African-Americans, the homeless, etc.
If they need a union to keep them happy, no biggie.
jl
I wonder whether there is a slow down in pointless stop and frisks of black and brown, and maybe poor people in general?
More I learn about this, the more it seems to me that much of the NYPD has degenerated into a race gang under color of law.
There as an interesting perspective on NYPD attitudes from a self-identified progressive Democrat officer
The Other Blue Nation (Must Read):
talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-other-blue-nation
The piece tried to give an understanding of the NYPD reaction. I read it and I understood and sympathized with the NYPD less.
It said Lynch has a institutional and personal interest in inflaming things. And I did read that he goes after every mayor, even bigots like Giuliani, to further union interests, though don’t have the link right now. So what? I am in favor of unions, but if one crosses the line, then I think the union, or the union leaders, should be called on it. Why should be give a police union more slack that the Teamsters?
The piece did raise some interesting points about maybe de Blasio gave orders to be excessively lenient on acts of civil disobedience committed by the protesters. So, if that is the problem, why did not the police union say so directly. Instead, long before the assassination of the two policemen, the union and a large portion of the police force NOT say that was the problem, but immediately charge that there was a general attack on the police, with racial overtones to the charges?
So what if a plurality of the police think that they are ‘the law’? They are not ‘the law’. That is not how this country works. If the any police can’t understand their role in law enforcement and legal system, then they should find a new career.
The previous post by Cole was distressing. I heard a news report this morning that this was an especially deadly year for police and law enforcement, with 15 deaths and many more shootings, many seemingly ambush or assassination style attacks. IIRC correctly, most of these were committed by white reactionary wingnuts, or mentally disturbed whites with bizarre agendas that mixed crazy glibertarian/populist agendas with personal problems, and maybe mentally disturbed or troubled would-be terrorists with radical Islam leanings. But we have evidence of a large portion of the NYPD obsessing over leftists and blacks out gunning for them.
So, seems to be some significant portion of NYPD and maybe other police forces viewing themselves as a white gang in charge of ‘the law’. That is bad and it needs to stop.
Maybe time for me to avoid visits to NYC, along with FL.
KG
@Caprice: yeah, but doing private security work doesn’t give them the color of law, so when they choke that 15 year old kid that just wanted to get a selfie with an actor, or shoot the kid walking through his own neighborhood… well, the outcome will be a bit more costly.
gogol's wife
@JPL:
So true.
mclaren
You really don’t understand police work in 2014, Cole.
The police are arresting people because the city desperately needs to extort cash from the citizenry using its occupying army of heavily armed muggers with badges.
This is how cities across the country are making ends meet nowadays — by fines and arrests (more fines, more fees, plus lucrative per diem charges for each day of detention in the city jail) and asset forfeiture.
Haven’t you been paying attention to anything that’s been going on in America since the financial crash of 2008-9, Cole?
Source: “Yes, America, we have returned to debtor’s prisons,” The Los Angeles Times, 6 June 2014.
Mandalay
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
But in this case aren’t those who are generally opposed to unions the very people who are supporting the Police Union?
If the choice for a wingnut is opposing the Police Union or opposing Democrats they will happily support the Police Union.
Pongo
What exactly do they want? They are already, apparently, ‘licensed to kill’ without consequences. Clearly, they believe there are different standards for them than for other citizens, but other than throwing a massive tantrum, what are they trying to accomplish? Want it codified into law that they can kill innocent people if the spirit moves them, but other citizens can’t touch them? Pretty sure that’s the way it works already.
Caprice
@Pongo:
They want our unconditional love and respect. And absolutely no criticism of any kind, in any form.
mclaren
@KG:
Nope, utterly wrong.
Doing private security work increasingly does give the rent-a-cop full official police powers.
Source: “Private Police Forces,” Bruce Schneier on Security, February 2007.
Comrade Dread
If citations and arrests have plunged that much and New York City hasn’t degraded into an 80’s future vision of dystopia, I’d say they have too many cops doing too much unnecessary shit and need to start cutting budgets and instituting massive layoffs.
