A few weeks ago I saw a man get arrested at the 23rd
St. N/R Station. As two NYPD officers tried to cuff him he broke free of them,
and shoved them, shouting ridiculous blather about being treated unfairly and
fearing the police. One of the officers pulled his Taser and I thought the man,
who looked significantly larger than both of the cops, was going to get Tasered.
Instead one of the officers talked him down and he soon put his hands behind
his back and allowed the cops to cuff him. A witness told me he was being
arrested because he was mentally disturbed and had been on the train tracks.
The cops had every right to Taser the guy, and if I was in
their shoes I can honestly say that would have been my inclination. I was
impressed with the cops’ ability to avoid violence in the situation. Police
don’t always have that option.
Lost among the media coverage of two terror attacks in
England and the U.S. President’s declaration about withdrawing from the Paris
Climate Accord, a New York Police Department Sergeant was charged with murder in the Bronx.
Sgt. Hugh Barry responded to a call last October to find a
mentally ill woman threatening officers with a pair of scissors. He managed to
talk her down and she dropped the scissors, but she then retrieved a baseball
bat and swung at the sergeant, who shot her twice. That’s a very clear case of
an officer being threatened with deadly force and responding appropriately.
But soon after the incident New York City Mayor Bill de
Blasio and police Commissioner James O’Neill condemned the officer, claiming he
violated department procedure by not calling for the Emergency Service Unit or
using his Taser. Last week, the Bronx District Attorney filed murder charges
against the sergeant.
It’s a travesty that should be inciting outrage nationwide. And
not because we adhere to some warped notion that all cops are heroes and we
should get behind anyone with a badge. This indictment should elicit outrage
because Hugh Barry is a human being who has a right to stop someone trying to
murder him. This indictment is an affront to decency because #FactsMatter.
New York police are rightfully angry.
The indictment of Sergeant Barry is not the action of a
truthful or serious people. It’s the action of an ignorant and myopic ruling
class that by sacrificing the right innocent people, they can somehow forge a tenuous
peace in a volatile society. We’ve seen this before. Many of the most
well-known cases in recent years that spurred large-scale protests and questionable
prosecutions were manufactured controversies that didn’t stand up to a
desultory examination of the facts. In places like Ferguson, Missouri and
Staten Island, New York, grand juries correctly rejected politically-motivated criminal
charges against police.
But a large segment of the body politic insists that any
death at the hands of police fit a certain narrative, a narrative that’s been
undercut by the facts at almost every turn. Mayor de Blasio and Commissioner
O’Neill bought into this narrative despite very clear evidence to the contrary.
They would rather appease an extremist activist movement than work to protect
our citizens.
If our city still has any respect for the truth, Sgt. Barry will be back on the job by this time next year and
Bill de Blasio and Commissioner O’Neill will be looking for work.
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