Bill Bratton Will Head the NYPD. Can He Keep Bill de Blasio's Stop-and-Frisk Promise?
Mike Riggs Dec 05, 2013 1 Comment
New York City Mayor-Elect Bill de Blasio announced Thursday that Bill Bratton, who formerly headed the Boston, Los Angeles, and New York City police departments, will once again serve as commissioner of the NYPD. Rumors about Bratton's appointment have been swirling since late November.
"[Bratton] knows what it takes to keep a city safe, and make communities full partners in the mission," de Blasio's statement .. http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/report-bill-de-blasio-to-name-bratton-nypd-commissioner .. reads. "Together, we are going to preserve and deepen the historic gains we’ve made in public safety—gains Bill Bratton helped make possible. And we will do it by rejecting the false choice between keeping New Yorkers safe and protecting their civil rights. This is an administration that will do both."
Bratton "rejected" an ACLU report showing that black and Latino residents in L.A. are stopped, frisked and arrested far more often than whites.
The end of that statement speaks to de Blasio's balancing act with the NYPD. His campaign promise to reform stop-and-frisk was spun by critics .. http://nation.foxnews.com/2013/10/17/greg-gutfeld-thank-you-rudy-giuliani .. as a pledge to hamstring the NYPD and plunge the city into chaos and violence. In de Blasio's view, one critic argued, "progressivism trumps safety, at every turn." Putting Rudy Giuliani's former police commissioner back in charge will likely silence de Blasio's law-and-order critics. But what about the people who voted for him because they believed he'd rein in the NYPD? "Mayor-Elect de Blasio’s priorities are my priorities," Bratton's statement read. Will the pioneer of broken windows policing .. http://nation.foxnews.com/2013/10/17/greg-gutfeld-thank-you-rudy-giuliani .. really be all that different from Ray Kelly?
It might be a while before we hear about the new administration's concrete policy plans. Until then, the best indicator of what the future holds is Bratton's recent past. When he left the helm of the Los Angeles Police Department in 2009, Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California, said .. http://www.aclusocal.org/statement-from-ramona-ripston-on-the-resignation-of-chief-william-bratton-2/ .. his resignation was "a great loss for the city of Los Angeles."
"Bratton believes in community policing, and he restored the confidence of the community in the LAPD," Rapston wrote. "I watched three prior police chiefs run the LAPD, and the reality is that progress was not made until Chief Bratton became chief and imposed his will and values on the department." Yet Ripston also hedged her praise, saying Bratton "rejected" an ACLU report showing that "black and Latino residents of this city are stopped, frisked and arrested far more often than whites."
Bratton's response .. http://www.scpr.org/news/2009/07/20/2550/lapd-chief-bill-bratton-lashes-out-aclu/ .. to said ACLU report? "As far as the ACLU, they need to give it up. This department is a model for American policing. And I resent their continuing attempt to try to infer that this department engages in racial profiling. We do not." Will he be a more sympathetic listener when he hears the same argument in New York?
==== .. the Australia situation re: Stop and Frisk ..
SEARCH & SEIZURE
The New South Wales Crimes Act 1900 gives the police power to search and seize property in certain situations. The Crimes Act is important because the traditional "common law" made by judges over the centuries strictly limited the police's powers of search, for example, police were prevented from searching a person at common law until they arrested the person.
The Crimes Act has extended the powers of the police to stop and search persons and vehicles in situations where they "reasonably suspect" the person or vehicle to be engaged in criminal activity.
There are other Acts of the New South Wales Parliament, such as the Drug Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985 and the Summary Offences Act 1988, which also give the police powers to search people and vehicles, and we will discuss each of these Acts in turn.
New South Wales Crimes Act 1900
The Crimes Act allows a member of the police force to stop, search and detain any person or any vehicles if:
---- * In the case of a person, the police officer reasonably suspects the person of having or conveying anything that is stolen or otherwise has been obtained unlawfully or anything which has been used or is intended to be used in the commission of a criminal offence;
* In the case of a vehicle, the police officer reasonably suspects that there is in the vehicle anything which is stolen or otherwise unlawfully obtained, or anything that has been used or is intended to be used in the commission of a criminal offence, in the vehicle. ----
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
