Why Don't the Police Stop Policing the Inner Cities?

Why Don’t The Police Stop Policing the Inner Cities? Yes, and why not disband the Gang Squads? Why shouldn’t the NYPD pull out of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Harlem, and the South Bronx? Why should the LAPD continue to patrol South Central Los Angeles? Why doesn’t the Chicago Police Department pull out of the South Side? What if the San Francisco Police Department stayed out of the Fillmore and Hunters Point? Of course these are rhetorical questions. The protests over the past four months claim the police brutalize the ghettos; White cops kill male black teenagers, when they’re not harassing them. The solution is to stop patrolling the barrios and ghettos and let the residents fend for themselves. The assassination of NYPD Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu is a tragedy. Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Treyvon Martin never should have died. We have five unnecessary tragedies. The nation has a history of police trying to keep a heavy hand on minority neighborhoods. The narrative of white cops being trigger happy with black male teenagers has a historical basis, but not now. No evidence exists that was the case with Michael Brown or Eric Garner. Ismaaiyl Brinsley, a certified Lone Wolf nut job, killed the two officers. He walked up to their parked patrol car, kneeled, and shot both in the head. It was an execution. The perpetrator with an extensive rap sheet was primed for killing cops. We know he was motivated by the climate of police animus perpetrated by politicians, provocateurs, agitators, demagogues, and Reverend Sharpton. After shooting his ex-girlfriend in Owens Mills, Maryland, Brinsley took the bus to New York City. He tweeted :”I’m putting wings on pigs today. They take 1 of ours …. Let’s take two of them. #Shoot the Pigs” The President, Attorney General, Mayor De Blasio and Reverend Al Sharpton set the climate for the killings. They are reaping where they sown. They know juries will convict law enforcement officers for excessive force. For example, Johannes Mehserle, a white Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) officer fatally shot the unarmed African American Oscar Grant III on a BART platform. The tragedy was caught on cell videos. The officer reached fro his Taser, but pulled out his gun by accident. The jury convicted him of involuntary manslaughter. The officers were assassinated Saturday, December 20. Hundreds of protestors marched a week earlier with a chant. The call was “What do we want?” The response was: “Dead Cops.” The question: “When do we want it?” The answer: “Now.” Mayor de Blasio met with protest leaders on December 19, but not with the police. Seven protestors that Saturday attacked two NYPD Lieutenants, Phillip Chan and Patrick Sullivan, on the Brooklyn Bridge. One suffered a broken nose. Mayor de Blasio’s response was to call it an “alleged assault.” The Mayor’s wife is African American. His children are thereby bi-racial. The Mayor said at a press conference during the weeks of protest that he had to “train” his son how to behave around the police, “how to take special care around police officers.” Does that apply to the officers who provide security for his family? The Mayor, like a typical politician shifting blame, says it’s the media blowing up the negative protests that has created the climate. A few more comments like that and Mayor De Blasio will lose the New York media as well as the NYPD. Michael Brown is an awful martyr for police brutality. His colleague in crime, Dorian Johnson, lied about what happened. He claimed Michael had his hands up, saying “Don’t shoot” as his back was turned to the Officer. Officer Darren Wilson’s testimony, supported by several autopsies, showed Michael Brown reached into Officer Wilson’s car, grabbed his throat, and grappled for the Officer’s gun. We call that “Suicide by Cop.” A police officer has the legal right to self-defense if a suspect approaches the officer with a gun, knife, or screwdriver, or is apparently reaching for a weapon. Suicide by cop is a known phenomenon. For example, Lamar Moore walked into a Detroit Police Station on January 23, 2011 and opened fire with a pistol grip shotgun. He wounded four officers before being shot dead by he officers. The “Hands up; Don’t Shoot” mantra is a fabrication. The President, Attorney General, Mayor and the Reverend know it. Yet they perpetuate the false narrative for political purposes. They have fueled the anti-police sentiment in parts of the public. Brinsley pulled the trigger; they lit the match. Attorney General Eric Holder is investigating the Ferguson Police Department. The President has a proclivity to side with the African American over the police. It began in July 2009. Sergeant James Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department arrested Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates for ‘disorderly conduct” on July 16. President Obama said “[T]he Cambridge police acted stupidly….” He added “There’s a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately.” The President called it a “teachable moment” when the facts showed the Officer had probable cause to arrest the Professor. George Zimmerman was acquitted of killing Trayvon Martin in 2012. The President responded: “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.” He stated on March 23 prior to the trial “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.” As to Ferguson, the President is believed to have met with Reverend Sharpton and Ferguson protest leaders on November 5. The Reverend said the President advised the leaders to “Stay on course.” The President has met with Reverend Sharpton 84 times during his Presidency. Reverend Sharpton is the President’s “Go to guy” on Civil Rights, as he often seems to be with Mayor De Blasio. President Obama called the grand jury decision not to indict Officer Pantaleo an “American problem.” The Eric Garner case is slightly different. It is inexplicable that the NFPD would dispatch at least six officers for selling $.75 “loosies” on the street, but apparently the word came from City Hall a few months earlier to crack down on the street sellers, who were costing the city millions in potential cigarette taxes. The combined state and city tobacco tax is $6.85/pack with the retail price being at least $11/pack with cartons selling for over $100. The result is a large bootleg market for untaxed cigarettes. Officer Daniel Pantaleo may, or may not, have technically applied a chokehold to Eric Garner, but the police had probable cause to arrest him. Officer Pantaleo never should have been in the position of arresting Mr. Garner, but he never should have resisted arrest. Garner suffered from obesity, heart disease, and heart disease, but in the law we take the victims “as how we find them.” Garner cried out 11 times “I can’t breath.” The City is going to write a large check in Eric Garner’s death, perhaps for 8 figures. Race was not an issue. The sergeant in charge at the Garner scene was an African American female officer. About 60% of the NYPD is non-white. The Mayor, a true Progressive, campaigned in the New York City Democratic primary to the left, against the NYPD. He appealed to the left by attacking the “Stop and Frisk” policy of the NYPD. The answer to my rhetorical questions is twofold. First, the job of the Police is to protect the public, that means throughout the City, regardless of neighborhood.. Second, the demonstrations and protests were from only a few; the vast majority of residents in the ghettos and barrios may have mixed emotions about the police, but they know they are the only protection they have. Officers Liu and Ramos were in a stake out vehicle outside two crime-ridden housing projects of Bedford-Stuyvesant. They gave their lives serving the neighborhood. I remember a cliché rom high school “Only a thin veneer of civilization separates man from the ape.” That veneer is the Rule of Law with the front line being the thin blue line of the police. Mayor de Biasio is in a battle with the police. It is a battle he and the people of New York City will lose.