The president of the detectives union in New York says police officers in the city feel ‘abandoned’ by public officials in the light of Black Lives Matter protests that have erupted nationwide.
‘There is no one supporting the police, from the governor to the mayor to the DAs to the city council,’ Paul DiGiacomo, president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association in New York, said to Fox News on Monday. ‘They feel abandoned by everyone.’
The union represents 19,000 active and retired detectives, but the police department as a whole appears to be feeling a palpable sense of anger on the streets as calls to defund the department grow louder.
New York City police personnel are feeling abandoned by public officials and the people they serve as anger builds over the department’s response to mass protests and calls to defund the department grow, the head of the detectives’ union Paul DiGiacomo said on Monday
New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea also said that pulling resources out of the NYPD would not be a good solution
‘Listen, when there is unrest and criminality out there, it never looks pretty,’ DiGiacomo said
‘Resisting arrest never looks pretty. They never show you the whole video. I challenge any elected officials who think they could do a better job with urine being thrown at them, bottles, and being shot at,’ he said.
‘If you put your hands on an NYC detective, we will pursue the highest criminal charges possible, but the DAs don’t seem to want to, so we are going to pursue civil action,’ DiGiacomo continued.
The protests, which call for criminal justice reform and greater accountability of police misconduct, began in New York two weeks ago. It has resulted in more than 700 complaints lodged against the force.
300 officers have also been injured during the sometimes violent demonstrations.
Two NYPD officers were shot and another was stabbed during the protests.
In this screen grab from a video posted to Twitter an NYPD officer is seen pulling down the mask of a protester and pepper spraying him in Brooklyn
Police make an arrest during a demonstration in New York City. There have been 700 complaints against the NYPD in the last couple of weeks
The NYPD is among one of 18,000 police departments across the country that are now under increased scrutiny following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody last month, but with 36,000 officers, it is the largest in the nation.
Videos have emerged showing NYPD officers in violent confrontations.
Some have been seen to use excessive force such as forcefully pushing people around or even using their patrol cars to break up crowds.
Two officers have been suspended after one video showed an officer pulling down a man’s face mask and pepper spraying him.
In another incident, an officer was filmed appearing to deliberately push a woman to the ground.
Footage filmed by a witness showed an NYPD officer pushing a woman so hard she was thrown back onto the street. She could be seen cradling her head immediately afterwards
A police vehicle burns during protests in response to the death of African American George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis, Minnesota police, in the Brooklyn borough of New York City
A common message being heard right now by protesters is for police departments to either be abolished or have their funding pulled but DiGiacomo says such a path would not be beneficial to the NYPD.
New York Mayor Bill De Blasio has suggested some police reforms and the possibility of moving funding away from the NYPD and toward social services
‘The only people that will suffer will be the people of the city,’ he added. ‘The NYPD is stopping crime and doing our job protecting people. Shootings are up. Homicides are up.’
New York Mayor Bill De Blasio has suggested some police reforms and the possibility of moving funding away from the NYPD and toward social services.
New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea has also stressed that pulling resources would not be good solution.
‘I think cooler heads need to sit around a table and find a way out of this,’ he said to Fox.
‘The usual thing I get hit at when I go to a community meeting is, ‘we want more cops.’ I think that is the general sentiment, but we are in a moment in time right now where we need all to come together.’