In New York City, the NYPD has made it painfully clear that they
will act out privately and publicly to shame Mayor Bill de Blasio for expressing that the issue of police brutality matters to him in any way whatsoever. If taking a stand against police brutality has had negative political consequences for the mayor, another local leader is banking on quite the opposite effect.
Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan, who oversaw the case against NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo in the choking death of Eric Garner, is now running for Congress and has flat-out said he hopes voters won't hold the non-indictment of officer Pantaleo against him in spite of the widespread belief that the death of Garner was legally and ethically wrong on so many levels. Witness after witness who testified in the case have since come out to say they felt like the case was poorly managed and doomed from the start.
So, in essence, DA Donovan wants the benefits of having a base of voters who appreciate that he did nothing to indict an officer who killed a man for the world to see on YouTube, but wants absolutely no blowback for leaving Eric Garner's family without any semblance of justice.
It's just hard not to feel like Donovan isn't attempting to bank on his newfound notoriety as the man who won't hold police liable for their own brutality.