Mayor de Blasio just announced his latest step backward on crime: “We’re taking the Obama Foundation pledge” . . . to put more handcuffs on cops.
With shootings in 2020 already exceeding recent totals for entire years, de Blasio released his plan to meet the Obama call for reducing police use of force — even though the NYPD set the national standard for minimal force even before he took office.
Among the gimmicks: a proposed new “matrix” for cop discipline, with added penalties for violations ranging from the use of chokeholds to failing to activate bodycams to leaking information to the media. Punishments range from loss of vacation days to suspensions or terminations.
Yet, as Police Commissioner Dermot Shea noted, the Blue Ribbon Panel acknowledged that “the NYPD has a strong discipline system” already