As mouthpiece and elected president of the union representing rank-and-file police officers in New York City, Pat Lynch has made inflammatory rhetoric a cornerstone of his decade-long run as top man of the Patrolmen‘s Benevolent Association. Lynch’s made-for-TV venom is usually reserved for criminals who harm or kill cops and a justice system that sometimes fails to punish ’em fast enough and harsh enough to satisfy Lynch’s throw-away-the-key desires.
Lynch’s latest salvo however brings danger and shame to the 24-thousand members he represents. By explicitly blaming Mayor Bill de Blasio for the tragic ambush murders of two cops in Bed-Stuy a week ago Saturday, Lynch made a claim so vile and reckless, he makes himself and the PBA’s membership look irresponsibly desperate to gain leverage in the midst of stalled contract negotiations. Unless Lynch fully and quickly retracts his statement that the mayor has “blood on his hands” for the killings of two police officers, Lynch will be strapped with responsibility for a burdensome downward spiral in the NYPD’s credibility in some neighborhoods where its relationship is already in a delicate spot.
It was this fragile imbalance of policing power in poorer neighborhoods that was spotlighted by de Blasio during a campaign to fill an office that has for too long automatically genuflected to the NYPD. The current mayor was elected in part because of the hope that policing tactics deemed discriminatory and/or overly heavy handed or distrustful would be moderated and debated for their overall effectiveness.
When the Staten Island D-A failed to get an indictment in the Garner case, de Blasio couldn’t help but feel a connection with those upset and hurt by that outcome. De Blasio said something that in retrospect he may now regret. The mayor spoke about conversations with his son that spotlighted the plight of the black city dweller and interaction with the NYPD.
This infuriated Lynch. But instead of digesting the anecdote and considering whether the sentiment is worthy of analysis, the union boss sought to retaliate by making a huge fuss. Against the backdrop of contract negotiations with the city in stall mode, Lynch got macabre and urged the rank and file to sign a document that would bar the mayor from attending their funeral should they be killed in the line of duty. When officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were murdered just a week later, Lynch had stirred up sentiment such that cops turned their back on de Blasio when he turned up at the hospital where the policemen were rushed and pronounced dead.
A week after that – at the Ramos funeral – a sea of blue outside the church again turned their back on the mayor. This time, they did it in big numbers – in unison – turning 180-degrees away from a video screen projecting the television feed of the mayor as he offered a eulogy. This is Lynch’s doing. And it only worsens the environment Lynch’s own membership must work in. While it does convey a message of disapproval over de Blasio’s comment about distrust of police by people of color, it crosses the line of civility and inflames the broader tension connected to current events whether fully informed or not.
De Blasio has gone on about official business without revealing frustration over the simmering police hostility and stunning public displays of revolt. I believe the mayor knows he’ll prevail as public opinion moves in his favor and against the sophomoric strategy used by Lynch. A Times editorial in Tuesday’s newspaper was uncharacteristically harsh but on the mark with its assessment of the Lynch-led stunts meant to humiliate the mayor. It said in part: “With these acts of passive-aggressive contempt and self-pity, many New York police officers, led by their union, are squandering the department’s credibility, defacing its reputation, shredding its hard-earned respect. They have taken the most grave and solemn of civic moments – a funeral of a fallen colleague – and hijacked it for their own look-at-us gesture. In doing so, they also turned their backs on Mr. Ramos‘s widow and her two young sons, and others in that grief-struck family.”
This is not to say the mayor doesn’t deserve some heat from the police. He stubbornly defended overpaid staffer Rachel Noerdlinger despite her family’s toxic history of disrespect for law and order. There was the Dante comment post-Garner and then an aura of detachment when an element of the protest movement went overboard with anti-police chants and disobedience/aggression. But through it all, de Blasio has attempted to balance his views and policies on law enforcement’s role in the community. His commissioner Bill Bratton has done an exceptional job giving the citizenry space to react to the Garner injustice even when a Times Square action ended with fake blood splattered all over the commish. When De Blasio struggles to find words or proper tone during crises related to law enforcement, Bratton seems to know how and when to step in without undermining his boss.
If Lynch doesn’t retract his blood on hands statement and call for an end to the Blue’s back-turning before Liu’s funeral this Sunday, you’ll know he’s more concerned about a contract than the toxic city-wide dynamic he’s created with his rhetoric. Union bosses like Lynch don’t often retreat but if he doesn’t, his members ought to toss ’em aside before this gets much worse.