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Low Level Policing Research Paper

Decent Essays

So far, there is no agreed-upon term to describe the precipitous drop in low-level policing by New York law enforcement, a two-week undeclared protest against a mayor many cops believe does not show them due respect. Much coverage has called it a “virtual work stoppage,” a label assigned by the New York Post, where data about the decline in arrests and ticketing was first published – though the term, when deployed in other publications, tends to remain in quotes. Police Commissioner William Bratton has quibbled about terminology, too: “I haven’t used the word ‘slowdown,’” he said. “If that’s what it is, we’ll call it that and deal with it accordingly. We’re not in a public-safety crisis in any shape of the word,” he said.
In 1919, then-Massachusetts …show more content…

Americans have a robust history of striking – they’ve been at it since before they were even officially Americans – but cops, charged with safeguarding the public, are generally expected to stay at work. When 80 percent of Boston police walked off the job in 1919, the profession’s first major strike, Massachusetts Governor Calvin Coolidge set an unflinching precedent for handling unruly cops: he mustered the state’s militia, restored order, and declared, “There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, anytime.” Cast as a hard-line defender of law and order, Coolidge was nominated to be Vice President one year later. New York’s first police job action didn’t happen for another 50 years. In 1971, an estimated 20,000 patrolmen refused to report for duty, citing the so-called “Blue Flu.” They coordinated six sick days, while Mayor John Lindsay – apparently having Coolidge’s unyielding legacy in mind – vowed he would fire the entire police department if it came to that. The union president finally managed to get his ranks into line and call off the strike. But even once the Blue Flu had passed, many bemoaned a systemic cultural change. The Daily News

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