The morale of the New York City Police Department has "plummeted" under Mayor Bill de Blasio, former Deputy National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams told
Newsmax TV, noting that keeping morale up is critical to the department's operations.
"The New York Police Department is the best in the country in its intelligence division and in its counterterrorism activities," Abrams told "America's Forum" co-host John Bachman Tuesday. "[De Blasio] took a stance basically against the police department. That's how he ran for office."
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De Blasio said he is confident the city is "working toward a day where we can achieve greater harmony toward policing and community," but Abrams said that the mayor can't go back and forth on his stand with the NYPD.
"The question is whether the mayor really stands behind the NYPD, every day, 365 days a year," said Abrams. "The answer is no. If this causes him to change his position, then that would be a positive outcome."
But he said the mayor is saying the right things now as the city reels over the deaths of police officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, who were shot execution-style by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, who announced on Instagram that he would put "wings on pigs." Brinsley, who shot and killed himself during a police chase, was black, and the officers were Hispanic and Asian.
Abrams, though, doesn't see that the mayor is changing his position.
"Let's see where we are three months from now, let's see where we are
the next time Al Sharpton comes to town and makes a protest," said Abrams. "That's the critical thing. The mayor basically took sides with Sharpton against the NYPD. He's got to change that."
Abrams said the mayor has made several statements against the police department in the last few months, following the death of Staten Island's Eric Garner and a grand jury's refusal to return an indictment against the police officer in the case. The Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri also spurred protests, and the mayor has also been criticized for not bringing protests in his city under control.
"He's got a lot of ground to make up," Abrams said. "His protests over the last month or two have basically been anti-NYPD and you saw how the officers reacted in turning their back on him."
On Monday, the mayor called for a halt of political statements until
after the funerals of the slain officers, an appeal to both sides in a roiling dispute centered on the deaths of black men at the hands of white police officers.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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