As New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio made his way to the podium through dozens of police officers to speak at a hastily called press conference regarding the execution of two cops in Brooklyn on Sat. (Dec.20), they all turned their backs on him in defiance — a showing of utter and complete disrespect. They hate the mayor with a passion for making right, honest, and true remarks in regards to the strangulation death of Eric Garner, the decision by a grand jury to not indict the officer, and the aftermath spawned by that mind-boggling decision.
The “us against them” mentality runs so deep in the NYPD (as well as virtually all other police departments across the country) that anyone who doesn’t wholeheartedly support cops … no matter how illegal, reprehensible and morally wrong their actions … is viewed as the “enemy.”
After the grand jury refused to indict officer Daniel Pantaleo in Garner’s death (in spite of a video clearly showing the cop using a chokehold that has been outlawed by the department decades ago) demonstrators took to the streets of New York, as well as other cities across the country. And when de Blasio had the courage to speak out for justice for Garner (and the need for reform of the department) he, in their eyes, became the most hated man in the city’s long history.
“The way we do policing needs to change,” de Blasio publicly said after the grand jury decision was handed down, which prompted NYC Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch to immediately respond: “Unequivocally, police officers feel like they have been thrown under the bus.”
But de Blasio didn’t back down or change his tone; when he talked with Eric Garner’s bereaved father he spoke from the heart: “I couldn’t help but immediately think of what it would mean to me to lose (his son) Dante.” The mayor’s wife is black so his son is a bi-racial teenager who sports a huge afro. “We’ve had to talk to Dante for years about dangers he may face,” said de Blasio, referencing the infamous ‘talk’ many parents of African American or mixed-race children have to have with their progeny nationwide.
Calling it a “national moment of pain,” the mayor said that racial profiling and distrust between African Americans and the police is “a problem for all New Yorkers, it is a ‘I’ve had to worry over the years, ‘Is my child safe?’ And not just from harsh realities…crime and violence… but is he safe from the people he want to have faith in … cops?”
In response, Lynch has made veiled threats that if cops are not supported in doing their job the way they always have done it, they might do it another way. “If we won’t get support when we do our jobs, if we’re going to get hurt for doing what’s right, then we’re going to do it the way they want it,” Lynch told his members in a police union meeting that was secretly recorded and leaked. “Let me be perfectly clear. We will use extreme discretion in every encounter. Our friends, we’re courteous to them. Our enemies … extreme discretion. The rules are made by them to hurt you. Well now we’ll use those rules to protect us.”
This is a “circle the wagons” mentality run amok … but one that’s prevalent within police departments across the United States: “Either you’re totally with us [and are supportive of the wrong we do] or you’re totally against us.” Their goal is to leave no reasonable middle ground — fearing that if they do so, it will lead to reexaminations of their actions and will validate the need for policing tactics to change.
This is exactly the mindset that worries Mayor Jackson; if he attempts to change the Cleveland Police Department in any meaningful manner, they will adopt the same attitude as cops in New York, and might stage a work slow down that potentially could harm the entire city. Nonetheless, the mayor cannot shy away from needed reform because of what some recalcitrant cops might or might not do. If he doesn’t stand up to them, they win — and worse, change will never occur.
Cops across the country might attempt to hold the citizenry hostage: “Continue to allow us to do what we want, or we’ll do nothing at all.” That simply can’t be tolerated. If it comes down to it, the president has to demand of a mayor (a strong mayor) that cops who don’t obey commands be relived of duty, and replaced by a federalized National Guard. There is historical precedence for such federal action, think about Little Rock in 1957, and again after “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama in 1965.
While this may seem wildly extreme today, if the situation between elected officials and police unions continues to deteriorate, it might not seem so extreme in a few months. Remember, Ronald Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers, and the world didn’t come to an end. But they did learn who’s the boss. Tough times require tough measures.
[Photo: Timothy Krause (Flickr)]
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.