Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolman’s Benevolent Association, the largest NYC police union, is exactly the kind of spokesman that the police don’t need. He is exactly what he rages against, a violent, agitator whose comments lead directly toward, what all sane observers realize is an impossible confrontation between the police whose job it is to protect the public and the citizenry in general who are more and more fearing those police who are abusing their principal job.
As law enforcement agencies go, New York City’s police department is pretty damn good, but there are still huge holes in the way they handle minorities and assembly. The biggest hole however is in having troublemakers like Lynch running their unions. He is or should be an embarrassment to all functioning officers. He is to the police department what Al Sharpton is to the black community and all liberals, a self-promoter they can do without.
Whatever we say about the incidents that have been causing backlash against various police departments in recent months, much of it, especially in the cases in Fergusson and Staten Island, have had extenuating circumstances that have to have made the hackles rise on the backs of police and those of us in the public who see beyond the hype created by the media; those who understand the realities of much of what is presented. Just as that is true, there are also incidents like the shooting of the child in Cleveland that are so egregious that the offenders must be condemned, first and foremost by their own departments or the public will righteously never understand.
Contrary to the babblings of Pat Lynch, it’s not the people who must change in this kind of scenario but the police. By allowing their ranks to be dotted by idiots like these fools in Cleveland, they put themselves in the position of having to defend their every action. Does wearing a uniform put one above the law? Of course not, but the functioning police officers, and they are in the vast majority, must get over the, us against them, mentality that seems to prevail in too many departments today. They have to recognize non-functionality and strive to eliminate it, or they will be counted in with those who give them a bad name. It isn’t us against them, it’s us protecting them and those of us who don’t do that are just making the rest of us look bad. Until the police understand that, they will always be the target of hatred and fear.
By the same token it must be understood that the assassination of two cops in New York is not the result of any kind of organized movement against the police. The guy who killed those cops had just killed his girl friend and ended up killing himself. He was crazy as a March hare and there is no dealing with crazy, just like there is no fixing stupid.
The unfortunate rift between the Mayor and the police department continues with seemingly no one from the department except the Commissioner that wants to be reasonable.
A bunch of cops turning their backs on the Mayor at the hospital where the murdered officers had been taken can be excused as passion of the moment but to have that disrespectful act repeated again at the funeral of one of the officers and threatened at the funeral of the other, puts the Department in the position of being assinine and having no respect or discipline, a very poor position for a group whose main job is to act intelligently and to maintain discipline.
Commissioner Bill Bratton has been an ideal mediator in the disputes between the police and the Mayor but in order to mediate effectively one must have someone on each side of the table, who will listen. Pat Lynch has forgotten how to listen. He is indeed the mouth that roared and most of what comes out of that mouth is vitriol. Nothing will ge done until someone sits Lynch down and explains that making peace between the Police and the City is more important than his re-election goals.
It’s interesting that Lynch has so much to say about DeBlasio when for twelve years under Bloomberg, while that mayor refused to even negotiate with the police and kept them from striking because they were a municipal union, he kept his mouth shut.
Of course during Bloomberg’s terms the cops were allowed, under former commissioner Kelly to act as storm troopers at any kind of public assembly and to push the stop and frisk policies far past the endurance of the black and Hispanic communities.
Now even the Post and the News, two very right wing papers who have a strong history of backing the police have come out with editorials calling on the cops to back off their political stances and concentrate on protecting the city.
A sidelight of all that is that the arrest rate for minor crimes is down 60% in the last month. If the police don’t want to do their job, there is no longer any reason to employ them. This kind of action has no place in a city like New York.