- Title: Police association calls to remove de Blasio over officer firing
- Date: 19th August 2019
- Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 19, 2019) (REUTERS) POLICE BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT, PATRICK LYNCH, SPEAKING TO REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) POLICE BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT, PATRICK LYNCH, SAYING: "It's absolutely essential that the world know that the New York City Police Department is rudderless and frozen. The leadership has abandoned ship and left our police officers on the street, alone without backing." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) POLICE BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT, PATRICK LYNCH, SAYING: "There is no confidence, no confidence in the leadership at City Hall and at One Police Plaza. We are following up that, with a call to the governor to have the mayor removed from office for malfeasance and nonfeasance. He abandoned his post. He refuses to do his job, and, has joined the anti-police rhetoric that we already know got two police officers killed, now has caused the street to disrespect our uniform and the women and men wearing it." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) POLICE BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT, PATRICK LYNCH, SAYING: "This mayor needs to be removed. The police commissioner needs to know he's lost his police department." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ATTORNEY FOR FIRED POLICE OFFICER DANIEL PANTALEO, STUART LONDON, SAYING: "I spoke to the officer. Obviously he is disappointed, upset, but has a lot of strength and is, wants to go forward as strenuously as he can. I think it's obvious that unfortunately although he wanted to stay as an officer, we all realize that his ability to be an enforcement officer was severely compromised based on the last five years." (SOUNDBITE) (English) POLICE BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT, PATRICK LYNCH, SAYING: "One of the things we know is to turn the flag upside down is that we're in distress. Our police officers are in distress - not because they have a difficult job, not because they put themselves in danger, because they realize they're abandoned. The captain has jumped ship. The mayor told them to do it, and the streets are falling into chaos."
- Embargoed: 2nd September 2019 19:47
- Keywords: Eric Garner I can't breathe New York Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo Gwen Carr Police Benevolent Association Mayor Bill De Blasio
- Location: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- City: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Crime/Law/Justice
- Reuters ID: LVA001ASVXA2V
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:The head of the New York police union on Monday (August 19) condemned the decision to fire the white officer who used a deadly chokehold on Eric Garner while trying to arrest him in 2014, saying the commissioner gave in to political pressure and that his decision would put officers at greater risk.
"It is absolutely essential that the world know that the New York Police Department is rudderless and frozen," Patrick Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association, told a news conference. "The leadership has abandoned ship and left our street officers on the street alone, without backing.
"This mayor needs to be removed. The police commissioner needs to know he has lost the police department," Lynch said.
Lynch gestured to an upside down NYPD flag behind him, saying, "we're in distress."
"Our police officers are in distress - not because they have a difficult job, not because they put themselves in danger, because they realize they're abandoned. The captain has jumped ship. The mayor told them to do it, and the streets are falling into chaos."
Garner's death, and the slow-moving investigations that followed, have generated some of the harshest criticisms of Mayor Bill de Blasio during his tenure and have spilled over into his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The case tested the liberal mayor's relationships with both civil rights activists, who have long complained that the city's black and Latino residents are harassed by police, and the rank-and-file police officers who work for him, some of whom say they have been made scapegoats by his office.
De Blasio said at a news conference there was fair process and justice was done in the Pantaleo firing.
"Today will not bring Eric Garner back, but I hope it brings some small measure of closure and peace to the Garner family. Now we have to look beyond this tragedy because our city is at a pivotal moment," he said.
(Production: Andrew Hofstetter, Catherine Koppel) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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