Adhyl Polanco, an officer with the New York City Police Department since 2005 and a major opponent of Stop and Frisk, sat down with Democracy Now! for an interview regarding the NYPD’s conduct with Mayor de Blasio, and broke the Blue Code of Silence by criticizing his colleagues. Polanco said he wasn’t at the funeral as a police officer, but rather as a citizen of New York City paying his respects to a fallen officer, saying “we have lost a brother, we have lost a citizen.” When asked what his reaction was when his fellow officers turned their backs on Bill de Blasio, saying it was “absolutely wrong:” “Mayor de Blasio came to the police department, that had a lot of issues with before he got to this police department. Mayor de Blasio came with the attitude that “I can fix this police department.” But this police department has a culture that is going to make whoever tried to change that culture and life impossible, including the mayor. It’s absolutely wrong to turn their back on the mayor. It absolutely don’t show—this is not what we’re made of. This is—I was not taught—you know, this does not represent the police department. This does not represent how, when a family calls for peace and unity, you’re going to have a hundred officers doing the absolute opposite.” When the topic turned to what initially set off the firestorm between the police unions and the mayor’s office, race relations, Polanco hit the nail on the head, highlighting every parent of color’s fear when it comes to the safety of their children: “How can a parent—how can a parent who has a black child, how can a parent that have seen millions of kids being stopped by stop-and-frisk—and you know the statistics of that—how can the parents of kids and see black kids get killed by police over and over, how can parents that see kids being summonsed illegally, being arrested in their own building for trespassing, and being the treatment that they deserve from—they get from the police department—not from all officers, because not all officers are the same—how can you not responsibly to have that conversation with your son? You have to.” Polanco dove into the reality that it is him, not union leader Patrick Lynch or white officers, who has to have the same conversation with his own son. The fact that a black police officer has to warn his son about the dangers they themselves can deliver is staggering. How many white officers, especially in New York City, say the same to their children? Not a lot, according to Polanco. Kudos to this officer for speaking the truth and showing that the NYPD has the potential to clean up their act. We need more police officers like Adhyl Polanco! Meet Adhyl Polanco > https://youtube/watch?v=tt4O62_VXs4 Hear him on Democracy Now > https://youtube/watch?v=tS3fza5uH9I
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 10:08:58 +0000