Catfish N. Cod
What this really entails is the reversal of the “broken windows” policy put into its final form by Guiliani — i.e., show no discretion in regions considered ‘high-crime’ and the prosecution of petty crimes will induce an environment that encourages law-abiding-ness. The metaphor was that a place with broken windows gave off an “air” that said “the law is not enforced here”.
Of course, this corresponded mostly to poor minority neighborhoods, and whether or not the actual broken windows theory is correct led to a perception of persecution of minorities, “driving while black”, and reinforcement of the “twice as good” mentality. Whether this had any actual effect on the crime rate is debatable, since it’s superimposed on the nationwide drop in crime that likely has more to do with de-leading gasoline than anything else.
Mandalay
@mclaren:
This.
Anyone who was not aware of this before Michael Brown was murdered really should know it by now. The media did a pretty decent job of reporting the racist approach Ferguson had been using to get the money it needed to pay its bills.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@mclaren: Not wrong depending on the state.
Rent-a-cops in CA who shoot people become an instant and massive financial liability to the company who hired them (and more to the point, a massive financial liability to the insurer of said company).
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
I think my favorite part was this quote from a PBA spokesman, denying that there was any sort of slowdown going on:
I’m trying to read that as anything other than a tacit admission that they were doing their job wrong until de Blasio started criticizing them and not having any luck.
mclaren
@Pongo:
Finally someone asks the key question.
What NYPD cops want is to make clear that they are in control, NOT the civilians.
This is exactly the same as General David Petraeus and the Joint Chiefs of Staff being massively insurbordinate when ordered by Barack Obama to draw up plans for reducing U.S. armed forces in Afghanistan, and instead submitting four different plans to Obama for increasing U.S. armed forces in Afghanistan. This is the origin of the so-called “surge.”
The U.S. military felt obliged to rub Obama’s face in the blunt brutal fact that the military is in control of America, not the civilian leadership back in 2009.
And today, in 2014, the NYPD feels obliged to rub Mayer de Blasio’s face in the blunt brutal fact the paramilitary police are in control of New York City, not the civilian leadership.
This is what you get when you turn America into a security state, people. The security forces wind up in control. The civilian “leaders” are only there for window dressing. And the instant some civilian “leader” gets uppity and starts thinking he’s in control, the security forces feel obliged to smack him down hard to show just who’s the boss.
Post 9/11, America is a garrison state operating under undeclared martial law.
In the security state, there are no citizens — only suspects.
In the security state, there’s no law — just overwhelming force.
In the security state, there’s no justice — only survivors after the muggers with badges stop shooting at anything that moves.
srv
@jl:
Same as it ever was. The problem is that White Privilege is struggling how to deal with the Sunshine of youtube videos. The vast majority of white folk can be divided now between “Hoocoodanode!” and “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.”
The latter dominates, and will continue to do so. The NYPD understands their place here.
Hungry Joe
That’s right: Run it like a business. Always be closing … I mean, arresting; always be arresting. Hey, Serpico! — no coffee for you. Coffee is for closers.
SatanicPanic
@CONGRATULATIONS!: yeah, I want some details on what McLaren is claiming, because it sounds like she’s generalizing. I mean, I feel like Hollywood wouldn’t make movies based on mall cops being a joke if they were running around actually being police. But I could be wrong.
srv
God Bless America.
PurpleGirl
The deBlasio administration is in contract negiotiations with the police unions. Bloomberg very conveniently managed to keep putting them off until after his term of office. He didn’t want to get into them because he knew the police wanted a big raise and Bloomberg didn’t want to give anyone raises at that point if he could help it.
jl
@PurpleGirl: After the cops decided that they were ‘the law’ and the ‘the law’ said keep the rabble away from the swells on Wall Street, maybe Bloomberg should have let Wall St pay them directly.
mclaren
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
And in HelL.A. and every other large city, official on-duty cops who shoot people become an instant and massive financial liability to the city that hired them.
