DE BLASIO AND BRATTON PANICKING OVER SHOOTING SPIKE IN POST STOP-AND-FRISK ERA

There has been a steady rise of shootings in New York’s high crime neighborhoods since Mayor de Blasio had NYPD back off its stop-and-frisk tactics

When he campaigned for mayor, Sandinista-loving Bill de Blasio promised NY’s black voters that he would drastically reduce NYPD’ stop-and-frisks in minority neighborhoods, tactics that had angered Al Sharpton and the black community. That got him elected and he got Bill Bratton, his new police commissioner, to carry out his promise. Along with the reduction of stops-and-frisks came a rise in minority neighborhood shootings. And that appears to have panicked de Blasio and Bratton.

The New York Post reports that members of NYPD’s elite Emergency Services Unit (ESU), NY’s version of SWAT, have been ordered to drive around the city’s worst neighborhoods with their emergency lights flashing to deter crime. What a lame-brained idea. “It’s really a joke,” a disgusted ESU officer said. “We sit in our truck all night driving around, listening to music.”

The flashing emergency lights appear to be de Blasio’s substitute for the former much maligned stop-and-frisk tactics. According to the Post, the voluntary overtime shifts were ordered last month for the ESU, as well as for cops in the department’s highway, patrol and warrants divisions.

Here is Jeff ‘Paco’ Doyle’s succinct take on the flashing lights:

DO KITCHEN LIGHTS PREVENT ROACHES?
By Jeff Doyle

PACOVILLA Corrections blog
August 12, 2014

In Mayor De Blasio’s world, court-sanctioned, targeted pat down searches are invasive and mindless–Police cruisers driving slowly through the hood with erstwhile emergency lights flashing is unobtrusive and thoughtful. Personally, I would be the first in line at City Hall if the police drove through my neighborhood in such an asinine fashion.

After all, such high visibility serves only to warn evil-doers, who avoid the lights like vampires dodging the Sun, much as the kitchen light temporarily makes roaches vanish. Thus, NYPD’s message to crime-plagued boroughs: We aren’t here to prevent crime, just temporarily disperse it.

Of equal concern is the desensitizing effect this policy will have on pedestrians and motorists alike–When emergency lighting is prosaic, it goes unnoticed. Soon enough, people will ignore flashing lights, much as many now ignore them on fire and rescue vehicles.

The pedestrian is best served when emergency lights are not pedestrian.