On July 6, a New York City Police Department officer said he was called to the scene of a stabbing: “We had a perp with a knife in a hotel room with three other people.” In the past, the officer might have broken down the door. But in this instance, the hotel room’s occupants told the officers, “‘We’re not coming out, and you can’t come in. We know you can’t force us or you’ll get in trouble.’”
“Frankly,” the officer said, “they’re right. I was sitting there thinking, What do we do? If they come out and fight we’re screwed, we’re all getting in trouble. I was nervous that that could be my last job—I could be done.”
As public sentiment turns ever more sharply against the NYPD following several clashes with largely peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters, and as the city and state of New York pass laws regulating heretofore unlegislated behavior by police, the atmosphere inside the department has grown increasingly grim. Officers are wrestling with the necessary changes demanded by activists, at a loss, often passive-aggressively, about how to adhere to new rules. Those I spoke to described a loss of faith in leadership, and a feeling of disempowerment amid rising crime rates. “It seems I’m no longer expected or wanted to engage with those perpetrating crimes,” said another officer. “This is a complete shift in my role as a police officer and I believe it will be terrible for New York City.”
On June 26, the NYPD circulated an administrative bulletin, a copy of which was reviewed by the Hive, breaking down new choke hold and use-of-force legislation passed by the New York State Legislature and the New York City Council. The memo read, “a police officer is guilty of the C-felony crime of Aggravated Strangulation when he or she intentionally commits the crime of Criminal Obstruction of Breathing or uses a chokehold and causes serious physical injury or death. Simultaneously, and ignoring police department recommendations, a new city bill makes it a misdemeanor for a police officer to restrain someone in a manner that restricts airflow or blood circulation by compressing the windpipe or carotid arteries. It further criminalizes as misdemeanors the acts of sitting, kneeling, or standing on the chest or back of a subject in a manner that compresses the diaphragm. These acts are defined by the new law as criminal acts, even if an act was unintentional and no injury was sustained by the subject.” (In introducing the bill, Council Member Rory Lancman acknowledged that “the NYPD banned chokeholds decades ago, but tell that to Eric Garner and the hundreds of men and women choked by police officers even since his death.”)
Naturally, there has been pushback to the laws from within the top ranks of the NYPD. An email written by Police Commissioner Dermot Shea and addressed to the “uniformed members of the New York City Police Department”—a copy of which was reviewed by the Hive—read, “We don’t yet know to what degree the state Attorney General or the city’s district attorneys will bring criminal cases against our police officers. But we do know that these and other laws make you subject to new criminal or civil liabilities—including for interfering with people recording police actions, for obscuring your shield numbers and rank designations, and for failing to provide necessary medical or mental health care to people in custody. You need to be fully aware of all these risks and how to avoid them.”
The email continued: “Make no mistake, there [are] no shortage of challenges facing the NYPD right now: massive budget cuts, new laws restraining cops, superfluous oversight, a broken criminal justice system unable or unwilling to fully prosecute and incarcerate violent offenders, as well as continuous attacks on the police culture and the institution of policing in general.”