Bystanders

The videos blur together. The one where the cop shot a guy in the back who was running away—was that before or after the one where the guy in the car bled to death as his girlfriend filmed, or where the caretaker was shot while lying on a street in broad daylight?

One distinguishing factor in several incidents, however, is whether there were other officers on the scene, and what they do. Or, more to the point, don't do. 

The cavalier attitude of the people who stood around while Eric Garner edged toward death in 2014 is horrifying to observe, even these many years later. Similarly, there were three other cops on the scene where George Floyd was arrested in Minneapolis on Monday. How could they not react to the distress the human being in their custody was indicating?

On Tuesday multiple NYPD officers responded to my Bronx block twice: once to a midday shooting outside our bodega, and at night to a person in emotional distress. I was glad they were there for the first, and glad someone responded to the second (although I know that police response to mental-health emergencies is problematic). The cops were polite, low-key, and seemingly effective.

I wondered: What would they have done if they'd been on that Staten Island sidewalk, or on that Minneapolis street?

Some believe that police critics malign good cops. More important, though, is that police violence mars good cops whether activists say so or not—unless those good officers call out their own who have crossed the line. That's true whether a cop is on the scene or just doing the same job a thousand miles away. There are times when behavior is so obviously wrong that even the most generous interpretation of “thin blue line” solidarity doesn't justify staying silent.

As local advocates press for the defunding of the NYPD, and as we slip into a fiscal crisis that evokes memories of the 1970s when the city actually laid cops off, there could soon be a debate about how many officers we need and what they should be doing. In the way of background, it would be helpful to know, from the cops, the commanders and the unions: Which of those videos haunt you?

Stay healthy,
Jarrett Murphy, executive editor

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