At the end of December, it was reported that the NYPD had stopped policing unless it was absolutely necessary. This move was allegedly done as a form of misguided protest against Mayor Bill de Blasio, who some officers blame for the deaths of Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu. A significant drop in the number of arraignments across the city appears to reflect this trend.
According to the New York Times, arraignments have plummeted in New York City recently as cops have reportedly stopped arresting people and issuing summonses:
For the last two weeks, New York City police officers have sharply curtailed making arrests and issuing summonses. Only 347 criminal summonses were written in the seven days through Sunday, down from 4,077 in the same period a year ago.
The sharp downturn magnifies a continuing divide between the rank-and-file and Mayor Bill de Blasio, whose standing had fallen so low among uniformed officers that some turned their backs to him at the funerals of two slain officers.
The Times adds that NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton met with the presidents of the city's police unions on Wednesday in attempt to fix the situation. It proved to be futile.
In addition, the Times also detailed the drop in arraignments:
The number of cases handled by the arraignment courts fell 36 percent in December compared with the same month last year, and most of the drop came in the last two weeks of the month, court officials said.
Just in the last two and a half weeks, arraignments for misdemeanors have fallen about 60 percent, to 2,581, from 6,395. The drop was more pronounced for people arrested for violations, like disorderly conduct: a 91 percent decline to 97 cases, compared with 1,157 over the same period a year ago.
The apparent upside to this is that it has lightened the workload of public defenders citywide:
Eliza M. Orlins, another staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society, finished with her clients at 11 p.m. As a public defender, we’re constantly overbooked, she said. So I can’t really complain about being less busy than usual.
[via New York Times]
