NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton–what’s his agenda?
Commissioner Bratton’s unconscionable statement yesterday at a NYPD promotion ceremony was reckless and wildly inaccurate. (Bratton said: “We have been through quite a year this past year, beginning with the demonstrations in last November and December, the street demonstrations, that led to the murder of two of our police officers…”)
His attempt to connect the protests of the unjust killing of Eric Garner to the unjust killing of police officers is despicable and irresponsible. It’s even more troubling that his comments came just hours after five anti-police brutality protesters in Minnesota were shot while engaging in their First Amendment-protected rights.
We call on Mayor Bill de Blasio to denounce this dangerous rhetoric that equates protest of police brutality with violence, thereby threatening the safety of those who choose to exercise that Constitutional right.
Even more serious questions are raised when one considers recent abusive treatment of protesters and that Commissioner Bratton’s past declaration that the NYPD Strategic Response Group would not be dually focused on protests and terrorism has now been objectively revealed as disingenuous.
It’s contradictory and unacceptable that Commissioner Bratton, who claims to want to bring people together and address long-standing community concerns about policing, continues with such divisive and dangerous rhetoric.
Monifa Bandele is spokesperson
Communities United for Police Reform
