Brosnan Risk Consultants: The NYPD is under attack from Cuomo and De Blasio
Global security expert Patrick Brosnan in an opinion piece unpacks the criminal justice failings of New York State and the City of New York; the dismantling and disrespect of the NYPD; and how everything got worse in the midst of looting and violence during recent protests.
PEARL RIVER, N.Y., July 7, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The following is an opinion piece written by Patrick Brosnan, a former NYPD Robbery/Gun Squad Detective and current CEO of Brosnan Risk Consultants.
When I think of the alleged leader in Albany, the alleged leader in New York City's City Hall and the burning, looted husk that is New York City, I can't help but think of the Monopoly board game.
I am sure that Monopoly inventor Elizabeth Magie had no idea that Gov. Cuomo and Mayor Deblasio would take her idea for the"Get-out-of-jail-free" card literally and use it to destroy the Empire State's criminal justice system by kneeling before a leftist and law-enforcement hating ideology that thrives on hysteria and anarchy.
The gradual dismantling of New York City's criminal justice system began Jan. 1 with the embarrassingly ill-conceived Bail Elimination Act, a.k.a. Bail Reform. The impact of this sneaky little trick was swift and terrifying: robberies, shootings and burglaries skyrocketed. Sensing a return to the crime-plagued '80s and '90s, many New Yorkers were horrified and calls for the repeal, or at least reform of, the Bail Elimination Act, intensified. Those calls fell on deaf ears as handcuffs were removed from criminals and placed on police officers, prosecutors and judges. Felons were released onto the streets by the thousands.
On March 13, COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic and New York City quickly became the epicenter. Crime dropped briefly as even the bad guys knew they had to hunker down. But Politicians masquerading as compassionate reformers saw a photo op and threw the doors to the jailhouse wide open. More than 2,000 inmates, many convicted of serious felonies, were released. The number of inmates at Rikers island plummeted by 42 percent and prosecutors, salivating at an opportunity to participate in the "get out of jail free" mania, refused to press charges on many crimes, especially violent assaults on NYPD officers. The desecration of New York's Finest was gaining traction.
Then, on May 25, the indefensible killing of George Floyd threw a match on this simmering fire. Protests erupted throughout the country, many were peaceful, but opportunistic criminals looted and burned cities for days. Rioting for fun and profit was in full swing.
When the dust settled, the carnage and destruction was unprecedented. In New York City alone, 815 businesses were looted and destroyed, 478 police officers injured and 196 police vehicles torched. Lawlessness and hysteria roiled the city night after night against a backdrop of burning stores and police vehicles.
The long-feared perfect storm had arrived: a desecrated police department, empowered criminals, leadership that vilifies law enforcement, empty jails, prosecutorial indifference, streets flooded with recently-released inmates and the city rocked to its core by violent riots.
In the ashes of this madness, a new type of felon has risen: the Empowered Criminal. To be sure, he has been metastasizing for many months, nurtured by a clueless mayor who refuses to acknowledge how empowering his anti-police rhetoric and policies are to the bad guys. In recent weeks, New Yorkers have watched, with growing horror, the evolution of the Empowered Criminal: A violent attack on a police precinct, a sniper attack on two officers in the Bronx, police cars torched, officers' teeth knocked out with brass knuckles and numerous other violent and barbaric assaults on law enforcement.
The die has been cast. This is Lawless New York City. Empowered Criminals can now strut, sneering, from Staten Island to the Bronx to commit burglaries, robberies and rapes with impunity, confident in the fact they will be released without bail in a few hours. Like a time machine in a science fiction movie, the city has been hurled back to the crime-plagued '80s and '90s. In Manhattan North alone, murders have skyrocketed 87 percent. Citywide, shootings have skyrocketed a jaw-dropping 142 percent and in Deblasio's twisted version of The Summer of Love, 112 New Yorkers were shot, six dead, in the nine days leading up to June 28th.
To accelerate the desecration of New York's Finest, 600 citywide anti-crime patrols were eliminated overnight in June, reversing decades of extraordinary crime fighting. That particular bit of genius planning resulted in a 205 percent increase in shootings during the first two weeks, and nailed the credit for the bloodiest June in 24 years. To remove the men and women who actually make the gun arrests that have kept New Yorkers safe is irrational; to do so during a 142 percent increase in shootings is madness. Guns that had been hidden in garbage cans and stuffed in mailboxes and glove compartments will now be in waistbands, readily available to mete out street justice, correct a perceived slight, shoot an innocent New Yorker or kill a cop.
I do not make this observation as an academic, but as a field practitioner who, in the '80s and '90s, personally arrested over 900 felons and seized over 300 loaded guns as a robbery detective in the south Bronx. I had a front row seat then, and now, to how barbaric this city can become when its police are debased and the fundamental tenets of law enforcement desecrated.
The completion of the desecration of New York's Finest occurred on June 7th when the Mayor caved in overnight to the terrifying and irrational calls to defund the NYPD. Overnight, $1.5 billion dollars vanished from the NYPD's budget. Reminiscent of the fiscal crisis of the 1970s, this knee-jerk response to the rallying masses delivered a crushing blow to the NYPD, further shattering morale and bringing hiring to a screeching halt.
Reductions to the NYPD's operating budget have very serious consequences and therefore demand measured and pragmatic assessment, not emotion-driven acquiescence. Reduced or eliminated police services at any time place New Yorkers in danger; doing so during an unprecedented increase in violent crime is reckless and very dangerous. The proof is in the pudding: 37 New Yorkers shot and three killed in 18 hours on the July 4 weekend — the 2020 Summer of Love in Lawless New York City.
The desecration of a storied and legendary police department is now complete. New York City is on very thin ice and, if history is any indicator, New Yorkers may look back wistfully at July 2020 as "the good old days." The Big Apple has been cored.
Patrick J. Brosnan is a retired NYPD Detective and the CEO and founder of Brosnan Risk Consultants, a national security and intelligence firm headquartered in NY
SOURCE LCM247
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