NYC Courts Quiet As Arrests Drop Dramatically
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Unusual quiet has settled over the city's usually bustling, somewhat chaotic arraignment courts.
With cops engaged in a "safety first" slowdown, limiting arrests to mostly felonies, the misdemeanor courts have ground to a halt, WCBS 880's Irene Cornell reported.
The number of criminal summonses cops handed out in the past week totaled 347, compared with more than 4,000 the same week a year ago.
NYC Courts Quiet As Arrests Drop Dramatically
As one public defender in Manhattan criminal court put it: "I'm not that busy. It's all right with me if they're not arresting the kid for jumping a turnstile because he's late to school or somebody's smoking a joint.
"I was in the Marines," the lawyer continued. "So I'm not a hippie attorney who says 'let everybody go.' But if they're not making the arrests that nobody cares about, so be it."
NYPD statistics show there has been a dramatic drop in summonses and arrests across the city since officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were shot dead in their patrol car in Brooklyn on Dec. 20.
Last week, the number of summonses for minor criminal offenses and traffic and parking violations decreased by more than 90 percent compared with the same week a year earlier, statistics show.
Arrests city-wide last week for more serious offenses were down 55 percent.
Some have speculated police have launched a work slowdown to protest what they perceive to be a lack of support from Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch, however, insisted Tuesday there is no work slowdown or labor action being sanctioned.
"We want the public to understand that arrests of felonies are up. Our members are doing their job," he said.
Lynch earlier said officers are putting themselves in danger, as usual, to keep the city safe.
"Following the senseless assassination of two fine police officers, precautions had to be taken to protect police officers so that they could protect the city's communities," Lynch said in a statement. "Our members are out there doing their jobs and putting themselves in danger to keep this city safe just as they always do. That's a clear demonstration of police officer's dedication to duty and that there is no union initiated or supported slowdown."
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said the department would investigate whether any officers were actually involved in a deliberate work slowdown, but he cautioned against any argument of a widespread conspiracy – noting that half of the city's officers live within the five boroughs and have families who depend upon the NYPD for their safety.
"If you think that those officers are going to risk the safety of their families, and allow the other officers who don't live here to risk the safety of their families, I don't think that's going to happen," Bratton said.
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