Bail rev. call’s OK by Bratt
HIZZONER CAN call anyone in the NYPD — at any time he wants — and the city’s top cop doesn’t need to know about it right away.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton — speaking for the first time about Mayor de Blasio’s call to inquire about the arrest of a well-connected minister — said he has no qualms with how things went down.
“I have no problem with it whatsoever. None whatsoever. He can call anybody he wants any time he wants,” Bratton said Tuesday at a press conference with de Blasio on traffic safety.
Bratton said he didn’t think the mayor’s call last week to NYPD Deputy Chief Kim Royster about Bishop Orlando Findlayter influenced the precinct commander’s decision to let him go free — despite a pair of outstanding warrants.
Sgt. Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, said the minister shouldhave gone to jail.
“We don’t let you go. You’re not supposed to let them go. It’s a court order from a judge,” he said after the pastor was sprung from the precinct with a desk appearance ticket. “We can’t circumvent that. This is not a common practice. But I get it. I realize you’re the mayor and you got all kinds of friends.”
Findlayter, who served on de Blasio’s inaugural committee, was arrested on Feb. 10 in Brooklyn after cops who pulled him over for a traffic stop found his license was suspended due to a lapse in car insurance. Police later learned he had outstanding warrants stemming from an arrest at an October immigration protest.
Bratton found out about the incident the next morning — and insisted he was fine with that.
“I’m known as the ‘great delegator.’ So if I had a precinct commander that can’t resolve an issue of this type on his or her own, I’d be basically questioning that precinct commander’s capabilities.”