The time has come for reflection – not polarizing rhetoric – on what the murders of two police officers mean for Queens and the rest of the city. We have lost two men who dedicated their lives to protecting us from petty crime and random violence as part of New York’s ascent from the dark days of the 1980s.
New York is a much kinder, gentler place than it was 30 years ago when crack ruled the streets and Officer Eddie Bryne was gunned down inside his patrol car in South Jamaica on the orders of a jailed drug lord in 1988. With the dramatic drop in crime has come pressure from Mayor Bill de Blasio and other New Yorkers to reform some of the police practices used to rein in criminals during much more dangerous times.
The death of Eric Garner, a black man, in Staten Island from a chokehold applied by a white detective brought the tension between the mayor and the police into bold relief. De Blasio’s perspective has been shaped by his role as the husband of a black woman and the father of two biracial children. Like President Obama, he has feet in both worlds and views race from a more nuanced vantage point than most of us.
The Police Benevolent Association has interpreted the mayor’s stance as a direct affront to the NYPD, but it appears to be more of an effort on de Blasio’s part to balance minorities’ rights with modifying police tactics. The mayor has made it clear many times that he supports the police.
PBA President Patrick Lynch said de Blasio “has blood on his hands” in the fatal shootings of the two officers in Brooklyn. It is counterproductive to parcel out blame for the tragic behavior of the mentally unhinged gunman who may have come to New York from Baltimore because it was closer than Ferguson, Mo.
We are heartbroken over the deaths of the two officers, which have deeply wounded this city.
Queens, which is home to many NYPD officers who patrol the streets, and the other boroughs are at a crossroads.
“The city is tired and needs to heal,” Borough President Melinda Katz told the paper Tuesday, saying the mourning must be followed by open discussions on the distrust between communities and the police across the city.
The best way we can honor the two officers’ memory and comfort their families is to turn down the volume on the inflammatory rants and do some serious soul-searching about how Queens can help bridge that rift.
