New York’s Civilian Complaint Review Board polices the police. But who polices the CCRB?
We raise this question in light of its much-cited but little-analyzed 155-page report suggesting New York is in the midst of a growing epidemic of police using banned chokeholds and NYPD brass are reluctant to crack down on them.
Its release comes, of course, in the aftermath of Eric Garner’s death after police on Staten Island tried to subdue him as he resisted arrest.
Unfortunately, for all its statistical tables and pie charts, this report — which bills itself as a “an objective, comprehensive assessment” — is woefully lacking in any context.
Or, as Maria Haberfeld, a professor of police science at CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told The Wall Street Journal: “People think they understand how police work should be done.
But there’s a tremendous discrepancy between how police work is done and how people” — i.e., civilians — “think it should be done.”
For all the allegations of improper chokeholds, only a small number were found to be substantiated.
The CCRB contends this is because the previous administration bent over backward to redefine the ban on chokeholds so as to limit punishment. The tone suggests a board that has enlisted with the New York Civil Liberties Union rather than one objectively seeking the truth.
Indeed, some of the cases cited in report themselves raise questions about the complaints. In one case, a student insisted she had been in a chokehold for “two or three minutes.”
But video footage confirmed the girl’s neck had been squeezed for “four or five seconds.” In another, a complaint was substantiated based on the testimony of an “eyewitness” — someone who had himself been placed under arrest.
Little wonder Police Commissioner Bill Bratton has complained the CCRB has been “significantly overcharging and overpenalizing” with overly harsh punishment requests.
Nor is it surprising that allegations are on the rise, given the current presumptions at City Hall against cops and the growing influence of longtime cop critics such as Al Sharpton. Not to mention the CCRB community meetings held to “inform” New Yorkers how to file complaints.
With all this, the statistic that jumped out at us was this one: In a sample of 53 fully investigated cases, the CCRB itself found 60 percent of chokehold complaints came from people whom cops said were resisting arrest.
Simply put: For any community activist or politician genuinely interested in reducing the threat of police chokeholds in this city, the easiest, most obvious and most effective way to do so is to get people to stop resisting arrest.
That, of course, won’t satisfy those whose real agenda isn’t to hold cops accountable but to treat them all as guilty until proven innocent.
We hold no brief for police officers who physically abuse civilians, criminals and suspects in their custody included. They disgrace their uniform and discredit their colleagues. Where punishment is called for, let them have it in full measure.
But keeping the city’s streets safe is a thankless and difficult job. And if cops are going to be judged for split-second decisions that have life-and-death implications for themselves and others, the least we owe them is an objective collecting and analysis of the hard facts and circumstances free of politics and hidden agendas.