Police officers hang their handcuffs in large quantities.
The wave of finer firings began after George Floyd’s police murder on May 25, with 272 uniformed police officers filing retirement documents from then until June 24, New York police say.
That’s a 49 percent increase from the 183 officers who filed during the same period last year, according to the department.
A source from the New York Police Department suggested that the recent departures could signal an upcoming crisis for the 36,000-member department, which is also facing a $ 1 billion budget cut amid the fury of “evicting the police.”
“We are concerned about an increase in attrition that reduces our staff beyond what we can sustain without new recruits, and we fear that the City Council has not taken the increase into account,” he said.
Police Charitable Association President Patrick Lynch said police officers are “at their breaking point, whether they are 20 years on the job or just two. We all ask the same question: ‘How can we continue doing our work in this environment? ‘ And that’s exactly what the anti-police crowd wants. If we don’t have police because nobody wants to be a police, they will have reached their ultimate goal. “
Ed Mullins, president of the Benevolent Association of Sergeants, said an “exodus” of the New York police has begun. He said nearly 80 of its members have recently applied for retirement, and that morale is “at the lowest levels I have seen in 38 years.”
The ardent union leader added: “People have had enough and no longer feel it is worth risking their personal well-being for an unpleasant position.”
“There is no leadership, no direction, no training for new policies,” he said. “The brass department is paralyzed (and) too afraid to keep its oath for fear of losing its jobs. Unfortunately, the people of this city will soon experience what New York City was like in the 1980s. ”
Outrage at Floyd’s death sparked protests across the country, and some New York police officers see themselves as collateral damage.
“It is a total war against the police and we have no support,” said a veteran Brooklyn police officer, who will retire next month. “I wanted to wait for my 30th anniversary in October, but the writing is on the wall.”
Many men and women in blue are fed up, feeling attacked and frustrated that they are expected to fight crime with fewer tools than ever, without receiving the backing of politicians, injured in the protests and constantly scrutinized, according to agitated officials and angry police unions. .
Rank and weary files also wonder if a bad decision at work could get them arrested and charged with a crime.
“If you have your time and the opportunity to do something else, get out while you can,” said Joseph Giacalone, a retired New York police sergeant and associate professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan.
Giacalone said he had received three emails in “the past week or so” from students asking him for advice on changing his career choice. Giacalone said he has not received “this type” of emails since the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014.
He said he “never discourages anyone” about the job, he simply “exposes the pros and cons” and also reminds students that there are federal law enforcement jobs.
On Thursday, The Post exclusively reported that Bronx NYPD precinct commander Richard Brea will resign to protest the department’s handling of police reform and protests against brutality. The deputy inspector, who headed the 46th Bronx Campus, will retire after nearly three decades on the force.
New York Police Sgt. Joseph Imperatrice, founder of Blue Lives Matter, which was formed after New York Police officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were killed in 2014, claims that about a dozen police officers a day are presenting their documents. Imperatrice believes the number is “noticeably higher” than usual and due to the climate of “police and criminal liability”.
Imperatrice argues that the number of police officers leaving work since the end of March is “approaching the 700 to 1,000 range between COVID and the anti-police narrative.”
“I feel sorry for the police officers who have just started their careers and have 20 years ahead of them,” said Imperatrice. “Morale across the country for anyone who wears that uniform is at its lowest point … The officers show up to work wearing the uniform and within a few days after that they are handcuffed.”
He said a “fed-up” Manhattan detective, a 22-year veteran with a wife and children, is waiting to receive news of a new job and then is putting out his papers and moving to Arizona. He believes the city is “going down the tubes quickly and that it won’t change anytime soon.”
Imperatrice said the grief-stricken mother of a police officer in the crime-fighting unit murdered in the line of duty recently contacted him, “beside himself” because the New York police dissolved the unit and therefore “dissolved the legacy of his son”.
“Politicians are spitting in the faces of families of policemen killed in the line of duty and are now handing over the keys to the city to these criminals. This is crazy, ”Imperatrice was furious.
“Of course, if a police officer acts criminally or abuses his authority, he must be held accountable. But most of the incidents we are seeing do not guarantee that officers will lose their jobs and be locked up. ”
John Jay’s teacher Giacalone said: “We are living in the Twilight Zone, where the good are the bad and the bad are the good. No bail, no jail, selective prosecution, unless you’re a cop, then keep playing.
“People have lost their collective mind.”
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