A NY Post editorial
The NY Post editorial:
The Rev. Al Sharpton’s march today in Staten Island is meant to slam New York’s Finest. We’ll say it flat out: We support the cops.
Unequivocally.
Better The Rev & Co. turn their march into a parade to celebrate the NYPD — and how the department, almost single-handedly, turned this city around. (Notwithstanding efforts to the contrary by rabble-rousing self-promoters like Sharpton.)
How ironic that the reverend titled his bit of street theater a “We Will Not Go Back” march. Because that’s precisely what he wants the city to do: return to the ugly days when cops failed to control crime, chaos ruled and the city was barely livable.
Only two decades ago, the city saw 2,245 people murdered in a single year. That’s more than six lives a day — and most of those were the lives of blacks and Hispanics. Moms and dads had their kids sleep in bathtubs to avoid stray bullets.
Today, thanks to the men and women in blue, this year the average is less than one murder a day. Think of all the lives, minority lives, that have been saved.
There were just 333 homicides in 2013 – a 50 year low. And 2014 is looking to be even smaller.
Even beyond that, New York’s Police Department made the city livable. It has made it possible for people to run businesses here and live their lives without daily dread.
Are there some bad cops? No question. Are there police-related tragedies in a city where 35,000 uniformed officers interact with 8.5 million residents 23 million times a year? Who would expect otherwise?
But think about what the city asks of these men and women: To walk up a dark flight of stairs in some seedy building searching for armed bandits who might shoot at any moment. To break up gang violence and get weapons off the street from thugs who’d rather not give them up.
And, yes, to improve the quality of life for average New Yorkers.
The war between Mayor De Blasio and the NYPD has continued, with thousands of officers turning their back on him at the funeral of a slain officer.