Mayor Bill de Blasio gave his unflinching support Wednesday to a call from the city’s top cop that New Yorkers being placed under arrest should submit to police rather than fight back.
“When a police officer comes to the decision that it’s time to arrest someone, that individual is obligated to submit to arrest,” the mayor said.
“They will then have every opportunity for due process in our court system.”
De Blasio said Police Commissioner Bill Bratton was “absolutely right” for urging an end to a recent spate of incidents in which cops were forced to subdue alleged law-breakers physically.
The issue has become a hot-button topic since the death of Eric Garner, a Staten Island man who was put in a fatal NYPD chokehold after he resisted arrest for selling loose cigarettes.
“Arrest is not always the goal . . . but once an officer has decided that arrest is necessary, every New Yorker should agree to do what they need to do as a citizen and respect the police officer and follow their guidance. And then there is a thorough due-process system thereafter,” de Blasio said at a Harlem press conference announcing the expansion of an anti-gun initiative.
He was responding to questions about Bratton’s comments a day earlier on WNYC radio.
“What we’re seeing . . . over the last several months [is] a number of individuals just failing to understand that you must submit to an arrest, that you cannot resist it,” Bratton told host Brian Lehrer.
“The place to argue your case is in court, not in the middle of the street.”
Video of the Garner confrontation has stirred anger toward police and put de Blasio in an awkward spot between his left-flank supporters — who are calling for widespread reforms to the Police Department — and his sweat-the-small-stuff police chief and police unions.
Richard Aborn, president of the Citizens Crime Commission, said the mayor’s message is an important one not just for would-be criminals to hear, but for rank-and-file police who have been feeling the heat lately.
“It’s important the mayor supports the cops, not just the commissioner,” said Aborn. “People can’t be permitted to decide if a police officer is making a good arrest or not.”
While charges of resisting arrest are actually down 5 percent this year compared with the same period last year, a number of altercations between cops and alleged criminals have been caught on video in recent weeks.
Year-to-date statistics also show a slight increase in the number of cops who have been assaulted, up 4 percent.
“I will always tell young people to follow the orders of police: Do not resist what they are asking you to do, and follow their orders,” said City Council member Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn), who has been a vocal critic of certain police tactics.
“But we have to acknowledge that people feel there is no recourse — so we have to fix that second part, too.”