COURIER L 12 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
in Greenpoint. Follow him on
Twitter @NickRizzo.
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