The cities don’t care. Do you have any idea how large the annual fund in HelL.A. is to pay out damage awards every year for the consequences of HelL.A.’s out-of-control corrupt thuggish thieving lying brutal muggers with badges
In 2011 alone, Los Angeles paid 54 million dollars to the victims of the LAPD’s out-of-control corruption and brutality. This is the gang of muggers with badges that Mnemosyne boasts about as “professionals.”
See the article “U.S. cities pay out millions to settle police lawsuits,” The Washington Post, 1 October 2014.
Of course, it’s not just the spectacularly corrupt and thuggish white race gang misnamed the LAPD that regularly pays out tens of millions of dollars per year to settle lawsuits caused by its gross misconduct — other cities routinely pay similar amount to settle lawsuits for police criminality:
Source: “City pays heavy price for police brutality,” Chicago Sun-Times, 14 April 2014.
The cities don’t care. The police don’t care. 85 million a year to settle brutality lawsuits, 54 million a year to settle criminal misconduct lawsuits, who cares? The cops don’t pay, and the cities just raise their taxes. No one in authority cares. If the elected pols need more money to pay out all those brutality lawsuit settlements, they merely order the muggers with badges to arrest and fine and ticket more people, raising more revenue.
Police are above the law.
Mandalay
@jl:
That’s true. Here’s a link from 2001, where Lynch was going after Mayor Giuliani:
Giuliani’s new found love for the Police Union is strictly political; he hated them like poison when he was mayor, and the cops were longing for the good old days under Mayor Koch.
leeleeFL
@Caprice: This sort of thing is so ordinary on Long Island, judges who decry it get demoted. . True story.
kc
@srv:
At least the kid didn’t kill himself, which is what happened to a child in an SC Sam’s Club a few years ago.
(the grandmother, whose gun the kid used, wasn’t charged, because she’s white and a magistrate judge)
FormerSwingVoter
This is horrible! Now if someone dares sell loose cigs without a license, who’s going to strangle him to death?
srv
@kc: I’m wondering why the NRA doesn’t move into Minor’s Rights and support CC for High Schoolers.
jl
@srv: In some parts of the country, probably so. Interesting that the police chief of Nashville got enough push back from some right thinking folks for his approach, more appropriate for a democratic society, he decided to publish a strong defense. I assumed the complainer was right thinking White, but I don’t know, of course. I wonder how many Nashville Whites are disgruntled that the Nashville police force didn’t turn out in riot gear and run around in armored vehicles.
i think the blog, or commenters, have posted this link before, but just in case someone missed it:
READ: Police Chief Tells Pro-Cop Critic To Respect Protesters In Powerful Letter
talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/read-nashville-police-chief-tells-pro-cop-critic-respect-protesters
mai naem mobile
Sounds to me like you don’t need as many cops if the city is getting along just fine without all this extra ticketing etc. I say reduce the force. This is what they say with every other city department including the fire department and the health department including emergency services. And, oh yeah, fuck the NYPD. These idiots along with the Ferguson ones have no clue as to what kind of PR disaster they’re creating. I’m not comparing him as far as actions but I have the same reaction to Patrick Lynch’s appearance as I do to Vladmir Putin and Charles Taylor. They just look like thugs.
Caprice
medium.com/the-nib/x-race-specs-e575c0736568
Above are the rose-colored glasses they wear on the job.
mclaren
@SatanicPanic:
Yes, Hollywood is the gold standard for accuracy in news reporting. If you see something in a Hollywood movie, it’s got to be true.
(rolls eyes)
Meanwhile, here’s the reality in the New America of 2014:
“More security firms getting police powers: Some see benefits to public safety, but others are wary,” The San Francisco Chronicle, 1 July 2007.
“Columbus Ohio Dispatch special report: Private cops being shielded from the public — Private cops have the authority to carry guns and make arrests but can keep records secret,” The Columbus Ohio Dispatch, 30 December 2014.
