Doomed? PBA chief Pat Lynch, rejected by 8 out of 10 New Yorkers
[Editorial]
A new poll finds that only 27% of New Yorkers approve of hate-monger Pat Lynch, President of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PBA) who infamously accused mayor Bill de Blasio of having “blood in his hands” after the murder of NYPD officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, and rightly so.
Lynch knew that the majority of New Yorkers, police officers and civilians, were outraged at the killing of the officers on December 20.
He knew that his remarks were dangerous and could only be seen as potentially inciting violence towards Mayor de Blasio, and his supporters, many of whom come from African American and Latino communities that have legitimate issues with some officers on the NYPD. After all, it was Commissioner Bill Bratton himself who on October 3 said he wants to weed out any of “the brutal, the corrupt, the racist, the incompetent” officers who are on the NYPD.
The killings of Officers Liu and Ramos came at a particularly volatile time in New York City’s history, when tens of thousands of people had been demonstrating against police brutality and judicial miscarriage, in the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, in Ferguson, MO., and Staten Island, NY, respectively. These were people who, like Commissioner Bratton, also want officers who should not be on the force to be ousted.
Pat Lynch is a thoughtless master of insensitivity. Even before the family had finished mourning Eric Garner, Pat Lynch was rubbing salt on their raw wound, claiming that Daniel Pantaleo had followed proper police procedure when he garotted Garner with his arm.
Then come the murder of the two police officers and Pat Lynch decides to blame New York’s chief executive and commander in chief of the NYPD of being responsible for the deaths of officers Liu and Ramos. He stands in the middle of an inferno and pours more gasoline.
Lynch’s behavior compares to when then candidate for mayor Rudolph Giuliani in 1992 joined a mob of drunken police officers who demonstrated in a PBA-organized protest outside City Hall while some called David Dinkins, New York’s first Black mayor, a “nigger.” Dinkins only sin was to dare propose the introduction of a civilian complaint review board to examine allegations of police abuses.
Twenty three years later, another mayor supports the right for peaceful protest against the kind of officers Bratton wants off the force and the PBA chief accuses him of being responsible for the cold-blooded killings of police officers. No wonder race-baiter Giuliani joined Lynch in de Blasio-bashing in recent weeks.
Following the ugly tone set by Pat Lynch, some police officers became mutinous, turning their backs at Mayor de Blasio, including at the funeral service of fellow officers, Ramos and Lynch.
For several weeks this page has argued that de Blasio take decisive action against mutinous officers in order to maintain discipline on the force and civilian authority of the NYPD; it can’t be the other way around where armed officers of the law cow the civil administration.
Polls now show that our editorial commentaries reflected the feelings of the vast majority of New Yorkers. Almost seven out of ten New Yorkers in a Quinipiac University Poll felt the officers were wrong to turn their backs on the mayor.
Nearly 8 out of 10 repudiated Pat Lynch for his ugly comments, agreeing that they were “too extreme.”
This week, Pat Lynch was shouted down during a union meeting. Officers in essence turned their backs on him for leading them off the cliff.
There is a PBA election coming up in June. The union members should do the right thing and depose Pat Lynch.
Before he’s ousted, if he has any sense of decency, he should apologize to Mayor de Blasio and the people of New York City for his “blood” libel comments.
