Bill’s blind spots

Mayor de Blasio this week refused to accept Mike Bloomberg’s belated apology on police stop-and-frisks, years after data showed hundreds of thousands of annual stops unfairly targeted black and brown people and didn’t help drive down crime.

“[Bloomberg] didn’t care to listen to communities of color and he didn’t listen to reformers. That speaks volumes,” said the current mayor.

We wonder how posterity will judge de Blasio for his own blind spots in running the NYPD, where crime has continued to drop but a disturbing lack of transparency abides.

In early 2018, de Blasio crowed about the value of outfitting all cops with bodycams.

“We understand that body cameras change lives for the better, right now,” he said. “They ensure community members feel the power of transparency. They build trust through transparency.”

Why, then, has the NYPD failed to release video from any of the 11 deadly police-involved shootings so far this year?

Why won’t the Department swiftly hand recordings to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the body tasked to investigate police misconduct? The CCRB has 574 pending requests, a majority of them more than a month old.

Why didn’t the mayor, on whose watch the NYPD started withholding police disciplinary records, lift a finger to reverse that policy, and why hasn’t he at the very least lobbied harder for 50-a repeal? Why did City Hall prevent top cops from testifying about the law at a recent public hearing?

Bodycams and officer disciplinary records are issues communities of color and reformers want to talk about now. De Blasio’s back is turned.