The New York Police Department has removed officers from the Manhattan district attorney’s office, the latest example of the growing rift between city leadership and law enforcement.
Hours after Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. announced his office would not be pursuing charges against some protesters who hit the streets following the death of George Floyd, the NYPD reassigned officers posted at his office to the street to help with crowd control, according to the New York Times.
District attorneys in the boroughs of the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens also declined to charge many protesters who were alleged to have broken the law and received the same response from the NYPD.
New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea denied that the move was related to the announcements from district attorneys, but many believe the timing suggests otherwise. Some police officials have expressed anger at the decision not to prosecute.
“It is a dereliction of duty to their oath of office,” Edward Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, said about the moves from the various district attorneys. “More important than undercutting the work of the NYPD, it is undercutting public safety.”
Peaceful protests, looting, as well as violent riots have engulfed New York City following the May 25 death of Floyd while in police custody, exacerbating an already tense situation between the police and New York City leadership, most notably Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The decision not to prosecute comes a week after local prosecutors backed legislation to eliminate the police force’s use of chokeholds, which the department said it would support, with exceptions.
“If we put our hands on the criminal, we are going to jail,” President of the Police Benevolent Association Pat Lynch said of the legislation. “I am not being dramatic. That’s how bad it is. No one has read the bills.”
Another leader of the association, Mike O’Meara, spoke out against the way the NYPD has been treated by the media and politicians amid the growing movement to defund or abolish police departments nationwide by imploring people to stop “vilifying” police and treating them like “thugs.”
Roughly 400 NYPD officers have been injured by protesters in the weeks following Floyd’s death.
