I support the police. I have come across a lot of cops that are jerks and a lot that are good people. That is the same in all walks of life. Some people suck, some don't.
What happened in Bed-Stuy was completely FUBAR. BUT! De Blasio did not egg the protestors on nor is he anti-cop. But he has every right to inform his son of the perils he faces. He is a father first and a mayor second.
Ismaaiyl Brinsley was mentally ill! Should we blame JD Salinger for the death of John Lennnon? Should Robert DeNiro and Martin Scorsese be blamed for John Hinckley shooting Ronald Reagan?
What is happening across New York City right now is crazy. It is insane. And it is being fueled by the wingnut Right and the New York Post.
Eric Garner should be alive right now. Watching the video one wonders why 4 cops could not take Garner down in a way other than he was. Garner was not a danger to anyone. A NYPD inspector once told me that best cop is one who does not let a situation get out of hand. Garner's situation got out of hand.
Four cops could not control the situation and Garner at the same time? Why go for the neck? Take him down low. If that had happened we would not be having all this tsuris right now.
That being said the blind, unadulterated, kissing of the police officers by the New York Post and the wingnut Right is getting pretty disgusting. Worse, they seem to be poo-pooing the way African-Americans feel and react to the perception (And if it is their perception then something must be real. To those of the Right and the Post, deal with it!) of racist behaviors by cops while at the same time championing education of the civil rights issue of all time.
But God forbid if a teacher so much as did something wrong and the Post and the wingnut Right (And crazy Governor Andy in Albany) would be calling for that teacher's keyster.
Or worse, what would they say if that teacher had been charged in the past with misconduct in several past instances, like... Officer Pantaleo?
...was the subject of two civil rights lawsuits in 2013 where plaintiffs accused Pantaleo of falsely arresting them and abusing them. In one of the cases, Pantaleo and other officers ordered two black men to strip naked on the street for a search and the charges against the men were dismissed.Where there is smoke there is usually fire. Speaking of fire how long will it take to terminate Officer Pantaelo? Faster than a teacher? Will the Post and the wingnuts of the Right be calling for a speedier process to fire cops? To keep bad cops off the job? To do away with due process? A way to better evaluate cops? To be sure that cops that are hired are from the highest 1/3 of their college class?
Nope.
Oh, but the argument always will be that it is all about the children. But what about Eric Garner's children? What about the children of all the unarmed African-American's shot by the police? Are they not affected? Aren't all the African-American children not affected by NYPD in some sort of negative way?
Yet we aren't not hearing about charter precincts or busting up the NYCPBA or the monopoly that the NYPD has over policing or more stringent and punitive measures to evaluate cops and other inane stuff that we as teachers have been subject to for the last 12 years.
It ain't going to happen for several reasons. One, the rank and file of the NYPD is mostly male. Two, no one is afraid of the UFT and Mike Mulgrew. And third, they just haven't gotten to the uniformed services yet, but they will when they are done with us.
Oh one more thing. Can Sharpton just go very far away? Please?
3 comments:
Superb post - keep streaming - no writers block here. I was hoping to write this exact type of piece. Glad you did it - saved me the work.
You "spoke my mind." I don't think the protests against police brutality fueled this young man. He was ill. He had run-ins with the law, previously tried to kill himself and shot his ex-girlfriend hours before.
The head of the police union possibly put de Blasio, Holder, and Obama in harm's way by "pointing the finger" at them. Also, police officers turned their backs to their Mayor. That's disrespectful and their union rank should have spoken out against that form of "protest" while ON THE JOB or in uniform!
10:20,
No one can really say what causes a mentally ill person to pick a target. The attention brought on by the protests certainly brought it to the forefront of his mind, right after his girlfriend. I believe the police did the right thing turning their backs to DeBlasio. We should have done that to Bloomberg, but no one in our union has a spine.
Post a Comment