Bratton Meets With Union Leaders Without de Blasio

NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton met with the city’s five police union leaders Wednesday afternoon without Mayor de Blasio amid a widening rift between rank-and-file officers and the mayor.

Speaking on behalf of the five unions after the meeting, PBA President Pat Lynch said they had a "frank discussion" with Bratton and brought up concerns about the safety of their members. 

The meeting comes as de Blasio faces criticism and protest from officers following the killing of officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in an ambush last month. Uniformed officers have turned their backs on the mayor at the hospital where their bodies were taken, at a NYPD graduation ceremony and during his eulogies at both officers’ funerals.

There didn't appear to be any less hostility toward the mayor after Wednesday's meeting. 

"The problem was not created here at headquarters, it started at City Hall," Lynch said in a statement. "We don't believe there is a willingness on the part of City Hall to solve these problems." 

Arrest statistics in recent weeks are also suggesting a rumored work slowdown has taken hold amid discord between the rank and file officers and de Blasio. Last week, the number of summonses for minor criminal offenses and traffic and parking violations decreased by more than 90 percent, from 4,077 last year to 347 this year. Arrests for more serious offenses citywide were down 55 percent.

The unions have blamed de Blasio for permitting protests over police conduct that have, in turn, fostered an anti-NYPD atmosphere they believe contributed to the killings of the officers.

Ed Mullins, head of the Sergeants Benevolents Association, disputed there was a union-sanctioned slowdown. 

"There is no job action," he said ahead of the meeting with Bratton Wednesday. "We are dealing with a broken morale, a lack of leadership and a lot of extra work that's been placed on NYPD through these demonstrations over a period of time." 

"It's up to us now to try and fix our own workplace," he said. "This mayor won't do it." 

The mayor addressed the protests Monday and condemned the officers’ actions, saying it was hurtful to the families of both officers. He met with police union leaders last week, but Lynch told reporters there had been "no resolve" to safety concerns broached during the meeting.

Mullins said Wednesday that de Blasio calling the officers' back-turning "disrespectful" didn't help advance the dialogue. 

"The mayor should make some kind of statement of an apologetic tone," he said. "That would bring some kind of actions." 

Michael Palladino of the Detective Endowments Association echoed the statement, saying "an apology by the mayor or a type of statement that he miscalculated or misunderstood" could help. 

"You've had about 18 months of the police being beaten down during a mayoral campaign," he said. 

Bratton has continuously backed de Blasio, saying he was disappointed in the officers who did not honor his request to refrain from protesting at Liu’s funeral on Sunday.

De Blasio said of the recent plunge in arrests that he and Bratton will examine the statistics and "after that, we will make judgements accordingly." 

"No one has had more success than Bill Bratton," he said.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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