I’ve got officers’ ‘backs’: civil-rights lawyer
In an unlikely alliance, the former head of the New York Civil Liberties Union is offering to act as a probono lawyer — for cops.
Norman Siegel, the exdirector of the NYCLU and now a private civilrights lawyer, offered Sunday to represent NYPD cops for free if they are disciplined or receive any department backlash for turning their backs on the mayor at two slain officers’ funerals.
“They have the right by the First Amendment to do what they did,” Siegel said during a meeting in Brooklyn about how to improve police and community relations.
“I would defend any officer who was brought up on charges for what they did, even at the funeral,” he said, referencing the services for the two assassinated cops — Detectives Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos — where officers turned their backs in silent protest as Mayor de Blasio spoke.
Cops have said they engaged in the protest to decry what they perceive as de Blasio’s antipolice stance.
Their union leaders also have urged them to sign a petition to keep Hizzoner away from their funerals if they should be killed in the line of duty.
Siegel said that if officers sign the petition and face backlash, he’d represent them in that, too.
C.J. Sullivan, Sophia Rosenbaum
Forget Pat Lynch, the outspoken head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association who has been such a thorn in Bill de Blasio’s side. The man the mayor really has to worry about is the one looming in his rearview mirror, Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
Early last year, the governor intervened to save New York’s charter schools and keep our progressive new mayor from using universal preK as an excuse to jack up taxes. The result was a humiliation for de Blasio.
Our progressive mayor doesn’t seem to have learned his lesson. This year begins much the way last year did: with the threat of intervention from the governor on a key issue, in this case the NYPD. Ed Mullins, head of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, says he’s written off de Blasio — and will this week reach out to Cuomo.
The governor hasn’t yet said yes. But in contrast to the mayor, he refused to condemn PBA chief Lynch. In addition, he received high marks from rankandfile officers for his spirited defense of the NYPD even before the execution of Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu.
The unions say they want a public gesture from the mayor in the form of an apology, but de Blasio is saying no dice. So long as he does, he opens the door for the governor — who has the power to replace the police commissioner — to intervene in all sorts of ways. That includes pushing through legislation that would, once again, undercut the mayor. And Gov. Cuomo would have sound reasons for doing so, given the threat to public safety.
In short, the longer the mayor resists making peace with a police force in a de facto work slowdown, the greater the threat the governor will do it for him.