Appearing with Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio at a tribute for Nelson Mandela held by the Rev. Al Sharpton, William Bratton said that when he thinks of Mandela, he thinks of freedom, “whether you are white or you are black, whether you are poor or you are rich.”
Bratton, who held the job under from 1994 until he resigned in 1996, was chosen this week to lead the New York Police Department again. Bratton has said he supports the proper use of the tactic, and police stops surged during his time as Los Angeles police chief from 2002 to 2009.
Sharpton has said that Bratton has been both an adversary and an ally, but Bratton had reached out to improve community relations.
“You cannot mourn Mandela, and then profile his grandchildren,” Sharpton told a mostly black audience at his National Action Network. “We must seek to strike that balance in New York, the balance of protecting our rights and protecting lives.”
Bratton tried to reassure the Harlem audience that the New York Police Department would honor their rights under his leadership.
“As we go forward in this city, my commitment to you is that there will be freedom and equality for all,” he said. “And our commitment to you is that your police force in your city will be respectful.”
His remarks were greeted with roaring applause.
Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, nearly 5 million people were stopped by police, mostly black and Hispanic men. The two officials argued it was a tool that helped drive down crime to record lows. Last year there were 414 murders in the city, a record low.
But critics say it has unfairly targeted minority men, most of whom had committed no crimes. Four minorities sued the department, saying they were wrongly stopped by the police because of race. A federal judge ordered major reforms earlier this year to how the tactic is used after ruling the department was violating civil rights.
De Blasio said New York’s future police commissioner “knows that when it comes to stop and frisk it has to be used with respect and it has to be used properly.”
“Anyone who tries to tell you that you can’t have safety and constitutional rights at the same time, that you can’t have a strong society and a fair society at the same time … I would remind them of the example of Nelson Mandela,” de Blasio said.
Sharpton said he and Bratton have had good and bad days, but they worked well together through the National Action Network in Los Angeles.
“We worked together on gang violence, on youth violence and to address the issue of polarization between police and community,” Sharpton said.
De Blasio and Bratton take over Jan. 1.
(AP)
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6 Responses
Mandela founded the terrorist wing of the African National Congress. I guess some members of the NYPD really do practice what he preached.
Am I alone in thinking the praise of Mandela is a little overdone? Mrs Thatcher called him a terrorist and lets not forget Mandela’s admiration of Arafat and the PLO.
Now why would Bratton meet with Sharpton, as if he truly represents the Black community? Did his boss DeBlabla, force him? This is not a good sign.
They are worshipping mandela FAR too much.
Begin and Shamir more deserved to be called terrorists. When you are on the good side, you aren’t a terrorist, you are a freedom fighter! And the Apartheid regime definitely deserved to be overthrown — the US should have armed the ANC’s freedom fighters.
And the regime he fought was started by people who had openly supported the Nazis during WW2. I guess the first two commenters would call the partisans who fought the Nazis in Eastern Europe terrorists, too.
Mandela did support a Palestinian State. So have the last four Israeli Prime Ministers. Given that Israel shamefully allied with the ex-Nazi supporters in the 1970s, desecrating the name of God and the memory of the six million, it is a tribute to Mandela that he did not call Israel an Apartheid State and call for its destruction. In fact, the first country that he visited after leaving office as President was Israel.
He was not perfect. He had little real control over the ANC even while still President and his successors (not his choices) have been disasters. But consider that SA could have easily become Zimbabwe or even Congo.
Is this the same Nelson Mandela that called Israel’s security fence ‘Apartheid’ ?
VeHamaven Yovan…………
Source: Haaretz Website (Google)
A year later, ahead of the Israeli Apartheid Week events held on university campuses in over 50 cities worldwide, mostly in North America and Europe, Barak appears in an article in Columbia University’s student newspaper the Spectator. The article, written by Tanya Keilani and Randa Wahbe, places the defense minister alongside other public figures who, according to the article, “have pointed to Israel as an apartheid state, including Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Arun Gandhi.”