For nearly a year, the NYPD’s top brass have been worried about losing the rank and file. Morale was already at risk from the superfluous new oversight bureaucracies that de Blasio demanded as a mayoral candidate. Worse, the Civilian Complaint Review Board has assumed new prosecutorial and sentencing powers, which it lacks the knowledge to use appropriately.
In early November, a high-ranking official spoke to me about the NYPD’s fears: “The main thing we can’t allow to happen is to lose control of the streetcorners.”
That may already be occurring. The department managed to quell a 10% shooting spike in the first half of the year by throwing cops at hot spots over the summer. But in the past four weeks, shooting victims have surged 38% over the same period last yea r, while in the days since the assassination, cops have all but abandoned discretionary summons and arrest activity, as threats against them pour into the department.
If de Blasio wants to reverse this ominous slowdown, he must explicitly rebut his earlier slander of the NYPD. And he must stop glorifying the anti-NYPD protesters as crusaders against social and racial injustice.
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