This stuff has been all over the news for the last 7 years. If you’re not aware that private police have gotten full official police powers in an increasing number of jurisdictions, you’ve been living in a bathyscaphe.
Source: “The Private Arm of the Law,” The Wasington Post, 2 January 2007.
jl
@Mandalay: Rudy will say anything to stay in the media spotlight. Sort of like McCain, except much less there than McCain. Actually nothing there at all, Epitome of an empty suite. A desperate man.
mclaren
@mai naem mobile:
You’re still not getting it. No city needs as many police to preserve public safety. All those extra cops are there to extort revenue from the population by fines, fee, asset forfeiture and arrests (which boil down to more fees and more fines and sweet sweet paydays by charging the arrestee for every day spent in jail).
jl
@mai naem mobile: Will be interesting to see exactly what the NYPD is cutting down on, where and with whom. If crime rates stay down and traffic stays sane, the NYPD tactic might backfire in their negotiations.
Edit: though I suppose that result is inconceivable to many NYPD officers, who imaging themselves to be the law entire and the only thing standing between the black and brown hordes of bandits and murderers and the worthy citizens.
The slowdown itself concerns me less than the apparently widespread police attitude behind it.
KG
@mclaren: $54 million dollars is a lot. but you are talking about a city with a $6-7 billion dollar budget (so, you’re talking less than 1% of the city’s budget) with a population of 3.8 million (LAPD is contracted to work with other smaller cities as well). The budget is actually breaking $8 billion in the 14/15 fiscal year. and really, LA is a pretty damn nice place to be, except for the traffic.
In other words, you need some perspective. but then, that is obvious.
mclaren
@srv:
You’re not thinking young enough.
Concealed carry for foetuses.
It’s the ultimate solution to the abortion problem too.
Trentrunner
@srv: Sorry, but this is awesome. My only hope is that the murderous toddler slaughtered the gun-crazy asshole before she had a chance to pass on any of her stupid genes.
Bravo, toddler, bravo.
ms_canadada
@mclaren: looking into our laws here in Ontario, Canada…makes me sick to see how the Down-Trodden are down trodden…bastard people.
M. Bouffant
Scaredy-Cops.
SatanicPanic
@mclaren:
That’s not what I claimed. Hollywood’s not going to try to sell a joke about mall cops if mall cops are the same as regular cops, because the joke is based on a mall cop acting like a regular cop when everyone knows they’re not the same thing. Now, it could be the case that in some places they are, but it strikes me as a little bit-far fetched that rent-a-cops became the same as regular cops everywhere but no one noticed.
And why are you linking to the same story twice? The WaPo and SF Chronicle are about the same guy.
SatanicPanic
@mclaren: hmm, aren’t cities and companies different entities, with different motivations?
Andrew Lee
I feel like for people of a left/liberal/progressive bent, the NYPD/Ferguson cop saga can serve to expose the “dark side” or “downside” of unions. We’ve grown so used to defending unions in the US that I feel that sometimes we’ve imbued them with almost a benevolent aura, when in reality they’re simply a *vehicle* or tool (a very important one, mind you) for progressive change and defending/maintaining living standards for the working/middle class.
But to see that they’re organizations or groups like any others, though impoortant ones, allows us to see that they’re susceptible to the same pathologies as any other group or organization, and we’re seeing a clear case of that here
AnonPhenom
John Cole and Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Two bodies.
One mind.
Mike in NC
@Mandalay:
Isn’t there a term for this? Like maybe “extortion”? Used to be illegal but the NYPD thought otherwise.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@SatanicPanic: mclaren is an vicious and abusive troll with zero impulse control and is frankly someone I’d like to see permabanned from the site; that being said, she’s pretty much right about this. The right state, no felonies, a guard and gun card and a deep-rooted desire to exact revenge on everyone who you felt inferior to in high school, and you are good to go on your new career as a paracop making about $14,000/ year.
