‘Exodus’: 272 NYPD officers file for retirement since riots and protests

De Blasio has turned the capital of the world into a third world shithole.

‘Exodus’: 272 NYPD officers file for retirement since George Floyd’s death

by Andrew Mark Miller The Washington Examiner | June 27, 2020:

New York City police officers are retiring in droves following the death of George Floyd in police custody.

Two hundred and seventy-two uniformed officers have filed retirement papers between May 25, the day Floyd died while he was in police custody, and June 24, according to the New York Post.

The number represents a 49% spike from the same time period last year, the department said.

The relationship between the New York Police Department and city leadership has become strained over the last few years but has intensified since Floyd’s death. The two sides have openly criticized each other, and New York City Bill de Blasio recently promised to cut funding to the department and encouraged reforms such as disbanding the force’s plainclothes unit, which was criticized by at least one police union leader.

NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said last week that the criminal justice system in New York City is reaching a “breaking point.”

“We cannot keep people safe without keeping bad, dangerous, people off the streets,” Shea said. “You have a criminal justice system that’s imploding. That’s the kindest way to put it.”

Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch said that police are “at their breaking point, whether they have 20 years on the job or only two. We are all asking the same question: ‘How can we keep doing our job in this environment?’ And that is exactly what the anti-cop crowd wants. If we have no cops because no one wants to be a cop, they will have achieved their ultimate goal.”

Ed Mullins, the president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, said an “exodus” of officers from the department has begun and that morale is “at the lowest levels I’ve seen in 38 years.”

“There is no leadership, no direction, no training for new policies,” Mullins said. “Department brass is paralyzed (and) too afraid to uphold their sworn oath in fear of losing their jobs. Sadly, the people of this city will soon experience what New York City was like in the 1980s.”

NYPD brass have expressed frustration with the state’s new bail reform law that the department believes is largely responsible for a surge in crime this year.

Police said in March that 482 people who were released without bail after being arrested in 2020 had reoffended and were then responsible for 846 new crimes, including 299 “major” felonies.

“Criminal justice reforms serve as a significant reason New York City has seen this uptick in crime,” the NYPD said in a press release.

Thousands of protesters have been marching each day in New York City, many of them camping out in front of City Hall demanding the mayor to slash the police budget by as much as $1 billion and implement reforms, according to CBS 2 New York.

“We cannot speak to police keeping people safe when there’s a whole world of black and brown people who are constantly expressing that police have not been the ones to make them feel safe,” one protester said to local media.

Retired NYPD Lt. Darrin Porcher, who now teaches at Pace University, said there are several reasons why police don’t feel they have the support they need to do their jobs effectively.

“The lack of support from political leaders is one component. The second component is the cantankerous relationship between police and community in connection with police and community relations, and third, you just have external issues such as many family members that may feel a sense of repulsiveness to you being an officer,” he said.

Nearly 400 police officers were injured in the two-week period following Floyd’s death, and a number of police SUVs were torched by violent mobs.