City Council extremists are gearing up to override Mayor Adams’ veto of their latest move to curb policing and boost crime — i.e., the How Many Stops bill.
If Hizzoner can’t get enough councilmembers to sustain his veto, get ready to see fewer cops on the streets, along with another steep plunge in police morale, faster flight of veteran officers — and way less public safety.
The legislation would bury cops under mountains of paperwork, forcing them to log every interaction with a civilian, no matter how brief, mundane or inconsequential.
Give an out-of-towner directions? Log it in.
Ask folks about someone who fell to better provide aid? Each “interviewee” will require a complete form.
Pure madness: Officers would have to record volumes of data each and every time they interacted with someone — the person’s race, age and gender, what prompted the stop, whether it resulted in any enforcement action (use of force, frisking, etc.) and more.
Just what do the bill’s council backers think will happen if this becomes law?
That’s obvious: Cops will waste valuable time filling in meaningless blanks instead of chasing bad guys, helping New Yorkers in need or deterring crime with their presence on the street.
Overtime costs will rise, too, even as the city struggles to keep its budget in check.
Some cops might simply refrain from interacting with the public, to avoid the extra, nonsensical paperwork. Way to build community trust!
Others will take this as the final straw, and quit altogether — even as the NYPD has already seen thousands of well-seasoned officers leave the force these past few years.
No one joins the force to fill out forms.
Mayor Adams was right to veto this bill. Unlike councilmembers, he knows the issue from both sides.
As a teen, Adams has noted, he was beaten by cops.
As a civilian, he’s marched with protesters against police brutality and abuse and “the culture of believing black equals crime,” as he’s put it.
Yet Hizzoner also served 22 years in the NYPD ranks himself.
He knows first-hand how this pro-crime bill will hamper and demoralize cops — and hurt the general public.
It would “hinder investigations,” he warned Thursday, and “have a major impact on the ability of officers swiftly bringing someone to justice.”
“When you’re taking a dangerous suspect off the street, every second matters,” Adams added. “I think the intentions of making sure we properly have transparency [are] getting in the way in the operational aspect of that.”
Naturally, the bill has also faced fierce opposition from prosecutors as well as business and religious leaders concerned about safety.
Remember: The new handcuffs for officers comes after numerous rounds of other anti-cop, pro-criminal “reforms,” leading to a crime surge that continues to plague the city.
Cashless bail, passed in 2019, created a revolving door at precincts, where cops haul in perps only to watch them — even sometimes violent ones — set free just hours later.
The Raise the Age law let 16- and 17-year-olds escape any serious consequences for their crimes.
Those were state laws, but the City Council’s done its share with an overbroad ban on “chokeholds” and “reforms” that put officers at risk of being personally held liable if a use-of-force incident goes wrong.
And for all the harm this latest bill would do, it’d provide absolutely zero benefit.
The bill’s chief author, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, is obsessed with “overpolicing” of minorities and constantly pushing for more data to “prove” it.
Yet minority areas are typically lower-income and higher-crime, which is why their residents routinely want more police protection — which inevitably means more cop “interactions” with minorities.
Let’s face it: The radicals will never be happy until they’ve eliminated policing in New York completely.
Voters who think that’s nuts (because it is) should pay attention to which councilmen back this idiocy — and make sure they never hold public office again.
