The NYPD turns their back on NYC Mayor (Round III)

The NYPD turns their back on NYC Bill de Blasio for the third time.

That will be the headline, or at least a variation, which will replay on television and newspapers around the country. Most will vilify the men and women of law enforcement as performing some disgraceful display at the funeral of Police Officer Wenjian Liu.

Sadly, the issue will fade from the headlines in a few days, which brings us back to the original problem. The public display is only a response to the forgotten actions of the mayor. The mayor turned his back on the cops long ago, but the media seems to have forgotten that.

They provide the mayor a pulpit to speak from, whenever he chooses, a luxury that they do not afford to the members of the NYPD. Whether you agree or not, the officers of the NYPD are utilizing the only opportunity they have, a finite moment before the lights turn off and the cameras get packed away. I guess if they chose to engage in some form of civil unrest the media would cover that, but that is not who they are. They are the forgotten protectors, bound by an oath that often calls for them to lay down their lives.  

The fact is, Mayor Bill de Blasio is not a fan of the NYPD, or law enforcement in general, no matter what he says before the cameras.

He ran on a campaign that derided the police. He claimed that the relationship between the minority community and the police was ‘bitter’. De Blasio also accused the police of engaging in an ‘abusive practice’ of stop and frisk, which allegedly targeted minority communities, and vowed to put an end to it. It was a campaign that counted on voter ignorance and was fueled by racial overtones.

What you didn’t hear reported was that Stop and Frisk is a procedure, not a policy. One that has been in place since 1968 when the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case: Terry v.Ohio. It simply allows the police a brief opportunity to detain a person based on reasonable suspicion that a crime has been, or is about to be, committed. The way Mayor de Blasio spun it; you would think that the police were arbitrarily throwing people up against the wall for the fun of it.

He compounded the problem by stating that he and his wife had cautioned their bi-racial son on interactions with the police. He rebuked the grand jury decision on the Eric Garner case and said that the police needed to be retrained to deal with the minority community better. I find that a bit odd, considering that over 50% of the NYPD’s patrol officers, which includes the two officers who were assassinated, are actually minority.

Then, when protest erupted throughout the city, he made remarks about ‘alleged’ assaults on police officers by protesters. If that wasn’t bad enough, he brought anti-police rabble rouser, Al Sharpton, into the fold.

If the mayor truly was trying to repair his relationship with the police, I would have to say that he was the unluckiest man in the world.

He has continually surrounded himself with people who hold the same opinion as he does, which is fine when you are an individual. But when you are the mayor, of the nation’s largest and most diverse city, you need to be a mayor of everyone, not just the click that got you elected. By turning his back on his police force, he is now reaping what he has sown.

What the mayor does not talk about is that prior to his election, the NYPD enjoyed a 75% approval rating, including a 63% approval rating in minority communities. Hardly a number that one would say reflected a bitter relationship. But perhaps the seeds of discontent, which he cast during the campaign, have taken hold. That approval number has plummeted to below 50% since he came into office, a number that eerily matches hizzoner’s own numbers.

The landslide victory, that Mayor de Blasio’s supporters like to point to, was not. It is difficult to find the sweeping victory when the turnout amounted to only 25% of cities registered voters. The election was more about voter apathy and disconnect then it was about change.

He should learn a lesson from that.

If de Blasio intends on being re-elected mayor, he might want to consider the other 75% of the electorate that didn’t vote this time around. Otherwise, come Election Day 2017, it might not only be the police who are turning their backs on him.