Not being exactly known as the champion of the average New Yorker makes the New York Times’ scathing editorial calling out the NYPD for brutality all the more remarkable. In an uncommon act of public representation, the NYT Editorial Board calls for the dismissal of the latest officer caught in a brutal and illegal act of racism and demands that systemic changes be made to the police department’s operating policies.
…the New York City police officer who jumped and assaulted an innocent man, James Blake, in Manhattan last Wednesday, has disgraced the department. Commissioner William Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio should make an example of him. They should make it clear that his unprovoked aggression — caught by a security camera, so there is no doubt about what he did — reflects everything that causes people to distrust and hate the N.Y.P.D. The officer’s further transgressions — not identifying himself to Mr. Blake, not apologizing, failing to void the arrest in follow-up paperwork — speak to an appalling lack of judgment by someone unfit for the job.
