Friday Links
Police Commish to Put More Minority Officers in Top Posts [NY Times] R Train Voted the Dirtiest by Straphangers [NY Times] Federal Dollars for More Police Hires [NY Post] Man Bites Ear in Greenpoint [NY Post] Parents Rip Firing of Slope Principal [NY Daily News] MTA Needs $600M to Keep Going [NY Daily News] Lady…
Police Commish to Put More Minority Officers in Top Posts [NY Times]
R Train Voted the Dirtiest by Straphangers [NY Times]
Federal Dollars for More Police Hires [NY Post]
Man Bites Ear in Greenpoint [NY Post]
Parents Rip Firing of Slope Principal [NY Daily News]
MTA Needs $600M to Keep Going [NY Daily News]
Lady Liberty Stolen from Vox Pop [NY Daily News]
Bushwick Lot Turns Golf Course [NY Daily News]
Public Pools in Brooklyn Now Open [Brooklyn Paper]
Photo by Idle Type.
“I could be wrong but my belief is that the officers who shot would have done the same if Officer Edwards were white, running down the street with a firearm. ”
You would be wrong, BG, cuz it’s never happened. Black cops always consider the possibilty that an armed white man may be a cop, fed, or permitted civilian, and hold fire. White cops see a black man with a gun as a criminal.
“They must think and act fast.It is impossible for any human being, highly trained or not, to be psychic in a split second.”
bg, the problem is that black officers do not shoot white undercovers. White officers do. Therein lies the problem.
malcats- a white man running down the street with a firearm and no id as an officer isn’t a good idea either. I could be wrong but my belief is that the officers who shot would have done the same if Officer Edwards were white, running down the street with a firearm. rookies and cops are supposed to follow a specific procedure in situations like this where they are out of uniform. When they don’t, tragic mistakes are made.
Yes, dittoburg it is a step in the right direction. There is no denying that. However it must be followed up by and supported by other components in order for any plan produce positive results. I just hate this type of headliner impling that this would be a major component in solving the problem that caused the death of Officer Edwards.
To answer your other question, given the current culture of NYPD, I do not think that this move will necessarily create more likelihood that NYC will end up with a population of high ranking officers who serve and engage in decision making without keeping their biases in check.
In the case of the officer killed in Harlem. I believe that he first saw himself as a NYPD officer who had been a victim of a crime and his authority as an officer took offense to that first and foremost – that NYPD culture I mentioned. That state of mind obscured what should have common sense for him as a “minority officer” – a black man, running down the streets of NY with a firearm with no clearly visible sign of being law-enforcement – not a good idea and was a fatal mistake.
I agree, dittoburg. I would also say that officers do get sensitivity training and like every other police officer in the US they get training in how to identify someone who may be about to or is engaged in a criminal act. They must think and act fast.It is impossible for any human being, highly trained or not, to be psychic in a split second. We ask so much of our cops, but they aren’t superhuman. Cops have some of the highest rates of suicide and alcoholism- yet people assume the worst of them.
Kelly took the right first steps- I hope it helps.
but malcat, don’t you think with more minorities in top positions, i.e. the positions that decide what training is going to be done, that there is more chance that what you ask for will get done? Surely its a step in the right direction.
I suppose I would buy this if I actually thought it would be affective in combating the type of poor judgement (on both parties – the officer that was fired upon and the officer who shot him) and institutionalized racism that lead to the death of Officer Edwards and the others that preceded him.
More minority officers in top posts does not necessarily equal fewer race related mistakes on the part of NYPD. People of common racial backgrounds are just as capable of practicing and perpetuating racism against members of their own race! And we have all witnessed it. Is Kelly that naive or does he think the general public is just that gullible?
There must be a major overhaul in how officers are trained: black, white, asian, hispanic . . . engaging in some major sensitivity training along with a shift in how the NYPD approaches and views the citizens of this city or this will happen yet again.
The MTA needing 600 million after giving away the rail yards to Ratner w/o any competitive review leaves me utterly speechless.
I like the Greenpoint story – man gets ear bitten for insulting someones hometown in Poland.