WEBCommentary Contributor

Author: Michael J. Gaynor
Date:  July 3, 2020

Topic category:  Racial Issues

For God's Sake, Don't Demonize the Police


The men and women of the department realize they are far from perfect. But we know that while bad apples there indeed may be, they are very rare.

The headline of the oped by Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, published in the New York Post on July 1, 2020, is simple: "For God’s sake, stop demonizing the NYPD: Cardinal Dolan."

The oped itself is a superb yet gentle rebuke of Black Lives Matter and ANTIFA miscreants peddling the sinister lie of systemic police racism.

Cyrus Vance, Jr., the Manhattan District Attorney, abused his discretion by declining to prosecute a "protester" who recently had vandalized St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Cardinal Dolan could not undo that, but he did what he could do, which was to tell the truth about the whole truth about police that police haters either do not realize or refuse to admit.

Cardinal Dolan: "Whenever I go back home to Missouri, family and friends ask me, 'What do you like most about New York?' The list is lengthy, I reply. Saint Patrick’s Cathedral is up there, of course, and nothing beats that magical feel of Manhattan around Christmastime. But near the top would be the men and women of the New York Police Department.

"I chat with them on their beat. I have a coffee with them in the kitchen of my home behind the cathedral. I celebrate their weddings, baptize their kids and show up at their events. And yes, I visit them in the ICU, and attend their wakes and funerals when they’re wounded or killed in the line of duty, which happens more often than I care to recall.

"Much too frequently of late, I have grieved with the family of an officer who took his or her own life.

"Our valiant police officers have one of the most perilous, stressful duties around, and from what I have seen in my nearly dozen years here, they do it with care, compassion and competence.

"Now we have added to their load with continual, at times exaggerated, rash and inaccurate criticism, combined with rocks, Molotov cocktails and taunts.

"Do police forces deserve criticism sometimes? You bet they do. The vicious killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd by a policeman, with his partners idly watching, reminds us in a nauseating way that for some cops, black lives do not matter. The most stinging rebuke of that outrage in Minneapolis that I hear comes from — guess who? The cops I chat with on the sidewalks of New York.

"They, and their department, realize criticism is called for. When it comes, they listen and undertake reform. Ongoing examination of procedures, enhanced training in 'de-escalation,' more intense screening of admissions, bodycams and reviews, community outreach and a successful effort at diversity in recent decades (my friend Rabbi Joseph Potasnik likes to observe, 'The majority is the minorities in the NYPD'): These reforms are all in effect in the NYPD.

"The men and women of the department realize they are far from perfect. But we know that while bad apples there indeed may be, they are very rare. As I mentioned to Police Commissioner Dermot Shea during a recent meeting, this point particularly resonates with me, as I have seen the overwhelming majority of good, faithful priests tarred by the heinous actions of a very few.

"Not long after I arrived here, I was walking down the center aisle of the cathedral after Sunday Mass. From out of the congregation jumped a man holding an object in his hand. What he was clutching I did not know, but I have to admit, I feared it to be a pistol. Apparently, the officer on duty that morning did, too. He lunged not at the man, but at me, shielding me from the rushing congregant. Then we both saw the man was holding a cross, which he asked me to bless.

"What moved me was the police officer’s spontaneous instinct to protect me, literally 'to take a bullet for me.' The NYPD would do that for any of us, members of the community they swear to serve and protect.

"A few years ago, I did the funeral of a police officer shot on duty. He had his gun pulled and aimed at the perpetrator who had already shot others and could easily have fired his weapon. But he didn’t pull the trigger. Why? The culprit was holding a baby he had grabbed. The cop lost his life lest he endanger that of another.

"As Rep. Peter King eloquently remarked on the floor of the House last week, our racial minorities in the tense and poor areas of the city especially need the police. In a recent meeting with community activists, one black leader reminded us, 'Don’t give me this "get-rid-of-the-cops" rant! You on Madison Avenue or Park Avenue might not need the police. We up in The Bronx sure do!'

"One of the tumors on our beloved nation, past and present, is that we often target African-Americans, profile them, caricature them, blame them and suspect them as the cause of all evil and woe in society. That is raw injustice. But for God’s sake, let’s not now, in a similar way, stereotype the NYPD."

AMEN!

Michael J. Gaynor


Biography - Michael J. Gaynor

Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.

Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.

The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.

Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.

Gaynor's email address is gaynormike@aol.com.


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