New York’s Finest moved decisively to defuse a potentially violent encounter between rival Brooklyn gangs last week. So, of course, the cop-bashers are blasting the NYPD.
Let’s be clear: The cops are outright heroes. They deserve the city’s unreserved praise and thanks.
Officers, mostly from the 83rd Precinct, voluntarily placed themselves in the middle of a brewing battle between the Pretty Boy Family and the Linden Street Bloods, both offshoots of the deadly Bloods gang in Bushwick.
But critics are whining that cops arrested some “innocent” minority youths, many wearing shirts and bandanas linking them to one of the gangs, “merely” to prevent a bloody confrontation.
What a skewed view.
Community members – even some City Council members – had issued dire warnings about plans by the PBF gang to gather in Putnam Park on the day of a wake for its slain leader, Donnell “Freshh” McFarland, and to retaliate against the LSB for his death.
Actually, the feuding has been violent for some time: Cops nabbed PBF member Calvin Nunez last year for shooting William Gonzalez – who was with LSB member James Kelly when he allegedly killed McFarland.
In the past month, police say, these gangs have beaten several of each others’ members and shot at least two people.
So the NYPD was ready when more than 30 youths met at a park wall “tagged” with gang symbols.
As the group headed toward the L train station, apparently en route to the wake in Coney Island, some of them were walking – stomping, actually – on the roofs of parked cars. The precinct’s acting executive officer, Scott Henderson – an experienced police captain who happens to be black – ordered them arrested for unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct.
They were issued summonses or juvenile reports and released, many within two hours. Three, with prior charges, had to post bond or stay in jail.
How many lives Henderson and his men saved by intervening – at risk to themselves, no less – cannot be known.
Nor is it clear how much good the arrests will do in steering these kids away from gang activity. Especially when critics attack the cops for having arrested them, and thus undermine any lessons they might learn from the experience.
“Some of these kids are our leaders,” complained a teacher at Bushwick Community HS, which some of the kids attend. (If they are leaders there, it helps explain some of the school’s academic-performance problems.)
Another critic deplored “the huge percentage of cops on patrol whose knee-jerk approach to policing is to treat all young blacks and Hispanics as potential criminals.”
But make no mistake: Based on police reports, these kids not only deserved to be arrested, they were lucky they were.
Gathering in a potential battle zone to “honor” a murdered gang leader isn’t a matter of free speech or assembly. Yes, the kids had a right to wear gang clothing and praise their pal, “Freshh” – though when large groups assemble and parade down streets (on top of cars or not), they’re supposed to get permits first.
Nor does this tale raise issues of racism or harassment: The cops were out to prevent violence and protect lives.
Rather, it’s a matter of intelligence. And values. And self-preservation.
Why anyone would want to smear cops while romanticizing violent gang leaders is a mystery. Doing so surely won’t help these kids survive the violence that’s already taken far too many lives.