The New York City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PBA), one of the city’s main police unions, is urging its members to sign a letter requesting that Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito do not attend their funeral services should they be killed in the line of duty…. The campaign comes in the wake of Mayor de Blasio’s response to the grand jury decision in the Eric Garner case, in which Officer Daniel Pantaleo was not indicted in the chokehold death of the Staten Island man. The mayor has been promoting a pilot program that would put body cameras on police officers and spoke out against the “centuries of racism” that led to Garner’s killing in the days following protests across NYC. Following those remarks, PBA president Patrick Lynch said in his own press conference that officers felt they were “thrown under the bus” by Mayor de Blasio.
The deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and Eric Garner (to name but a few) are, to understate the blindingly obvious, nothing if not unfortunate. They’re gone and they’re not coming back, so, in my mind at least, three questions come immediately to mind: “How do we move forward?” “How do we make police encounters safer for young African-America males?” “How do we make certain no more parents must bury their sons?”
Those questions aren’t exclusive to one party in this equation. All of us have a stake- yes, even (some might say especially) the police. It wouldn’t have taken a lot of energy for police to reach out, express a modicum of contrition, and commit to doing better. Even that minimum o effort appears to be too much for many police departments to make. In New York, the PBA could have scored a lot of points by committing to working with the community to make the streets of New York City safer. They could have committed to combating a police culture that believes African-American males to be “thugs” and criminals looking for a place to happen until proven innocent. As in Ferguson and Cleveland, PBA has decided to play the victim card, claiming that NYPD officers are the ones being victimized, this time by Mayor de Blasio. The Mayor has some considerable skin in this game; he has a son who’s half African-American, so for him this is no abstract debating point. It’s a reality he faces daily, in the same way parents of young African-American males from coast to coast do. For PBA to react as they have is the height of arrogance and self-righteousness. When you prove incapable of recognizing that you’re the problem, it’s incumbent upon those for whom you work to drive that point home.
Not that PBA seems particularly concerned about anything but their own self-interest.
The mayor and council speaker have responded to the petition with a joint statement, saying, “This is deeply disappointing. The mayor and the speaker both know better than to think this inappropriate stunt represents the views of the majority of police officers and their families.”
Yes, it’s undoubtedly true that the majority of NYPD officers do their job with honesty, integrity, and respect for those they’re charged with protecting and serving. Unfortunately, with NYPD comprising some 40,000 officers, even a small minority of rogue officers makes for a large number. It only takes one officer killing a suspect with an illegal choke hold or shooting first and asking questions later to create an adversarial atmosphere.
If PBA President Lynch possessed even the barest shred of compassion and human decency, he’s recognize that it’s not about police officers. It’s certainly not about allowing them to claim the mantle of victimhood when police officers from coast to coast too often shoot first when it comes to encounters with young African-American males.
No one is claiming that they don’t respect the risks police assume each and every day. The fact that policing is a dangerous job comes as a surprise to no one. We know it’s dangerous. We understand that every day a police officer puts on the uniform could be their last. We admire the sacrifices they make. That said, we can hold police in high esteem for being willing to put themselves on the line for us while simultaneously expecting- nay, demanding- that they adhere to high standards of conduct. In fact, we SHOULD be holding police to high standards- nothing unreasonably, certainly, but expectations which make it clear that we as a society expect them to conduct themselves with honor and dignity and that they respect the rights and lives of civilians they come into contact with.
Yes, police work often involves making split-second life-and-death decisions…but that’s not what happened to Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, or Eric Garner. Police making themselves out to be the victims does nothing to improve matters, and it’s time they lost their self-righteous indignity and recognized their role in this problem. Without that honesty, finding a solution will remain out of reach.
