Patrolmen's Benevolent Association of the City of New York

Patrolmen's Benevolent Association of the City of New York
Founded 1892
Affiliation Patrolmen's Benevolent Association
Country United States
Website nycpba.org

The Patrolmen's Benevolent Association of the City of New York is the largest labor union representing police officers of the New York City Police Department.[1] It represents about 24,000 of the department's 36,000 officers.[2] The union has been unable to reach a labor contract with the city since 2012.[3]

Several representatives of the association sit on the board of the New York City Police Pension Fund.[4]

History

As a benevolent or fraternal organization, the New York City's Patrolmen's Benevolent Association was founded in 1892. In 1901 it pushed for and got an 8-hour workday.[5] In 1967 New York state passed the Taylor Law, which sets the rules for municipal union organization with regard to representation and bargaining. New York City set up the Office of Collective Bargaining for municipal union demands.[6]

Relationship with Mayor John Lindsay

The PBA was successful in its campaign to defeat Mayor John Lindsay's proposed Civilian Complaint Review Board in 1967.[5]

Enraged by the Knapp Commission's report on police corruption, police officers in the most impacted divisions and precincts began to stage unsanctioned industrial actions.[7] These culminated in the illegal five-day police strike of 1971.[8][9]

In 1973, the city allowed women to work street patrols. The association was opposed to the change claiming women lacked the strength to back up male officers.[10]

Relationship with Mayor Edward Koch

In January 1978, Mayor Koch prohibited city agencies from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Samuel DeMilia, then the president of the association explained in an article in the New York Times that the order was “unworkable in the police department and can more harm than good.” [11]

Relationship with Mayor David Dinkins

In September 1992, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association organized a rally of thousands of police officers who blocked the Brooklyn Bridge to protest police oversight proposed by Mayor David Dinkins. Other uniformed officers jumped over police barricades to rush City Hall. Some were openly drinking, damaging cars and physically attacking journalists from the New York Times on the scene. On-duty officers did little to control the riot.[12][13]

Rescue and recovery work at the World Trade Center

Many officers perished at the Twin Towers during the September 11, 2001 attacks in Lower Manhattan. Scores more were exposed to toxins—produced by the collapse of the Twin Towers—in the course of their work-shifts during the Rescue and recovery effort after the September 11, 2001 attacks at Ground Zero. Surviving first responders and their advocates are asserting that their illnesses resulted from exposure to toxins at Ground Zero.

The PBA filed a lawsuit to secure benefits for Officer Christopher Hynes, 36. In March 2004 he was diagnosed as having sarcoidosis. However, the NYPD has refused to bestow line-of-duty injury status to him. Hynes had worked for 111 hours at Ground Zero and its vicinity. He claims that he was never given a proper respirator for his work at Ground Zero. He has had difficulty in paying medical bills because of the denial of line-of-duty status. The PBA noted that firefighters, by contrast, have been given line-of-duty status for their injuries.[1][14]

Relationship with Mayor Giuliani

PBA relations with Mayor Rudy Giuliani (mayoralty, 1994–2001) were marked by years of labor disputes.

In 1997 it led a campaign asking Giuliani to not attend the funerals of policemen killed on duty.[12]

The PBA urged members to resist the mayor's incentive pay initiative in 1998.[15] Additionally, in a five-year contract, officers were subject to a two-year freeze on salaries before seeing salaries increased 13 percent during the last years of the Giuliani tenure.[16]

During November, 2007, in anticipation of the 2008 presidential election, PBA president Patrick Lynch criticized the relationship between Giuliani and the NYPD. He said that the union would not endorse Giuliani. He criticized the mayor on pay issues, saying, "The inability to keep veteran cops on the job or to recruit adequate numbers of new ones can be traced directly back to the Giuliani mayoralty." He added, "While the city was rolling in money, the Giuliani administration cried future poverty and stuck New York police officers with three and half years without a pay raise."[16] Lynch further asserted that "Rudy Giuliani has no real credentials as a terrorism fighter."[17]

