On Monday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ripped the NYPD and New York mayor Bill de Blasio, calling New York City police officers who simply walked away after being doused with water “impotent.”
Speaking on WAMC radio, Cuomo snapped:
There was an incident in New York City where police officers were doused with water and the police officers walked away and got back in the car. That is wholly unacceptable. Walking away was one of the most disturbing and embarrassing actions I’ve seen, I don’t blame those officers, I believe they were relatively new.”
Cuomo then took a shot at de Blasio, asserting, “I look to the training and the policies of the police department that would’ve instructed them to act that way. The training has to be you don’t turn around and get back in the car and drive away. You literally make law enforcement ineffective and impotent and that hurts everyone. You’re assaulted; you take the perpetrator into custody; that’s what you do.”
Cuomo boasted of New York State Police, “If that ever happened to the New York State Police, I would bet you my bottom dollar that you would not see State Police officers assaulted and they turn around and get back in the car,” The Daily Mail reported.
Cuomo added, “If a police officer is being assaulted, the police officer has to do something. If the police officer is not willing to defend himself or herself, how are they going to defend me?” Speaking of de Blasio, he said, “I think both situations require his intervention and action.”
As The New York Post reported, Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch, who has long been at odds with de Blasio, echoed, “Gov. Cuomo is right: the NYPD is frozen, but don’t blame the cops. Instead, blame the complete lack of leadership from City Hall,” adding that officers with the NYPD “have nothing even remotely close to that kind of support from our city’s elected leaders. Troopers may be patrolling city streets in increasing numbers, but they do not have to deal with a mayor who demonizes them for his own political gain, a City Council that imposes new burdens and second-guessing at every turn, or NYPD bosses who look to protect their own careers at the expense of the men and women they lead. It also doesn’t hurt that state troopers are paid about 30 percent more than NYPD cops.”
After the Democratic debate in late June in which de Blasio recalled discussing with his biracial son how to act around NYPD officers so he didn’t become a target, Lynch snapped:
Mayor de Blasio has apparently learned nothing over the past six years about the extremely damaging impact of anti-police rhetoric on both cops and the communities we serve. The hostile and dangerous environment we now face on the street is a direct result of the demonization of cops by de Blasio and other elected officials. By rolling out that rhetoric again on a national stage, it’s clear he wants to take the country down the same path.