The NYPD’s Revolt Is A Direct Threat To Democracy

The Federalist ^ | 12/31/2014 | Ben Domenech

[SeekAndFind]

Since the moment when police officers turned their backs in protest on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, we’ve seen the type of escalating activity in the city which would be more recognizable as the preview to a messy Latin American coup d’etat. The latest is a form of purposeful sabotage on the part of the NYPD, which is now actively shirking its duty to enforce the law. According to the New York Post, traffic tickets and summonses have plummeted by 94 percent, and overall arrests are down 66 percent for the week compared to the same period last year. Here’s the data comparisons from this year to 2013:

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. Even parking violations are way down, dropping by 92 percent, from 14,699 to 1,241. Drug arrests by cops assigned to the NYPD’s Organized Crime Control Bureau — which are part of the overall number — dropped by 84 percent, from 382 to 63.

Considering how much New York, as with many of our other major cities, has leaned toward over-policing, this isn’t all a bad thing – I’m not going to get worked up about cops handing out fewer parking violations. But as a whole, this represents a completely irresponsible rejection of the duty to enforce the law. Yesterday, speaking to a graduating class of more than 800 new officers at Madison Square Garden, de Blasio was booed and heckled as he struggled to extend an oratorical olive branch.

[Exeter]

“de Blasio...attempted to extend an oratorical olive branch”
The Mayor is just scrambling to save his political butt, but it may be too little, too late. At this point he can;
1. Continue the way he’s presently going, trying to say “yes” to both the NYPD and the marchers calling for more cop deaths,
2. Go full penance and ask the collective NYPD to forgive his inflammatory dialogue while completely repudiating the communist-inspired protestors (including making Al Sharpton permanently unwelcome at Gracie Mansion), or
3. Resign and let someone else try to make a new start with the police.
Whichever choice he makes, he’s probably a 1-term mayor , and don’t even talk about national aspirations...

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

“Considering how much New York, as with many of our other major cities, has leaned toward over-policing,...”

I’m guessing that the author has previously criticized the “broken-window theory” of crime reduction. Pro-criminal leftists (sorry, if I’m being redundant) have never credited Giuliani’s crime-reduction strategies (which were partly based on the broken-window theory) for the dramatic reduction in crime, during his tenure as Mayor of NYC. They always pointed to alternative explanations (however implausible).

Well, now we have the perfect test of those theories — call it a “social experiment”. This time, we’re testing what happens when you “under-police”, as opposed to “over-police”. If the leftists were correct about “broken-windows”, this police work-reduction program (call it the “dunk-more-donuts” theory of policing) will have no effect on NYC crime rates.

[kjam22]

So all of this "police work" is not being done.... and life goes on. How many are missing the tickets and citations?

Maybe this city, like most cities, just needs to learn to operate on less revenue.

[hosepipe]

What does it take to wake a NYC resident UP?...

Nevermind, once awake... they could care less...
Mugged non officially (in the street) or mugged officially (by elections), to them same thing..

Give your milk money to the bully, go smoke a joint.. Chill and act like it didnt happen..

[ctdonath2]

They’re demonstrating the principle of “careful what you ask for, you might get it”.

[Da Coyote]

What a bunch of bull-Obama.

The police are demonstrating the full idiocy of liberalism, headed by an inept mayor who should properly be branded a traitor and shot, hung, burned, and sent through a plant shredder.

They merely cut off the socialists’s money machine.

Screw De Dorkio and may he forever rest in the depths of hel...er...Afghanistan.

[Gay State Conservative]

Comrade Wilhelm shouldn't have fanned the flames.He has just as much blood on his hands as does Obola,Holder,Sharpton and the shooter.

[usurper]

But is the American military turning their backs on the Commander in Chief? Showing contempt for him? Going AWOL with the endorsement of their superiors? Shirking their duty? Booing and jeering at him at a graduation ceremony?

Nonsense: The military is under the UCMJ and members would face big consequences for any disrespect to the CIC. Police officers on the other hand are civilians with all the rights and protections of any US citizen.

They have every right to turn their backs to him. If it were me, I would turn my back, drop my pants and show him my Happy Gilmore. If members of the military had the same rights they would have done the same to Obama.

[Rides_A_Red_Horse]

The Mayor should go police the street and write citations.

[Mr. Jeeves]

The NYPD’s Revolt Is A Direct Threat To Democracy

It is a threat to democratically elected Communists, I admit. And a reminder that we live in a republic, where the whims of coerced- and paid-voters don't always equate to the the true laws of the land.

