There are multiple reports that the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association is asking the Mayor to not attend funerals for any of them killed in the line of duty. From the NY Observer:
“DON’T LET THEM INSULT YOUR SACRIFICE!,” a bold red message on the union’s webpage reads. “Download and sign a request that Mayor de Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito stay away from your funeral in the event that you are killed in the line of duty.”
The form itself, which allows an officer to fill in their name, gets more specific for the reason behind spurning the presence of the officials.
“Due to Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Mark-Viverito’s consistent refusal to show police officers the support and respect they deserve, I believe that their attendance at the funeral of a fallen New York City police officer is an insult to that officer’s memory and sacrifice,” the form reads.
A filled out version can be delivered to an officer’s union delegate, the website advises.
If you go to the PBA website,
it's right on the home page. Head of the PBA, Pat Lynch is challenging the Mayor for failing to defend the police in the wake of the Garner rand jury verdict. From
the PBA home page:
Dec. 8, 2014—Pat Lynch went on multiple cable news programs (see videos below) and WABC radio to defend police officers against the protestors and police-bashing elected officials who have piled on in the wake of Garner grand jury decision. Lynch told Fox News's Megyn Kelly and Steve Malzberg of Newsmax TV that police officers place themselves in harm's way to protect all members of every community, while he challenged CNN's Anderson Cooper to say what cops should do when attempting to take a resisting individual into custody. Click, below, to view each of them as well as the PBA news conference of Dec. 4.
To be fair, Lynch is doing his job - aggressively defending what he believes are the interests of the NYPD. And given the tension that always exists between employers and employees, conflict is to be expected. But...
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? If you listen to Lynch at the WABC link above, he doesn't even begin to admit that there might have been anything questionable about police actions in the Eric Garner case, or consider the possibility that things might have been done differently.
In the wake of 911, everyone demanded to be kept safe at all times - and the NYPD are still at Ground Zero. Even before that, paranoia over violent criminals and Mayor Bloomberg (and his predecessors) Zero Tolerance policies were not totally out of line given expectations that a surging wave of violent offenders was headed through the pipeline; a wave that failed to arrive. (Why? Here's one theory that seems pretty compelling.) Most people haven't gotten the word yet that crime is on the way down.
Quite simply, America has been and continues to be, suffering from what I'm calling fear-based governance. Fear is used for political advantage; fear is used to determine what policies will be put in place; fear trumps facts and logic. The police are tasked with dealing with what their masters and the public fear - and they are also subject to fear themselves. We are not going to be able to have anything like a just society until we learn to master our fears. Until then, a policeman's lot is not a happy one.
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