New York’s latest dumb idea

Good day all. I saw this news story in the New York Post yesterday and thought that someone must have dropped a little acid ((Lysergic acid diethylamide)) or something. Someone has pushed a bill through the New York state legislature that will basically put the police unions in charge of all disciplinary issues.

The bill was pushed through prior to the Ferguson MO, and Staten Island grand juries came back with no bills regarding the Michael Brown and Eric Garner deaths at police hands. It’s now headed for Governor Cuomo’s signature or veto. Here are the details from the New York Post:

Who should ultimately control police discipline in New York: elected officials through their appointed police commissioners, or unelected labor arbitrators chosen in part by labor unions?

That’s an easy answer. Elected officials of course.

Sometime before year’s end, the state Legislature must send Cuomo a bill it passed just weeks before Eric Garner’s fatal July 17 confrontation in Staten Island. The measure would allow unions representing police and other civil-service employees across the state to insist on collective bargaining of disciplinary procedures affecting their members.

And that is a very stupid idea. There’s already enough problems between the police and the citizenry, irregardless of a person’s skin color. So what is in this bill?

The bill represents the latest in a series of attempts by police unions to nullify a unanimous 2006 state Court of Appeals decision, which affirmed the New York City police commissioner’s disciplinary authority.

Yeah, police unions, like all government worker unions hate the thought that their members have to answer to management.

The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association had sued then-Commissioner Ray Kelly for overriding disciplinary provisions in the police contract — including a rule requiring NYPD superiors to wait at least 48 hours before questioning police officers accused of misconduct.

Pity the courts decided to side with management in this. That must have really stuck in their collectivist craw. In fact, considering what a putz the current mayor of New York City is, he must have been screaming at the legislature regarding this bill.

Oddly, Mayor de Blasio’s Albany lobbying office didn’t bother to file a memo taking a position on the bill before it passed.

And once again showing to the entire country why de Blasio is a blithering idiot. Considering his rants towards the police, a department that he is supposed to be overseeing, I would have thought that eh would at least have said something. Perhaps His Moonbattiness was taking the lead from other mayors around the state.

But the New York State Conference of Mayors went on the record in opposition — and for good reason.

Yeah, the reason being that police can’t be trusted to police themselves. There is a reason we have civilian oversight of military and police personnel. They have guns, and in the case of law enforcement, the ability to arrest people. Of course, the police unions can’t stand the idea that they have to be held accountable for their actions. It gets in the way of their breaking heads. To bad the judge disagreed with the union.

While “the need for authority over police officers will sometimes yield to the claims of collective bargaining .?.?. the public interest in preserving official authority over the police remains powerful,” Judge Robert Smith wrote for the state’s highest court.

And you can bet the police unions didn’t take THAT sitting down. They called their bought and paid for representatives to “fix this” for them.

The police-discipline bill was a classic under-the-radar, end-of-session special — an election-year favor to unions, brokered on the leadership level in both houses. It passed 57-2 in the Senate and 132-2 in the Assembly just before they adjourned in June. (Among those supporting the bill were all 42 of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Caucus members present for the votes.)

I wonder what those so called “Minority Representatives” were thinking when they gaveled this through? They certainly weren’t thinking of the needs of the people that actually voted for them, especially since they’re the ones who seem to get clubbed like baby seals by some police officers. So what does this bill do?

In the city, the bill would restore PBA contract provisions including the 48-hour rule. In Nassau, Rockland and Westchester, and in many municipalities elsewhere, it would overturn charter provisions and local laws designed to ensure that police discipline remains a managerial prerogative. It would also block towns and villages from passing their own laws superseding collectively-bargained police disciplinary provisions.

And you can see why most city governments are opposed to this idiocy. Instead of a bad cop being dealt with by the local government, it will be handled by an “Impartial” (My Ass), arbitrator.

Unions prefer to have disciplinary charges referred to autonomous “impartial” labor arbitrators — similar to the system that makes teacher discipline a costly and time-consuming hit-or-miss proposition.

And as we have seen, it is almost impossible to fire a bad teacher thanks to their union. Well, at least teachers can’t just shoot you down like a dog, unlike police officers.

Cuomo will now have his own chance to weigh in. On top of vetoing this clear usurpation of local control, he should send the Legislature a stronger message: From this point on, he won’t sign any bill covering an important statewide public policy issue that is whisked to passage with virtually no notice, deliberation or public hearing.

I wouldn’t count on Governor Cuomo. He’s as crooked as the day is long and as long as the unions keep paying him bribes donating to his campaigns, he’ll look very favorably on something like this. What he won’t be considering, just like the police unions and the legislature aren’t considering, is what will happen if police are seen to be given free reign to do pretty much whatever they want. Eventually, (Like any day now), police officers who at best should be fired, and at worst criminally charged, who are instead given a pass by the “Impartial Labor Arbitrator” may find themselves becoming the hunted and getting outright lynched.

I have seen two police departments lose the respect of the citizens near me. In one case, a long time ago, over a raid that went bad, and the other was a department that started empire building instead of protecting and serving. In the first case, outright threats to the officers lives were made by everyone in the town. In the other, the town meeting voted to fire every single officer starting with the Chief of Police. In both cases, the departments were rebuilt from the ground up with new people.

Both of these cases were in smallish towns. In a city like New York, the alternatives will be ambushes and outright executions of police officers, many of whom are actually honest people trying to do their job. The problem is, the unions won’t get rid of the bad apples, and all it takes is a few of those to destroy a police department’s reputation. This bill will do nothing to fix problems with law enforcement in New York, and will probably make them a lot worse. What we need to do is institute far better training for police. We need them to think of the Constitution first, and they need to see themselves as “Peace officers” not Law Enforcement Officers.”

Thatisall

~The Angry Webmaster~

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