New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton abruptly announced yesterday that he would resign his position effective September 1. He had already signaled that he would not remain after the end of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s term ends in 2017. He will be taking a position in the private sector and will be replaced by James O’Neill, the department’s top chief.
So what precipitated his sudden departure? Over the his tenure crime and the homicide rate in NYC dropped dramatically but his controversial policing tactics, Compstat aka “Broken Windows”, which focused on small crime, only sowed the seeds of racial discord in the city. When he returned to his old job with the de Blasio administration in 2014, he promised he would remedy that and close the gap between the police and minority communities. He hasn’t has much success, perhaps because of his staunch defense of police officers who abuse their powers and his reluctance to discipline them.
At the same time, Bratton has been a frequent target of criticism by the city’s minority communities, particularly over high-profile civilian deaths during confrontations with city police officers. The list includes Eric Garner, who died in 2014 after cops held him in a choke hold while arresting him for selling loose cigarettes on a Staten Island street.
Activist organizations also criticized Bratton’s championing of the “broken windows” policy of policing — making arrests for minor infractions as a way to avoid the potential for major offenses in the future. Supporters of Black Lives Matter occupied City Hall Park on Monday in a demonstration calling for Bratton’s resignation.
Mr. Bratton has also had his differences with the mayor and the city council over the number of new police officers and police tactics, training, accountability and discipline. Instead of be the solution to the racial rifts that widened during Guiliani and Bloomberg administrations, the commissioner became part of the problem and an obstacle to closing the gap. Although he denies that his resignation has anything to do with the protests over the weekend calling for his resignation, it is apparent even to outside observers that those demonstrations were a contributing factor to his earlier than planned departure.
New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton abruptly announced yesterday that he would resign his position effective September 1. He had already signaled that he would not remain after the end of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s term ends in 2017. He will be taking a position in the private sector and will be replaced by James O’Neill, the department’s top chief.
So what precipitated his sudden departure? Over the his tenure crime and the homicide rate in NYC dropped dramatically but his controversial policing tactics, Compstat aka “Broken Windows”, which focused on small crime, only sowed the seeds of racial discord in the city. When he returned to his old job with the de Blasio administration in 2014, he promised he would remedy that and close the gap between the police and minority communities. He hasn’t has much success, perhaps because of his staunch defense of police officers who abuse their powers and his reluctance to discipline them.
At the same time, Bratton has been a frequent target of criticism by the city’s minority communities, particularly over high-profile civilian deaths during confrontations with city police officers. The list includes Eric Garner, who died in 2014 after cops held him in a choke hold while arresting him for selling loose cigarettes on a Staten Island street.
Activist organizations also criticized Bratton’s championing of the “broken windows” policy of policing — making arrests for minor infractions as a way to avoid the potential for major offenses in the future. Supporters of Black Lives Matter occupied City Hall Park on Monday in a demonstration calling for Bratton’s resignation.
Mr. Bratton has also had his differences with the mayor and the city council over the number of new police officers and police tactics, training, accountability and discipline. Instead of be the solution to the racial rifts that widened during Guiliani and Bloomberg administrations, the commissioner became part of the problem and an obstacle to closing the gap. Although he denies that his resignation has anything to do with the protests over the weekend calling for his resignation, it is apparent even to outside observers that those demonstrations were a contributing factor to his earlier than planned departure.