a moment of clarity.

words. 

"A lot of people who moved to New York after the millennium and could afford to live in more expensive neighborhoods must have thought they had relocated to wonderland: artisanal pickles, upscale cupcake shops, Stumptown cafes, shiny playgrounds, safe subways, humming nighttime streets. How many of them wanted to think about the constant chafing between cops and young people two or three neighborhoods away that partly underwrote their happiness? Or the way the growing gulf between the two cities made the chafing harsher? The renaissance of the city has produced a different moral situation from that of the previous era, when New York was feared and shunned. The problem today is more like bad faith—the phenomenon of New Yorkers whose well-being here depends on cops whose behavior (if given a bit of thought) they don’t like.

...The Mayor is doing what he can to overcome ill will among police. It’s probably too late—in just a year he’s lost his department. This is a disaster for a city that elected de Blasio with seventy-three per cent of the vote, and that also—judging by the wide and deep sympathy expressed after the execution of two officers in Brooklyn—generally supports its police force. Patrick Lynch, the demagogue who leads the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, is playing a very dangerous game by inflaming his rank and file, politicizing funerals, countenancing an unprofessional work stoppage (imagine aggrieved nurses refusing to treat patients), and laying the two officers’ murders at de Blasio’s feet. If New Yorkers are forced to choose between the Mayor and the police, the result—already showing up in polls and public discourse—will be a racially polarized city. If the police who turned their backs on the Mayor imagine that this confrontation will bring the city around to their side, they’re deluded. The only way for the police to keep the public’s trust is by stopping crime, which requires the public’s support.

The starting point should be an honest recognition of the human reality between cops and citizens. When the police find themselves criticized, challenged, sometimes shoved back, the reason might be that dis works both ways—that they’re not the only ones who need to show heart. When the police stand around in insular groups and show no interest in talking to the people they’re protecting—a sight so regular I usually forget to be bothered by it—the reason might be that they don’t feel much solidarity with those of us who can afford to live in neighborhoods they can’t, but don’t have to absorb the hostility and take the risks."

THE NEW YORKER: The Heart of Policing