NYPD’s eliminating all plainclothes anti-crime units, not satire

When I heard this earlier today, I thought it was a joke, but it’s not. The NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said on Monday that he will eliminate all plainclothes anti-crime units and transfer the staff to detective assignments and neighborhood policing.

Shea said there are “risks” but he’ll assume the risk.

“Thankfully, here in New York City, angry demonstrations have turned peaceful. Thoughtful discussions about reform have emerged,” Shea said during a news conference, adding that it will affect about 600 officers.

This is a real boon for criminals and any terrorists.

“This is a seismic shift in the culture of how the NYPD polices this great city,” he said. “I would consider this in the realm of closing one of the last chapters of ‘Stop, Question, and Frisk’… I think it’s time to more forward and change how we police in this city. We can do it with brains. We can do it with guile.” and then he added, “We can move away from brute force.”

Lots of luck with that.

These units have the most shootings and the most complaints. They are also dealing with the worst of the worst.

THEN HE SAID THERE WILL BE PLAINCLOTHES UNITS

Then he played both sides of the fence and said there will be plainclothes units. If he does have them, it sounds like they will be minimal at best. He’s very vague.

“There will continue to be plainclothes units in the NYPD, whether it’s in surveillance teams, whether it’s narcotics or things of that nature, but … when you look at the number of anti-crime officers that operate within New York City and you look at a disproportionate, quite frankly, proportion of complaints, shootings … again, I think we can do better,” he said.

“We’ve shown that we can build prosecutable cases, with evidence, with intelligence, with video, and, make no mistake, we will need the cooperation of the five district attorneys … but we also have to do it with the communities that we serve,” Shea added. “We need cooperation, we need trust, and all of this goes into this decision.”

He’s making the cops look like the bad guys after they were abused by rioters.

The Police Benevolent Association isn’t happy:

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