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NYPD Union Chief: City Hall Unwilling To Mend Rift


lynchCity Hall is leaderless and unwilling to address the concerns of officers who feel unsupported by New York City’s mayor, the head of the union representing rank-and-file police officers told reporters Wednesday.

Following a meeting with NYPD Commissioner William Bratton at One Police Plaza about officer safety, Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch — speaking on behalf of the unions representing detectives, sergeants, lieutenants and captains — said he doesn’t have an issue with police department officials but rather with the mayor.

“We don’t believe that there is a willingness on the part of City Hall to solve these problems,” Lynch said. “The solutions will come from the leaders who are here. We wish there was a leader in City Hall.”

Tension toward the mayor’s office has increased among the unions since the brazen Dec. 20 daylight shootings of two police officers on a Brooklyn street by an emotionally disturbed gunman who later killed himself.

The night of their deaths, Lynch and other union officials turned their backs to de Blasio at a hospital — an act mimicked by hundreds of other officers at subsequent funerals for the slain men. The unions say de Blasio helped create an environment that allowed the killings by supporting protesters demonstrating after the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers in Ferguson, Missouri, and on Staten Island.

Police officials had no comment Wednesday.

In a statement, mayoral spokesman Phil Walzak said: “The mayor is committed to keeping crime at historically low levels, supporting the brave men and women of the NYPD who protect us every day, and bringing the police and community closer together.”

Lynch also insisted that officers are doing their jobs despite statistics showing a steep decline in enforcement activity since the shootings, sparking rumors of a work slowdown. Lynch has repeatedly said there’s been no formal work action. He pointed to the shootings of two officers Monday who were wounded responding to a robbery in the Bronx as evidence of police activity.

But enforcement rates are undeniably down. Last week, the number of summonses for minor criminal offenses and traffic and parking violations decreased by more than 90 percent and arrests citywide for more serious offenses were down 55 percent. Those drops in activity are rippling through the criminal justice system: Jail admissions were down 41 percent last week compared to the same period the year before.

Police unions currently are negotiating contracts with the city; some have reached agreements.

(AP)



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