StemCell Therapy

By tolerating attacks on police, politicians are setting a reckless example that will inevitably and seriously damage not just other communities, but the very fabric of intergroup relations upon which our city depends.

Over $1 million of damage has been done to police vehicles in vandalism shared on social media and celebrated. Cops out working - diverse men and women who are your siblings, cousins, parents, children and neighbors - are now regularly attacked and disparaged with language that in any other situation would be hate speech.

In the midst of a public health crisis with no end in sight, police and other first responders are depended on to keep a city of nearly 9 million people safe. But no first responders other than cops are being vilified. No first responders other than cops are having their jobs micromanaged by politicians who are rushing to out left one another. No first responders other than cops are being threatened with arrest for doing their job in situations that are always unpredictable, always dangerous and always involving people who do not want to be interacting with law enforcement.

Discussions about policing and accountability are happening locally, statewide and nationally. Recent events, some tragic, have put police work in a spotlight. Police unions are an important voice in those discussions, so lets really talk.

Engage in a thought exercise with me.

Education policy and politics deeply impact issues of diversity, opportunity and equity. There is inequality in our school system that damages outcomes for generations. How to address these problems in ways that keep all students and families engaged in our city is incredibly complicated. Tempers often flare among families, students, unions, activists and public officials.

On the issue of student demographics at Stuyvesant High School, the most prestigious of the specialized high schools students test into, there is an allegation that the school is too Asian, with not nearly enough students of color attending.

Would debate and legislation around that issue justify attacks on Asian-American students? Or vandalizing stores in Chinatown, Flushing, Sunset Park or Dyker Heights? Would it legitimize encampments outside Department of Education headquarters? Would it excuse vicious anti-Asian slurs spray painted on government buildings? Would violence against Chinese and Korean Americans become an acceptable form of social protest?

How to protect tenants from the economic devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic is a constant worry. Whether increased unemployment benefits, hardship vouchers to cover back rent, allowing security deposits to be used for payments or pausing eviction proceedings -- policymakers and advocates have been creative in addressing this critical problem.

Gentrifying neighborhoods have luxury condo towers across the street from affordable housing. Balancing the worries of tenants and the needs of owners to cover their costs is difficult. Anger towards landlords is spiking, fueled by radical tenant activists who want to cancel rent and believe that property itself is a form of theft from the collective good. A prominent tenant organizers profile, when she was on the Steering Committee of the NYC Democratic Socialists, said she hates landlords.

Would any of the above justify violence against landlords? Would City Hall make excuses for a firebomb thrown into a property owners car? How would social media characterize vandalism against the owner of a building in Crown Heights? In the Bronx? In Sheepshead Bay? In East New York?

Race and class impact healthcare. Maternal health, cancer treatment, preventative medicine, emergency care, addiction services and mental health are just some examples of areas in which the race and economic status of the patient contribute to lesser care. Despite enormous gains addressing this disparity, challenges still exist that cost lives. Are healthcare executives targeted the way police are? Hospitals? Doctors? Nurses?

The anti-cop crowd driving too many of the conversations about law enforcement insist that the venom and violence and hate being hurled at cops is a form of expression. Change the nouns in their slogans and you get an entirely different view of things, a more honest view.

Activists -- from the ones inside City Hall to the ones who were camped outside City Hall -- are being intellectually dishonest. Their behavior and their excuses are a slippery slope which is going to hurt us all.

(Ed Mullins is president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association of the NYPD.)

View original post here:
Hating cops is a slippery slope (opinion) - SILive.com

This entry was posted on August 25, 2020 at 7:55 pm and is filed under Preventative Medicine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |