Conor Friedersdorf on the NYPDs refusal to make us safe, and on support by the Right for Law and Order insurrections:: The right should greet it with the skepticism theyd typically summon for a rally on behalf of government workers as they seek higher pay, new work rules, and more generous benefits. Whats unfolding in New York City is, at its core, a public-employee union using overheated rhetoric and emotional appeals to rile public employees into insubordination. The implied threat to the citys elected leadership and electorate is clear: Cede leverage to the police in the course of negotiating labor agreements or risk an armed, organized army rebelling against civilian control. Such tactics would infuriate the right if deployed by any bureaucracy save law enforcement opposing a left-of-center mayor. It ought to infuriate them now. Instead, too many are permitting themselves to be baited into viewing discord in New York City through the distorting lens of the culture war, so much so that Al Sharptons name keeps coming up as if hes at the center of all this. Poppycock. Credit savvy police union misdirection. Theyre turning conservatives into their useful idiots. If the NYPD succeeds in bullying de Blasio into submission, the most likely consequence will be a labor contract that cedes too much to union negotiators, whether unsustainable pensions of the sort that plague local finances all over the U.S., work rules that prevent police commanders from running the department efficiently, or arbitration rules that prevent the worst cops from being fired. Meanwhile, Al Sharpton will be fine no matter what happens. Will the law-and-order right remain blinded by tribalism or grasp the real stakes before its too late? theatlantic/politics/archive/2014/12/why-the-right-should-oppose-the-nypds-flagrant-insubordination/384140/?single_page=true
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 12:08:23 +0000
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