[InMemoriam]

Hey, Ben! You like seeing the laws of New York City enforced, by people risking their lives, marriages, and mental health every day? Here's an application.

[tanknetter]

This guy is writing in The Federalist, which is Conservative, right?

So I’m willing to cut him slack because he’s coming at this from the right ideological starting point.

But to me there’s just something delicious about seeing Progs who tried (and failed) to destroy Scott Walker for bringing public employee unions to heel now demanding that the NYPD public employee unions be ... brought to heel.

[INVAR]

They’ve been thrown under the bus by Obama and the democrats. Time to wake the people up to get them to throw out the real traitors. Maybe no more police will finally do that.

Maybe this is the intended reaction, so that Obama can decree the formation of his own Civilian Security Force which is just as powerful, just as well armed, just as well funded as the US military.

You know, the promise he made publicly while these same kinds of cops clapped like seals behind him as he announced his version of the SS.

[Lazamataz]

Ben Domenech might be okay, but I say, so long as Obama does not enforce the law, so too should NYPD. Screw NYC, they bought it, they can keep it.

[MeganC]

The cops-as-revenuers thing gets even worse when you start to look at the abuses of the various seizure laws that allow cops to stop you on a highway, rob you of your cash, and then deny you the ability to appeal their actions.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-texas-profiling_wittmar10-story.html#page=1

[ansel12]

Is the writer advocating that the cops, and by extension the military, should “just follow orders?”

Of the people and our elected officials versus their own union goals?

Do you think that the taxpayers are going to benefit or lose when this union activity is over and the union gets the gains that it wants?

[RicocheT]

Ignoring the rule of law? Liberal Democrats threaten our democracy more than NY cops.

Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered to cops to not stop & frisk which was the best way to address street crime. It wasn’t an unwarranted search or racial profiling as cops used reasonable suspicion of bulging pockets or nervous behavior to stop suspects. Plus, he encouraged the recent protesters to misbehave. Obama ignores the law and Constitution repeatedly, not enforcing immigration, bogus EPA regs, exec orders that infringe on Congresses role...

[FredZarguna]

I'm not sure why anyone should confuse this confused opinion mash-up with serious punditry. The author seems to believe that law enforcement officers should be have like the military, strange idea given that they

• Aren't governed by the same laws.
• Don't have the same -- or even similar -- functions.
• Don't operate in the same territories.
• Don't have the same relationship to their civilian populations in areas they control.

In short they have no similarities, except that some of the personnel in each wear uniforms, and some of the personnel in each have guns.

The same thing could be said about, say, hunters wearing orange in the woods. And the comparison would make about as much sense.

The author also mistakenly conflates NYPD refusal to enforce existing law with the mayor being heckled at a recent graduation ceremony, and his public shunning at a funeral for a slain officer. Again, these things are not remotely related except in the proximate context of a bad relationship between Gracey Mansion and the police.

The police refusal to enforce the laws on minor crimes is wrong, and is part of an ongoing labor dispute. On that point, the author is correct that people need to be fired. Even though this is nothing new in the history of union thuggery, it should have been stopped long ago.

[Although we might parenthetically add that the refusal to enforce the law earns high praise from Hizzoner's Party when practiced by its Thug-In-Chief for exactly the same reason: transient political gain. And we might also note that the folks at The Federalist, while not Leftists, have shown no stomach for exercising the same option against 0bama that they advocate using against the police: remove the 0ne from his job.]

But police disrespect of the mayor at a private function is a First Amendment right, and is unrelated to dereliction of duty, collective bargaining, or indeed, any aspect of their professional conduct. Kaiser Wilhelm asked for that disrespect, and he will now get all of it that he can stand.

Finally, I think that some Wingnuts [that would be us] need to point out how the current labor stoppage puts the lie to the claim made by the 0bama administration that a reduction in apprehensions and deportations over the last few years "clearly" indicates that the border is "more secure than ever." Lower statistical indicators of criminal activity can indicate a lot of different things, but when a law enforcement entity has no interest in enforcing the law, they usually indicate what is patently obvious, which is that more rather than less crime is actually taking place.

[ansel12]

When the military eventually unionizes, they will start telling us what they will and will not do, and how much they want to be paid, etc.

The difference will be that the voting numbers of the military union will be diluted at the federal level, but not so with big city cops/firemen/teachers/nurses/city workers/county/etc.

[nascarnation]

Soldier, take that hill!

Screw you sarge, I want my union steward.