Bill Arnold
@mclaren:
In a brief search, this (private police forces with full arrest powers) appears to be mainly a North Carolina thing (in the US at least), and date back the the late 1800s, though some other states have specific exceptions for private police forces in private universities and/or hospitals (and/or railroads).
The wikipedia article for private police in the US could use some editing; it currently looks like it was written by (US) libertarians. The Company Police article is better, and describes the NC rules in some more detail and says that they date back to the late 1800s (says 1900s but that looks like a typo)).
Two questions, for everyone:
(1) Are there any other US states that have joined NC in this?
(2) In NC, how is liability for private police corporations handled?
Mike in NC
@mclaren: Interesting. Here where I live we have vehicles marked “Citizen Patrol” which are painted identically to those of the County Sheriff and his deputies. The CP wear uniforms virtually the same as the regular cops, too. I’m pretty sure they’re not armed, but to a casual viewer they appear to be police officers. I’ve seen them mainly used to direct traffic and control parking at large public events (those things are probably deemed to be beneath the dignity of a “real” cop).
SatanicPanic
@CONGRATULATIONS!: absolutely, I just thought her response of “NO UTTERLY WRONG” was a bit much. Like you said, it depends on the state.
Elie
@srv:
THIS THIS THIS
Tree With Water
“It’s really eye opening how truly bad and dysfunctional the NYPD is these days (or always has been)”.
Amen to that. I don’t think if the people of NYC realize yet the damage their police have done the city’s reputation east of the Hudson and around the world. As a lifelong paisan of the Apple, I find it all too bad, even sad. But if I was a New Yorker, I’d be pissed off.
jl
@Bill Arnold:
Here is the URL for the California department regulating private security services.
bsis.ca.gov/
and pdf summarizing regulations, powers and qualifications
bsis.ca.gov/forms_pubs/guardgd.pdf
No time to look carefully, but I didn’t see anything about them having any powers to initiate fines or much of any police power at all other than necessary to fulfill their immediate duties for employers. Don’t see anything that they can be deputized for any public law enforcement purpose.
Would be interesting to know how much CA is like NC. From what I can see, not much similarity.
soonergrunt
One is forced to wonder if there will be a concomitant fall-off in cases of police brutality and felony frame-ups of innocent persons, or will NYPD continue those behaviors gratis?
jl
@soonergrunt:
Wonder no more, my friend, The complementary asshole service continues, thank you very much,. See FormerSwingVoter comment 16 in next post above.
Just Some Fuckhead
Don’t do us any favors, NYPD.
BBA
The NYPD is twice the size it needs to be. It’s also something like 52% white, 48% minority.
A simple though blatantly unconstitutional solution presents itself.
Petorado
So at a time when police nationwide are being increasingly perceived as considering themselves above the law, contrary to the interests of those they are charged to protect and serve, and acting as a self-serving and insular gang, they protest these accusations by acting above the law, country to the public interest, and collapsing into a self-serving gang mentality. It’s not helping case of the police at all.
Laertes
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work-to-rule It’s not new. It’s got a long history. It’s not even obviously an awful thing to do. Cops can’t strike, and work-to-rule seems like an appropriate way for them to act out. As many in this thread have pointed out, however, it’s a risky move: If they slow their work to 4% of their normal pace, and crime doesn’t skyrocket, it’s going to lead a lot of people to wonder why the hell their tax dollars are paying for the other 96%.
Fortunately for the police, they’re experts at manipulating crime stats. You know how you’re always reading stories about police juicing their stats by, say, misreporting serious violent crimes as misdemeanors, or changing their reporting schemes to make inconvenient bumps disappear? They can just run the same tricks in reverse to fake up a crime wave in their absence.
As an added bonus, they then get to use those artifically high stats as the new baseline from which to claim later reductions.
Think of the slowdown as a way to vent the pressure that’s built up by round after round of deception. All at once they can clear the books and start fresh.
grondo
Time for some mass police layoffs?
RaflW
To the extent possible, fire these jackasses. This is almost certainly an illegal work stoppage, and I don’t give a shit if they are union or not, fire them.
