Bill Bratton
[Unspinning The Spin]
In a Wall Street Journal article by Josh Dawsey Bratton Cites City Mistake on Homeless on November 20, New York Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Bill Bratton criticized the mayor for not making advance preparations for the continuing increase of homelessness in our city.
Bratton is concerned because homeless people have started appearing in his neighborhood on the Upper East Side. One can assume that his neighbors are bothering him about the situation. Bratton would never think of improving the conditions of the street people, such as giving them jobs with a living wage and freezing the rents of human dwellings. Of course, he is not paid to try to improve the conditions that people have live by; his job is to keep and enforce the social order. Maintain the status quo.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has made no direct statement denouncing Brattons accusation one way or the other. However, his senior adviser Phil Walzak did speak to Bratton privately concerning the statement he made, according to The Journals report. Mr. Walzak spoke to the situation by saying that the mayor is very sensitive to quality-of-life situations. Further, members of Mr. De Blasios team said that the City is keeping Bratton because he maintains a good rapport with police officers.
Before the meeting was over Bratton spoke well of the mayor as being very considerate of his views.
Brattons real concern is to keep the homeless out of his neighborhood; and be damn with whatever else happens. It is the social order that is creating these condition and it will only get worse. Bratton alone is not the problem; it a society that cannot maintain enough jobs at a living wage so that people can afford their own domicile, groceries, clothing and leisure and recreation.
The conditions in the shelters are deplorable. Rooms are shabby; the food is mostly canned food, which is highly salty, and is not preferred for a healthy diet. The diet is centered on filling the dwellers on fat, sugar, and salt.
These conditions exist because our society functions purely as a profit society. The profit goes to the wealthy and augments their existing wealth. They can never have enough wealth. Whatever they have, they can always lose it.
