Retrain police, NYC mayor says
Channel anger over chokehold death into change, he says
NEW YORK — One day after a grand jury declined to indict a New York police officer in the death of Eric Garner, prompting angry protests and calls for change from elected officials, Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday announced the start of a significant retraining of the nation’s largest police force.
De Blasio said the grand jury’s decision had focused the public’s attention on the relationship between the police and the public.
“Fundamental questions are being asked, and rightfully so,” he said. “The way we go about policing has to change.”
The de Blasio administration did not immediately explain in detail what the training would entail or how the city would cover the cost.
Addressing the reaction Wednesday to the grand jury’s decision, de Blasio said he understood people’s frustration and called on them to channel that anger into working for change.
“People need to know that black lives and brown lives matter as much as white lives,” he said.
Police Commissioner William Bratton said the retraining would require some 22,000 officers to complete a three-day course.
The program, beginning this month, is modeled on the periodic required firearms retraining that all officers must regularly undergo. Bratton first announced the departmentwide retraining effort in the wake of Garner’s death. He provided further details at a City Council hearing in September, including learning “de-escalation” techniques.
On Thursday, 1st Deputy Benjamin Tucker provided a broad outline of what officers would be taught in each of the three days. The program — which includes teaching on street tactics as well as presenting a “nonjudgmental” posture — was a kind of “refresher” from what officers learn at the Police Academy, Bratton said.
President Barack Obama, speaking Thursday, said he talked with de Blasio about what was happening in New York and that he would continue to work to shape national changes.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, speaking in a radio interview, said he would seek a broad review of New York’s criminal justice system, including matters such as police training and the grand jury process, in the legislative session that begins in January.
But even as protesters promised to take to the streets once again Thursday night, others faulted the response of elected officials, including de Blasio, saying they were too critical of the police and could undermine public safety.
Patrick Lynch, the president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, assailed de Blasio, saying officers around the city felt he had thrown them “under the bus.”
“What we did not hear, is that you cannot resist arrest,” Lynch said.
“If the mayor wants to change policies and wants us to stand down against crime, then say that,” he added. “It’s his policies that we go out and we enforce and the laws of the state of New York.”
In one of his first actions as mayor, de Blasio settled the city’s long-running legal battle over the department’s excessive use of stop-and-frisk tactics and agreed to institute a series of changes mandated by a federal judge.
One change ordered by the court was that the city begin a pilot program to outfit officers with body cameras.
The mayor and police commissioner embraced the proposal and moved to get the pilot running sooner than mandated. Some 60 officers around the city will begin wearing the cameras as soon as today, de Blasio announced this week.
The judge also ordered the appointment of a monitor to develop, in consultation with the parties, a widespread overhaul of the department’s “policies, training, supervision, monitoring and discipline regarding stop-and-frisk.”
However, legal battles have kept some of the changes from being instituted, and others have been stalled simply because of the difficulty of overhauling a department with 35,000 officers.
In July, police confronted Garner, who was accused of selling individual cigarettes illegally. Much of the encounter was caught on video, with a white police officer placing him in a chokehold and wrestling him to the ground.
Garner could be heard pleading, “I can’t breathe.” Several officers then pinned him on the pavement. He died a short time later. His death was ruled a homicide by the city’s medical examiner, who said it was the direct result of the chokehold and the compression of his chest by police officers.
Shortly after the grand jury’s decision in the Garner case Wednesday, protesters took to the streets using Garner’s last words as a rallying cry.
On Thursday, protests drew thousands of people in New York, Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Washington.
In New York, several groups of protesters roamed through Lower Manhattan, causing lanes to be closed on the Brooklyn Bridge and the West Side Highway and at the Holland Tunnel. In Times Square, protesters stood behind a police barricade chanting, “NYPD, KKK, how many kids have you killed today?”
In Washington, demonstrators marched along major streets near the White House as the Obamas celebrated the lighting of the White House Christmas Tree.