Can a cop’s job get any harder?

TUESDAY IS THE BIG DAY

The big day for the NYPD is coming this Tuesday, January 30th.  Every New Yorker and everyone living in a liberal city should be paying attention.  The New York City Council is set to vote to override Eric Adam’s veto of both the “How Many Stops Act” and the “Ban Solitary Confinement Act”.

The How Many Stops Acts requires NYPD cops to document almost every time they initiate any contact with a citizen.  They need to document any Level 1 and above interaction.  A Level 1 interaction is anytime a cop requests information from a civilian for a credible reason.  This would encompass questions like; “Are there any problems in your building?”, “Did you see a guy with a red jacket run past here?”, and “Did you hear anything about the robbery that occurred yesterday?”.  Basic conversations that police have dozens of times a day.  This would discourage cops from interacting with the community and tie them up filling out form and compiling data.  Do you remember when the City Council outlawed the Stop, Question, and Frisk database?  Now they want one.

For decades liberals pushed for community-based policing.  When Bill Bratton returned to the NYPD in 2014, he moved the entire department to a community-based model of policing.  It wasn’t a program; It was a sea change for the entire department.  Bratton’s idea appeared to be both what liberals like DeBlasio wanted, AND it worked.  Of course, after Bratton’s departure, DeBlasio and the City Council tore it down, little by little.  This bill may be the final nail in that coffin.  Cops will stay in their cars, loose valuable relationships, and miss critical intelligence about community problems and future crimes. 

The Solitary Confinement Act prohibits perps in the custody of the New York City Department of Corrections to be placed in solitary confinement.  This law requires that all people in city custody would have at least 14 hours of out-of-cell time in shared spaces.  I think we can agree that solitary confinement is not a good thing.  But, sometimes, in extreme situations, it is necessary for the safety of everyone in the facility – including the person in solitary.  It should not be a long-term solution, but facts are facts.  Some of the more dangerous people in city jails need to be separated.

Perhaps the City Council should have had more oversight of the billion dollars spent on mental health initiatives under DeBlasio and ensured that our taxes were spent on useful programs.  The $1 billion that de Blasio endowed to his wife and the ThriveNYC mental health program seems to have disappeared along with his marriage.  One can only imagine what an audit of that program might turn up.  

Every New Yorker should contact their city councilperson and demanding that they don’t vote to override Mayor Adam’s veto.  Every person in the country should be contacting their representatives and ensuring they are not considering similar laws in their jurisdictions.   As we all know, bad ideas seem to be contagious these days. 

You can CLICK HERE for a list of city council contacts. Give them a piece of your mind.

CITY COUNCIL CAR STOP

Yusef Salaam got a second chance at life.  After confessing to assaulting the Central Park Jogger, Trisha Meili with a pipe, he was convicted and sent to prison.  His case was later expunged, and he was given a second chance at life. Salaam was not beaten by police on the night of his confession.  There is no evidence he was threatened with violence.  But false confessions do happen.  What he did that night is still a mystery as there were numerous assaults committed in the park by a group of 30-40 youths. Regardless, new evidence showed that his Central Park Jogger conviction should have been overturned, another man confessed. 

We were hoping he would put his past behind him and move forward to improving the city.  Being in the City Council for about a month, he recently had another run in with the NYPD.  Getting stopped for driving a car with illegally tinted windows (a very minor offense, but one that effects cop’s safety) he made a big deal about it. 

Immediately he identified himself as City Councilman Yusef Salaam.  This was clearly an attempt to use his position to get out of a summons.  And he didn’t get one.  He was treated with respect and immediately let go.  Didn’t even need to show ID. 

What really happened here was that the two cops pulled over a car with very dark tinted windows.  When they saw that the driver was a man with his family who was clearly not a criminal, they let him go on the spot. 

But Salaam couldn’t leave it there.  He lied to the public about the car stop.  He said he asked why he was stopped, and the officer wouldn’t tell him.  Not true.  He never asked.  Not only that, but he admitted to committing another violation by being on a Zoom call while driving.  That is not safe at all.  Salaam’s car also had Georgia plates – begging the question as to where it is registered (it is illegal to live in New York and register your car out-of-state, but many people do it to keep their insurance costs down).

Doubling down on his lie to the public, Salaam cancelled his ride along with the NYPD.  A show of false outrage we guess.  No doubt Salaam will be voting to override the mayor’s veto of the How Many Stops Act.  Pretending the car stop was the impetus for that is more baloney. 

We give credit to Mayor Adams and the NYPD brass for decrying Salaam’s allegations and sticking up for the cop involved.  It’s nice to see cops getting the support of politicians and the department.  This was a no brainer, but cops around the country need more of that. 

Thanks for reading The Ops Desk. Stay Safe!

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