New York Police Commissioner Confirms Work Slowdown By Officers

[inanna]

Source: NPR

New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton confirmed there had been a work slowdown by officers in the weeks since two police officers were shot dead, but added the matter was being corrected.

"We've been taking management initiatives to identify where it's occurring; when it's occurring," Bratton told NPR's Robert Siegel. "I think the officers themselves have on their own been beginning to return to normal patterns of work so, we're coming out of what was a pretty widespread stoppage of certain types of activity."

The comments come days after Patrick Lynch, the head of the Patrolman's Benevolent Association, told Siegel there was no slow down. He attributed the decline in crime statistics — arrests and summonses for minor offenses are down dramatically – to the New York Police Department doubling up its foot patrols and patrol cars after the Dec. 20 shooting deaths of Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos.

Bratton's response today: "That would be one factor in terms of the decline of some of the numbers, but it would in no way influence significantly the overall dropoff of activity."

Read more: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/01/09/376174815/new-york-police-commissioner-confirms-work-slowdown-by-officers?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news

[Aristus]

1. Take their badges already.

In the military, if soldiers refuse to fight because a few of them are killed, that's called mutiny. Fire those soft-bellied, doughnut-munching time-servers, and hire some people with some integrity and work-ethic...

[branford]

2. Oh boy . . .

The police are civilians. Not only are they clearly not subject to the extra scrutiny or lack of fundamental rights of active duty military, they receive the substantial protections provided to both public employees and union members in a strong pro-labor state, although they are not allowed to strike. Accordingly, both for legal and political reasons, no officer is going to be disciplined, no less terminated.

A work slow-down is also a classic union collective action to highlight and enforce labor rights and solidarity. Do not forget that the PBA has been working without a contract for 5 years, and their negotiations have reached the ugly stage of mandatory arbitration. When you complain about union members engaged in quintessential union conduct as " soft-bellied, doughnut-munching time-servers, and hire some people with some integrity and work-ethic...," prepared for conservatives and Republicans to use this same argument and terminology to attack more sympathetic unions when they engage in similar activities or when they attempt to pass new labor restrictions such as right-to-work laws. Next time teachers or nurses threaten a strike or slow-down, and our children, sick and elderly are at risk, will you also talk about "mutiny?"

Lastly, note that the slow-down only concerns arrests and citations for very minor offenses and traffic violations, and no one is really in any increased danger. The city has always publicly maintained there are no quotas on these matters, despite widespread doubt and city reliance on the substantial fines collected for the city budget. If the city were attempt discipline any of the officers, the union would file multiple grievances and lawsuits, and engage in discovery and depositions about the quota system. The city will NOT allow that to happen, and the union knows this. I wish all unions were as shrewd and determined.

You talk tough. Now, do you actually have a plan to "take their badges" that could survive judicial scrutiny and wouldn't result in Mayor deBlasio's political suicide?

[Bandit]

4. Be prepared for Conservatives to use same argument

Where have you been for the last five decades? Conservatives have been using this argument for at least that long. When air traffic control persons tried a slowdown they were summarliy fired by Reagan to much applause from the Right. Conservatives have been using every argument against Unions EXCEPT for the Police Union. Just this past year in Wisconsin the Public Union employees were stripped of many of their rights EXCEPT for the Police. They were given special exemption. Why is that do you think?

[branford]

5. The conservative arguments were wrong then, and they are wrong now.

I'm always perplexed and saddened when purportedly pro-labor and pro-union Democrats and liberals start sounding like Ronald Reagan and Scott Walker when discussing police unions. Not only is it hypocritical, but it's a divide and conquer strategy that the right would happily embrace. Don't doubt for a minute that Republicans would abandon the few conservative unions like the police in order trample all union rights and gains.

[avebury]

3. The "slowdown" probably has the end result of

making the streets safer for everyone else.