Justin King

December 31, 2014

(ANTIMEDIA) New York City – The New York Police Department has decided that its “wartime” strategy is to simply not do their jobs.

The NYPD made the move after two cops were killed in reprisal for Eric Garner’s death. With NYPD publicly stating they are just going to worry about protecting themselves, something interesting happened: nothing. The city didn’t erupt into riots, there is no reported crime wave, super villains have not taken over the streets of Gotham.

The pro-police media narrative fed by a constant stream of press releases from New York cop unions, associations, and fraternities basically says that because the Mayor didn’t support NYPD in the wake of the Eric Garner decision the NYPD stopped working in protest. This is a blatant lie.

The NYPD went on the wartime footing and began ignoring offenses not when the Mayor made his remarks, but when two of their own were ambushed while sitting inside of a patrol car. This isn’t a political statement by NYPD, it’s the act of a group of people who are scared. For years NYPD has been able to do whatever they want to whomever they want and suffer no consequences. More than a quarter of the people killed by the NYPD were unarmed. Misconduct resulting in a lawsuit is a daily occurrence.

There has been no counterattack from the population until now. The NYPD likes to play up all of the officers that died “in the line of duty” to justify its brutal behavior. Aside from the two officers killed in reprisal, not a single officer was shot and killed in 2014. In fact, prior to the reprisal, the last cop killed by gunfire was in 2011. Prior to 2011, the last time an NYPD cop was intentionally killed by gunfire was 2007. In 2009, there was another officer killed by gunfire but he was shot by other NYPD cops that opened fire because well… He was a black man with a gun.

In short, NYPD kills more unarmed people in a year than they’ve had officers shot and killed in the last 7 years. In the last five years, NYPD lists 25 “in the line of duty” deaths on the Officer Down Memorial Page. Only 3 were at the hands of a “bad guy,” and that includes the two killed in reprisal. The overwhelming majority of NYPD officers killed are attributed to a broadly defined “9/11 related illness.” If an officer dies of cancer, for example, and the NYPD connects that death to 9/11 then the officer’s family gets paid. They’re just looking out for their own.

The NYPD is just like any playground bully; when somebody strikes back they cry and tell the teacher. Well the teacher in this case is Mayor de Blasio who is responsible for dealing with the endless stream of lawsuits generated by the department’s misconduct. The bully took his ball and went home, but it seems nobody misses the bully or the ball.

Arrests are down 66%. Traffic violations are down 94%. Criminal Court Summonses are down 94%. There is no public outcry. There is no crime wave. The NYPD’s move just showed that all of the rhetoric about being the thin blue line between order and chaos is complete garbage. These aren’t just petty offenses being overlooked as the national media is attempting to frame it. The NYPD’s Organized Crime Control Bureau has had an 84% drop in drug related arrests. If you believe the propaganda, this is one of those units that supposedly stops wild marijuana junkies with needles hanging out of their arm from breaking into apartments and burning down churches after they use the American flag as toilet paper. Reefer madness has not paralyzed New York.

The NYPD has shown clearly that they are overstaffed and overfunded. If they can all basically stop work without causing major issues, maybe we have too many cops on the streets. It also demonstrated that all of the talk about the NYPD being the “sheepdogs” who are responsible for keeping the wolves from eating the citizens of the city is nothing more than empty propaganda. The NYPD won’t respond to a call without two units being dispatched now. So, all the talk about them rushing into danger to save your life is also mindless propaganda. They won’t even respond to a shoplifter without two units, which means 4 officers. They certainly aren’t going to go into a dangerous situation for you or your loved ones.

The NYPD proved they care nothing about the community when they gambled with crime in the city. NYPD was hoping for a crime wave so they could pressure the Mayor. They were hoping that the people who they are supposed to protect and serve would become victimized so they could justify their brutality. It backfired. It’s time to slash NYPD’s budget and manpower. Thanks to unions playing politics, the citizens know the force doesn’t need to be as big as it is, and it certainly doesn’t actually care about the citizens of the city.

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