Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Blacks in Law Enforcement of America: NYC PBA President's Statement is 'Reckless'...

  PBA President Patrick Lynch


As law enforcement professionals, we believe that every officer that is trained by a certified training institution of law enforcement should be held accountable to his or her actions when there are alleged violations of policy, procedure and training.

The recent statement of PBA President Pat Lynch regarding the preliminary disciplinary hearings of Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the death of Eric Gardner is reckless and usual rhetoric.

The New York City Police Department has banned the use of chokehold for over two decades. A chokehold according to the definition of the NYPD; any police maneuver that puts any pressure to the throat or windpipe, which may prevent or hinder breathing or reduce intake of air.

If P.O. Pantaleo wasn’t trained to use a chokehold, then the question we ask Mr. Lynch, what was he trained to do? Was he trained to do what was recorded in the video?

Mr. Lynch also omits from his statement that the autopsy found that the manner of death for Mr. Garner was a homicide. While the report found that Mr. Garner poor health was a contributing factor, it wasn’t the primary cause of his death. The definition of homicide is deliberate or unlawful killing of another person.

As Black law enforcement professionals, we believe it has become the modus operandi of Mr. Lynch and his usual Archie Bunker style rhetoric to attack black and brown victims that claim police criminality. These victims come from the same birth communities of many of his black and brown officers that pay dues to the PBA faithfully.

If P.O Pantaleo didn’t do anything wrong, then the city wouldn’t have settled with the Garner family. If the officers did everything right in restraining and arresting Mr. Garner, he would be alive today.

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