Do You Want Some Cheese with That Whine?

The head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, President Patrick Lynch, has a sad because under a new state law, discipline and complaint records for officers are now a matter of public record.

Here's a suggestion, Officer Lynch, if you don't want your officers embarassed for breaking the laws and abusing their authority, the best way to do this is to have them not break laws or abuse their authority:

Patrick Lynch—yes that’s his actual last name—the head of New York City’s largest police union, is pissed. Seems some meddling kids decided it was a good idea for the public to have instant access to a database of information on accusations of misconduct against the NYPD. And, like meddling kids do, they kept pushing and pushing until that database was a real thing.

Now, according to the New York Daily News, the public can just click a link and search through thousands of records of lawsuits, formal complaints, settlements, internal investigations and more against New York cops, the guys Lynch and his Police Benevolent Association represent. It’s so unfair, Lynch whined to to the Daily News.

………

Seriously, fuck this guy. You want an anti-police narrative? Try nearly a half-million records of the misdeeds of cops, most of which are in your union. How about a cop union that sued the city where its officers work because the city tried to make arrests safer for civilians by banning dangerous restraint techniques like the one that agonizingly killed George Floyd. Or maybe getting mad—big mad—that New York’s City Council dared to make it possible to hold cops accountable for their abuses by voting to strip them of the absurd protection known as qualified immunity.

There’s an anti-police narrative for you. Every time Lynch and cop union officials like him speak, they’re advertisements for all that’s wrong with American policing. If anything galvanizes animosity toward police, it’s not a database of complaints, it’s a Trump-loving blowhard who calls Black folks “animals” in public and never, ever wants to see a dirty cop held accountable for anything.

Here is hint for policy makers, if you engage in a policy that makes police union presidents squeal like a  ……… Well ……… You know, then you are doing the right thing.