COURIER L 18 IFE, JUNE 5-11, 2020
OPINION
Protests are an excuse for some to unleash
chaos on New York City’s streets
What the recent George Floyd protests
will and will not accomplish
Unfortunately, my weekly
columns must be written
several days before
they are published. Last week,
I fi nished by writing that “the
video of a white female investment
manager choking a dog
appears to have received a lot
more attention than the video of
a white male cop choking a human.
Admittedly, it’s a harder
video to watch.”
I said, “Some parts of our
government protect us and
nourish us, and some parts repress
us. The parts that repress
us claim to protect us, and to
some extent they do protect us.
Or rather, they protect a large
group of us, while killing others
and turning some of us into
killers. We’ve got to focus on
growing the parts of government
that nourish people while
shrinking the parts that exist
to protect the government from
its people.”
The fi rst paragraph I wrote
was probably not true when I
wrote it, and surely not by the
time it was published. By the
time these words are published,
it will have been twelve or thirteen
days of now-worldwide protest
against American police
violence, and the truth of the
second paragraph is clearer to
some people than it was before.
But what will that protest
accomplish?
There have been protests
against George Floyd’s murder
by the Minneapolis Police Department
in almost every world
city. The ones in Barcelona
and Auckland, New Zealand
looked particularly large. Massive
global protests didn’t stop
the Iraq war or climate change,
and I don’t think any American
police department cares too
much about the opinions of Catalonians
or Kiwis. The silent,
mostly-white, always-growing
nightly protest in my neighborhood
might as well be in Europe
for all the policy it will change,
I think.
Some protests have gotten
rowdy. In Minneapolis, a police
station burned and in Louisville,
the police killed David
McAtee. The NYPD killed a
man in Brooklyn in an incident
unrelated to the protests
this week, but he was armed,
apparently. If you get your
news through social media, especially
not Facebook, you’ve
been seeing a lot about police
brutality, with shocking new
content produced every day. If
you get your news through television
or the right-wing media,
you’ve been seeing a lot about
looting and disorder. If you’re
reading this on paper, you can
fi nd the other viewpoint on this
page.
Looting and protesting
sometimes come under the umbrella
of rioting, as they seem
to be now. Organized looting
appears to be occurring, but
usually in totally different
places than the mass demonstrations.
The police seem more
concerned with the demonstrations
against them.
The top of police departments
respond to political pressure,
and the bottom to their
ranking commanders. Middle
management of police departments
seems almost totally untouchable.
In New York, middle
management starts with the
sergeants and seems to stop just
below commissioner. Almost
every rank has its own union.
These protests occur when
police departments are most
vulnerable, during budget season
in a cash crunch. Zeroingout
the NYPD would not even
close the budget hole entirely,
but right now it is due to receive
zero cuts just as a huge portion
of the city has turned against
it.
I do believe we’ll be spending
less on urban police in the
long run, but of course in the
long run, we are all dead.
Nick Rizzo is a Democratic
District Leader representing
the 50th Assembly District and
a political consultant who lives
WORDS OF
RIZZDOM
Nick Rizzo
Over the past week we have
seen riots and crime —
not just peaceful protests
— in response to the killing of
George Floyd. To be clear, the
offi cer who held his knee on
Floyd’s neck and killed him
was rightfully charged with
murder.
Unfortunately, some have
taken this tragic event as a license
to unleash chaos on our
streets by burning down and
looting stores, destroying public
property, and attacking police.
Perhaps even worse, most
Democratic elected offi cials
have instinctively blamed our
police offi cers for these horrifying
acts of violence and have
even expressed some solidarity
with these criminals.
Last weekend, the Barclays
Center was the scene of violence
as “protests” lasted through the
night. Democrats, including
Mayor Bill de Blasio and southern
Brooklyn Councilman Justin
Brannan, tweeted in defense
of those who attacked NYPD offi
cers and vehicles, and once
again placed the blame on cops.
Those who committed these
acts should be arrested and
fully prosecuted. However, in
today’s New York City, we know
this will not happen. This is
why it was welcome news that
the federal government has
taken the case of the protesters
accused of throwing Molotov
cocktails at police vehicles.
Mayor de Blasio tweeted
during the night of unrest by
the Barclays Center, “We have a
long night ahead of us in Brooklyn.
Our sole focus is de-escalating
this situation and getting
people home safe. There will be
a full review of what happened
tonight.”
Brannan, similar to his former
boss, tweeted, “Tonight
was a catastrophe. People are in
pain, on edge. We were told the
Police Department was given
orders to de-escalate & respect
peaceful protest. Instead we got
an army of cops in riot gear,
protestors assaulted, legislators
maced…This is not the city
anybody wants.”
Perhaps Brannan and Hizzoner
should stand shoulder to
shoulder with the cops facing
these attacks so they can lead
the “de-escalation” efforts.
Of course, neither acknowledged
the experience of Lt. Robert
Corbett, who had a brick
thrown at his face causing him
to lose a tooth. Also, not a peep
about the attempted murder of
the cops inside the NYPD van.
Obviously, those that targeted
police with Molotov cocktails
had no interest in “de-escalation.”
It is a sad state of affairs that
one can get arrested today for
opening a business but not for
looting one. It is also ironic that
most Democratic leaders have
lost all of their concern for social
distancing during these
mob protests.
One notable exception
among Democrats is Atlanta
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms,
an African-American, who
said, “What I see happening on
the streets of Atlanta is not Atlanta.
This is not a protest. This
is not in the spirit of Martin Luther
King Jr. This is chaos. We
are no longer talking about the
murder of an innocent man.”
It would be nice if our Democratic
elected offi cials took
some notes from her about responsible
leadership.
Bob Capano has worked
for Brooklyn Republican and
Democrat elected offi cials, and
has been an adjunct political
science professor for over 15
years. Follow him on twitter
@bobcapano
THE RIGHT
VIEW
Bob Capano