- Police Commissioner William Bratton, center, with Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce staff and Borough President Eric Adams, Public Advocate Letitia James, Assemblywomen Jo Anne Simon and Rodneyse Bichotte, Sen. Daniel Squadron and City Councilman Stephen Levin. Photo Credit Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce
By Leticia Theodore
Facing a mostly supportive breakfast crowd of the Brooklyn business community yesterday, New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton candidly expressed his feelings about the challenges that lay ahead as well as those he and the department face today.
He came to the Brooklyn Chamber Of Commerce Newsmaker event as the keynote speaker immediately following a morale-boosting visit to the 84th Police Precinct where slain police officers Wenijian Liu and Rafael Ramos were stationed.
Responding to a question, Bratton acknowledged the reported police officer slowdown saying police officers are physically tired from doing their day-to-day jobs while simultaneously dealing with the weeks of demonstrations that followed a Staten Island’s grand jury decision not to indict polices officers who placed Staten Island resident Eric Garner in a chokehold, killing him.
He added that, members of the NYPD are also emotionally tired from dealing with the murders of Liu and Ramos which drew at least 23,000 police officers from around the country.
Bratton said adding further to the burden for cops are labor issues including the tug-of-war between New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York’s city’s police unions, which are, “…psychologically and physically exhausting.”
The Commissioner said the NYPD is coming out of the slowdown and was quick to point out crime remains low in the city.
Throughout his remarks Bratton defended the “broken windows” theory of policing which involves addressing smaller quality of life offenses as a formula to reduce major crime overall.. Taking the audience back to the New York of the 1990s when graffiti covered the subway and crime was rampant the Commissioner said addressing quality of life offenses with funding from recently deceased New York State Governor Mario Cuomo was the beginning of the turn-around in the city.
He called on the audience and the community to become partners with the police department saying there is the need to move beyond the rhetoric and engage in dialogue to deal with the issues of crime, race and terrorism.
“Even as we sort [our] issues we will continue to be there for you,” said Bratton. “We have to work out our issues as we always do.”
“We need to find common ground,” he added to the applause of the crowd.
While Bratton’s remarks before the borough’s business community was generally supportive, it was mixed with some skepticism.
“He talked a good game, in fact he was great, now let’s see what happens,” said one small business owner in the audience.
