The thing no one’s talking about it, politicians in many places are afraid to lose the good will of the cops — not just because they want the political backing of the police union, but because they also use the police in a variety of shady ways. They get the politically connected off (I have never known an important politician or a police chief to be charged with DUI unless they hit and killed somebody), they often have people followed and harassed — because they can. So cops collect dirt on politicians, just in case. It’s a toxic balance. And now we have cops exercising raw political power, with no one standing up to them except peaceful protesters. We are truly in an awful mess. As Corey Robin calls it, “a Weimar-y vibe”:
If you haven’t been following the situation in New York City since Saturday, things are getting tense.
On Saturday, a gunman shot and killed two police officers at close range in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.
The murders come on the heels of weeks of protest in New York (and elsewhere) against the rampant lawlessness and brutality of the police.
Instantly, the police and their defenders moved into high gear, blaming the murders on the protesters; NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio, who had been gesturing toward the need for police reform; and US Attorney General Eric Holder. Many have called for the mayor’s resignation.
The police union and its head, Patrick Lynch, were the most forthright:
“There is blood on many hands, from those that incited violence under the guise of protest to try to tear down what police officers did every day,” Mr. Lynch said.
“That blood on the hands starts on the steps of city hall in the office of the mayor.”
…
A statement purporting to be from the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the biggest police union, blamed Mr. de Blasio for the shootings.
“The mayor’s hands are literally dripping with our blood because of his words, actions and policies,” read the statement, “and we have, for the first time in a number of years, become a ‘wartime’ police department. We will act accordingly.”
The statement instructed officers to forward it to colleagues, and it spread instantly through the department.
The Sergeants Benevolent Association issued a similar statement on Twitter.
The blood of 2 executed police officers is on the hands of Mayor de Blasio. May God bless their families and may they rest in peace.
— SBA (@SBANYPD) December 21, 2014
I had heard that that statement was not in fact from the PBA, but now I can’t find anything definitive about it. In any event, it gives you a flavor of what Greg Grandin is calling a “cop coup” in New York. It’s a strong term, but it’s hard not to conclude that the mayor believes his first duty is not to the security and well-being of the people of New York but to the security and well-being of the NYPD.Because the fate of his administration is in their hands.
The mayor has already called upon protesters to suspend their protests. Even though the protesters had already considerably softened their line—chanting “Blue Lives Matter,” too—De Blasio said today:
“It’s time for everyone to put aside political debates, put aside protests, put aside all of the things that we will talk about in due time.”…”That can be for another day.”
The mayor’s call came a few hours after the police commissioner, William J. Bratton, said that the killing of the officers on Saturday was a “direct spinoff of this issue” of the protests that have roiled the nation in recent weeks.
And with that, De Blasio’s pretty much handed over his administration to the NYPD.
Listening to these cries from the cops—of blood on people’s hands, of getting on a war footing—it’s hard not to think that a Dolchstosslegende isn’t being born. Throw in the witches brew of race and state violence that kicked it off, the nearly universal obeisance to the feelings and sensitivities of the most powerful and militarized sectors of the state, and the helplessness and haplessness of the city’s liberal voices, and you begin to get a sense of the Weimar-y vibe (and not the good kind) out there.
But whatever historical precedent comes to mind, one thing is clear.
The entire New York City establishment—not just De Blasio, but political, cultural, and economic elites—is terrified (or in support) of the cops. With the exception of this fairly cautious statement from Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, himself a former police captain, not one of these figures has spoken out against the Freikorps-ish rhetoric emanating from the NYPD. It’s not that these men and women are spineless or gutless in a psychological or personal sense. It’s worse: They’re politically frightened, which is far more dangerous. Because they have no sense of an alternative base or source of power. After decades of being whipsawed by capital—you could trace this rot all the way back to 1975, if not even further—they’re simply not prepared to take on the police. Even if they wanted to.
The cops have everybody by the short hairs.
But mostly they have us citizens on a short leash. We pay their salaries. They work for us. When they retire it’s we who send them that monthly retirement check. If they are hurt on the job or disabled in the line of duty we pick up the tab.
Which brings us to the most corrupt element in every police organization…….the union.
The New York City police unions are the most corrupt unions in the country. Worse then those in Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles or Philadelphia which are all corrupt as well.
Here’s how the union scam works. If the politicians or we the people don’t give the unions exactly what they want they stop working. That’s where the term “blue flu” originated. If the cops stop working then crime goes up. When crime goes up citizens get hurt or killed, property is damaged or stolen and so on. In short order the politicians or we the people cry uncle, give the cops what they demanded and then crawl off with our tail between our legs.
What the cops want these days is total control of ‘our’ streets. They want military uniforms, armored vehicles, heavy weapons, and a green light to do what they want, when they want, without being criticized or brought to justice.
Locking down the city of Boston after the Boston bombing was their test case.
PATCO could never be fired, until they could. Those memos are insurrection by the chosen agent of the cops. Lock them out. Declare their jobs vacant and replace them.