LIBERALS IMPOSE ENDLESS NEW RESTRAINTS ON NYPD COPS

Will the City Council ever stop aiming to kneecap the NYPD?

By Editorial Board

New York Post
June 17. 2017

With crime at record lows and anti-police activists (and pols) emboldened, don’t be surprised if someone soon tries to scrap the NYPD altogether.

After all, it already seems that with each passing day the city takes yet another step toward rendering cops powerless.

New rules, for instance, block police from cracking down on minor crimes: People caught peeing or drinking in public, blasting music or committing other such offenses will, in most cases, not be charged with a crime. At most, they may be asked to attend an administrative hearing.

It’s the first big rollback of Giuliani-era “Broken Windows” policing. By targeting minor offenses, that approach helped to restore order in troubled areas and to drive down crime dramatically.

Naturally, weakening Broken Windows now risks a backslide.

“It’s just going to make crime go up,” one high-ranking police source told The Post. Certainly, quality of life will tank as lawbreakers no longer fear getting a rap sheet.

Meanwhile, a City Council bill would force top brass to reveal key anti-terror secrets, even to terrorists.

The department would have to issue reports disclosing the type of spying tools (phone trackers, license-plate readers, etc.) cops use, how such tools work and what the NYPD does with sensitive info collected.

The New York Civil Liberties Union is also suing to get police to reveal similar crime- and terror-fighting info.

Are these people nuts? As NYPD counterterrorism boss John Miller notes, cops would be compiling “a blueprint for those seeking to do harm.” That would “endanger police officers’ lives” and “the lives of citizens who may be caught in either criminal activity or terrorist attacks.”

Then there’s the new NYPD order forbidding cops from entering a home over a noise complaint, unless residents let them. Before, officers could confiscate music and other equipment. Now, the best they can do is return the next day with a summons.

What better way to ensure that neighbors are subject to roof-racking noise all night and to let house parties careen out of control?

The consequences can be deadly. Cops this month were barred from a home in Queens where a loud party triggered calls to police. After they left, a 21-year-old man was shot and left paralyzed.

All this, on top of numerous other measures to handcuff cops: New rules for stopping, questioning and frisking suspects, which have all but eliminated this basic policing tactic. The scrapping of an anti-terror intel-gathering unit. Two new NYPD watchdogs — an inspector general and a court-appointed monitor.

Despite all this, The Finest have kept the city safer than ever. April saw total crimes drop 6.8 percent from last year; murders fell from 28 to 20 (about 29 percent). And that month followed the safest first quarter on record.

Question is: Does low crime justify endless new restraints on cops? The city may be about to find out.