NY police chief calls for dialogue with public

New York City’s police commissioner called for a “lot less rhetoric and a lot more dialogue” to defuse the tension between officers and the population they protect.

Commissioner William Bratton, speaking on NBC following the funeral for one of two police officers gunned down in their patrol car, said the “pent-up frustrations” that have caused people to take to the streets in recent weeks go far beyond policing policies across the nation.

“This is about the continuing poverty rates, the continuing growing disparity between the wealthy and the poor,” said Bratton. “It’s still about unemployment issues. There are so many national issues that have to be addressed that it isn’t just policing, as we all well know.”

Bratton said rank-and-file officers and much of America’s police leadership feels under attack, including “from the federal government at the highest levels”.

“See us. See the police. See why they have the anxieties and the perceptions they have,” said Bratton.

He also defended New York mayor Bill de Blasio, saying it was wrong for hundreds of police officers to turn their backs to a video monitor outside a Queens church as de Blasio spoke at the funeral of officer Rafael Ramos.

“I certainly don’t support that action,” he said. “That funeral was held to honour Officer Ramos. And to bring politics, to bring issues into that event, I think, was very inappropriate.”

Some police officers blame de Blasio for creating an atmosphere of negativity toward the New York Police Department in the city after a grand jury declined to charge an officer in the police chokehold death of Eric Garner on Staten Island.

Bratton acknowledged that the morale of officers is low and said their actions “unfortunately” reflected the feelings of some toward the mayor.

The gesture at Ramos’ funeral came amid contentious contract negotiations with the city. The rank-and-file police union did not claim credit for the symbolic protest, and its head, Patrick Lynch, dodged reporters’ attempts to ask about it after Ramos’ funeral.

It was not clear if officers planned to turn their backs on de Blasio again at the funeral for Ramos’ partner.

The funeral for officer Wenjian Liu will be held on Sunday in Brooklyn.

The funeral arrangements took some time, as relatives had to travel from China.