If that’s not possible, then I’d agree that significant budget cuts should be rammed through so that layoffs are needed. I do not support the idea of threatening privatization. Using that tool of the right wing is not an acceptable tactic, IMO. That would legitimize some RW nutjob mayor somewhere else trying if for real.
Brutusettu
So the NYPost is saying that the cops in NY won’t do their job because the mayor hurt their feelings and someone tried to murder someone in Baltimore and then went up to NY city to murder 2 more people?
@BBA: If they’re overstaffed and still working a lot of hours a week, then that’s a problem. Being understaffed and having crazy long work days or barely any time between shifts to cover for sick days/vacations, that might be more of a powder keg.
Mike in NC
@RaflW: At a minimum, end all overtime, and end all moonlighting jobs as nightclub bouncers and similar employment off-hours. Hit them in their wallets.
ruemara
That union contract should have some new rules. 1. Ya gotta live in NYC. No more outside the city living. Sucks to be you. 2. You’re damned right there’s going to be an ombudsman. They’re mostly useless, but still better than the bullshit of nothing. 3. If the crime levels aren’t affected, you have too many cops.
Glad I’m not Mayor. Firings would have happened within 5 minutes of me getting back to my office after Pat Lynch’s screech. I don’t give a fuck, so I don’t need some fucks with guns around me. Turn in the revolver and get the fuck out of my city.
rikyrah
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
I think he should declare that anyone getting a paycheck from the city needs to reside in the city……and that they are going to leave it to an open vote of the people. Make sure that the public realizes what the average cop makes and let the cops explain how they can’t live off of six-figures in the city. I know NYC is expensive, but let them get a job where they live.
Tehanu
My only experience with NYC cops was on a visit nearly 20 years ago. My friend and I had just had lunch at a very tony restaurant in the East 50s and were walking up Park Ave. to , I think, Bloomingdales. Two well-dressed middle-aged white ladies. We came to a corner where a cop was directing everyone to cross the street and walk on the other side of Park because there was some stoppage ahead — it turned out to be some Saudis getting out of several giant limousines and going shopping, but we couldn’t see at that point. So I walked up to the cop with a smile and said something like, “Gee, officer, what’s happening up there?” He snarled at me, “I don’t have to answer you! Get across the street!” I can’t imagine what he would have said or done if I’d been young, or a minority, or even wearing jeans.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tehanu: My mother has had a problem with big city cops since she went up to a Chicago cop during the 1968 convention and politely asked where the nearest restroom might be (it was for me; I was not quite four). The cop said “Fuck off, hippie.”*
*We did find a restroom in time. Dog bless the Art Institute.
Lavocat
Sounds like extortion to me. Good thing THAT is not a crime. Wait …
Chet
@Tehanu: A lot of cops actually hate affluent white people (or white people they assume to be affluent) even more than they do minorities, particularly if they think said well-to-do whites might also be “limousine liberals”.
Omnes Omnibus
@Lavocat: It’s not extortion. Cops, like prosecutors, have discretion. It is a blatant and abhorrent power play by the police, but it isn’t extortion.
Omnes Omnibus
@Chet: They may hate them, but they are careful around them. Lots of those affluent white people (or white people they assume to be affluent) are lawyers or have lawyers in their favorites on their iPhones. It makes a difference.
Tree With Water
@Tree With Water: Actually, that was a quote from [scrolls up screen] Cole, to which I simply added a bit about the PR aspect of the cops behavior.
SWMBO
@rikyrah: If the cops can’t live on 6 figure incomes in the city, what are the poor people living on? Seriously, if there are that many poor people living there, how can the cops claim that they can’t afford to live there? Presumably the cops make more than most of them and yet…there are all these people there.
AxelFoley
@ruemara:
This. All this.
brantl
You need a new tag, Brick Shitting Barney Fyfe, that’s what these clowns are.
lol
@soonergrunt:
You have your answer.