A pair of fliers are reportedly being circulated among New York City Police Department officers, encouraging members to call out sick on July 4 in response to recent tensions between police and members of the public.
“NYPD cops will strike on July 4th to let the city have their independence without cops,” reads the message, which is being passed among cops via text, according to the New York Post. “Cops that say we can’t strike because of the Taylor Law. The people and this city doesn’t [sic] honor us why honor them [sic].”
The Taylor Law allows police officers to be punished for participating in organized work stoppages or strikes.
A second message says police officers must “stand as one” after being “vilified” by some activists.
“Police officers like you and me took an oath to protect strangers regardless of race, class or gender,” it reads.
Since the death of George Floyd last month, calls for sweeping police reform have reverberated across the nation. Some activists have demanded local governments “defund the police.”
The law enforcement community was galvanized further this week when prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, announced charges against two white police officers after one of them shot and killed Rayshard Brooks, a black man who video shows resisted arrest and stole one of their Tasers before running away.
Reports of a so-called “blue flu” have resulted in Atlanta and other cities, with more than a half-dozen officers in Atlanta resigning since June 1.
“Over the past few weeks, we have been attacked in the streets, demonized in the media and denigrated by practically every politician in this city,” Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch told the Post. “Now, we are facing the possibility of being arrested any time we go out to do our job.”
