Whose Police Department? How the NYPD Serves the Rich and Oppresses the People | | AlterNet

22.12.11

Whose Police Department? How the NYPD Serves the Rich and Oppresses the People | | AlterNet: Mayor Michael Bloomberg told an audience of MIT students, “I have my own army in the NYPD,” referring to the city’s police force as the 7th largest army in the world. The Mayor’s words raise the question – whose army truly is the NYPD? Shouldn’t it be the people’s, whose taxes provide the funding for the Department, and whom police officers pledge to honor, serve, and protect? “Army” denotes an agent of war, one that applies force to achieve its ends, rather than an instrument of solving problems and keeping the peace. What does it mean for the communities where the city’s officers are mostly deployed – namely, low-income neighborhoods of color – if the city’s mayor views the cops there as part of an army, soldiers in a war?