City Council must not hamstring NYPD on critical crime-fighting tactics
Hero cops like Ivan Marcano must be able to exercise full judgment out on the streets
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2012, 4:10 AM
Police Officer Ivan Marcano of Transit District 12 bravely chased down a robber after being shot.
Another cop is shot — adding up to a stunning 12 this year — yet NYPD critics remain determined to make it harder for the Finest to do their dangerous work.
Something is wrong with this picture.
On Wednesday night, Police Officer Ivan Marcano proved himself to be a true NYPD hero. The off-duty cop was driving in the Bronx when he spotted two men attempting to rob a cabbie.
He pulled over, jumped out of the car, identified himself as an officer — and took a bullet to the chest. The slug barely missed his heart.
Undeterred, Marcano gave chase as the two fled in a car. And when they crashed the vehicle and took off on foot, he followed.
Clutching his wound with one hand to stanch the blood, he pulled out his weapon with the other, took aim, fired — and struck one of the thugs in the head.
Marcano has rightly been hailed for his composure and courage under fire. Sure, he was off duty, but no cop ever really is. His judgment was clear, his aim was true.
Thousands of NYPD officers make similar judgments every day. But there are those who’d handcuff them with legislation that would severely impede their ability to keep New Yorkers safe.
Take City Councilmen Jumaane Williams and Brad Lander. Outspoken critics of the NYPD’s essential tactic of stopping, questioning and sometimes frisking people who might well be armed, they have proposed a series of bills called, benignly, the Community Safety Act. It is anything but.
Writing in Sunday’s Daily News, the two politicians claimed that the measures would merely provide accountability and oversight to ensure police treat all citizens with dignity and respect.
Wrote the councilmen: “The act would not require police to get consent to frisk someone they suspect of being armed and dangerous.”
Wrong. Here’s exactly what the bills say:
Officers conducting a stop must “articulate, in a language and manner understood by the person, that the person is being asked to voluntarily consent to a search and that he or she has the right to refuse consent.”
Then, the cops have to “create an audio or written and signed record of the person’s consent,” including the time and date and a statement that the suspect can call off the search at any time.
Also, the NYPD will not be allowed to use race or ethnicity in identifying an individual who may have engaged in unlawful activity.
It is couched as a ban on profiling — which would be fair enough — but the bill bars police from relying on race “to any degree” in searching for suspects.
How on earth could cops hunt down unknown bad guys without using complete descriptions that of necessity involve race or ethnicity?
Maybe Lander and Williams should ask Officer Marcano.