Bill Bratton with de Blasio. Already facing opposition over Giuliani stop-and-frisk ‘broken windows’ association before he steps in office
[Op-Ed]
Bringing William Bratton back to stop racial profiling stop-and-frisk is like asking an arsonist to help you put out fires.
You mean to tell me that after searching across the entire nation for a police commissioner to move New York City forward, the best Mayor-Elect Bill de Blasio could do is select Bratton, Rudolph Giuliani’s commissioner?
Bill Bratton served under Giuliani for two years. If you recall, Mayor Giuliani was the most divisive and racist mayor in modern history. Bratton was his right hand man until they got into an ego battle over who was getting credit for their policies and Bratton left.
Lest we forget! It was Giuliani and Bratton who came up with the “Broken Windows” theory on crime. That was to arrest every Black and Latino youngster for minor offenses, i.e. littering, open containers, etc. These arrests instead of summonses, led to criminal records for masses of our youth.
Among other repercussions, when they filled out employment applications, their bogus criminal backgrounds were held against them. Bratton and Giuliani were also the architects of racial profiling stop-and-frisk. It was under Bratton and Giuliani that police brutality and the abusive use of deadly force was the order of the day for Blacks and Latinos.
Bratton’s selection is a slap in the face and a disrespectful disregard for us as a people. What will Mayor-Elect de Blasio say to the families of young Nicholas Heyward, Jr., Anthony Rosario, Anthony Baez, and countless others who were killed or brutalized unjustly under Bratton and Giuliani? To add insult to injury, when the parents of Hayward, Rosario and Baez confronted Bratton at a Town Hall meeting, over the painful deaths of their children, he told them that they were “acting like a bunch of fools.”
Shame on Bill de Blasio and shame on those Black and Latino leaders who gave him the ok to do it!
Black and Latino people in particular and people of good will in general must resist this appointment. Some say to “give Bratton” a chance. I say we did and he failed us.
He had two years under Giuliani and he is an unrepentant partner of Guiliani’s with blood on his hands. He should have been disqualified just for being Giuliani’s hit man. We don’t need a recycled Giuliani police commissioner.
So much for the so-called “progressive” Mayor. Bratton must go! Some think it’s impossible, but they said the same thing about the incredibly incompetent schools Chancellor Cathie Black – and she’s gone! The people united will never be defeated.
The struggle may be long but our victory is certain.
Charles Barron is a New York City Councilmember representing Brooklyn’s 42nd District