Statements on Eric Garner's death

PBA president Patrick Lynch blamed the death of Eric Garner on Mr. Garner's resistance to arrest.[18][19]

Relationship with Mayor Bill de Blasio

Following NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio's election in 2014, running largely on a message of reining in abusive NYPD tactics, including "Stop and Frisk", the PBA began actively organizing against Mayor de Blasio, accusing him of failing to support the NYPD, as it has charged other mayors over the decades.[12]

Following the killing of two NYPD officers in Brooklyn on December 20, 2014 in an execution-style shooting, the PBA's anti-de Blasio activities reached an all-time high, with PBA President Patrick Lynch accusing Mayor de Blasio of having blood on his hands, and of encouraging violence against police and acting like the leader of a "f-ing revolution." Further, the PBA asked members to sign letters ordering the Mayor not to attend their funerals, should they perish in the line of duty.[12][20] PBA president Patrick Lynch urged the police to stick close to the rules to protect themselves.[21]

Mr. Lynch's comments were much criticised.[22] In response, Mr. Lynch has said he views critics of the NYPD as "enemies" and has further stated that the NYPD is shifting to a "wartime" posture in response.[23] Many fear Lynch's comments will further inflame the more radical elements of his opposition, may serve to incite further acts of violence against the NYPD, and lead to further police abuses carried out as a result of the "wartime" posture.[24][25]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 David Seifman (June 2, 2007). "PBA Sues to Boost 9/11 Air Victim". New York Post.
  2. ↑ Rosenberg, Eli; Goldman, J. David (2 August 2016). "An Addition to de Blasio's Morning Coffee and Workout: Protesting Police Officers". New York Times. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  3. ↑ Rosenberg, Eli; Goldman, J. David (2 August 2016). "An Addition to de Blasio's Morning Coffee and Workout: Protesting Police Officers". New York Times. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  4. ↑ Nyc.gov
  5. 1 2 Mark Jones; Peter Johnstone (2012). History of Criminal Justice. Routledge. p. 329.
  6. ↑ Jewel Bellush; Dick Netzer, eds. (1990). Urban Politics New York Style. New York University Press. p. 118.
  7. ↑ BLUE FLU Cops on strike, December 1970 - January 1971 cHAPTER 384; by Jay Maeder, 25 June 2001, New York Daily News
  8. ↑ "Effort Intensified to Settle Police Strike". Daytona Beach Morning Journal. Associated Press. 18 January 1971. Retrieved 8 August 2012. As 20,000 city patrolmen refused to man their posts for a fourth day, negotiators intensified efforts Sunday to settle the walkout, spurred by a warning from the commissoner that his skeleton police force can keep going for only a few more days.
  9. ↑ Edward J. Kiernan, 77, President Who Strengthened Police Union; by Wolfgang Saxon, 27 January 1999, New York Times
  10. ↑ Goldstein, Richard (13 May 2015). "Gertrude Schimmel (Obituary)". New York Times. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  11. ↑ Weber, Bruce (17 May 2015). "Sam Ciccone, a Champion of Gay Police Officers, Dies at 71". New York Times. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Voorhees, Josh (2014-12-22). "Déjà Blue". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 2016-11-29.
  13. ↑ Jr, James C. Mckinley (1992-09-17). "Officers Rally And Dinkins Is Their Target". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-11-29.
  14. ↑ "Police Union Sues City Seeking Compensation For 9/11 Responder", ny1.com, June 1, 2007
  15. ↑ The New York Times April 15, 1998 "P.B.A. Urges Officers to Refuse Giuliani's Incentive Raises"
  16. 1 2 Joshua Rhett Miller, "Cop Union Blasts Rudy: No '08 Endorsement from the Finest, Boss Says." Metro New York edition of Metro paper, November 13, 2007, p. 1
  17. ↑ Carl Campanile, "COP RUNNETH OVER" New York Post November 12, 2007
  18. ↑ The Huffington Post
  19. ↑ The Washington Post
  20. ↑ Newsday.com
  21. ↑ Capitalnewyork.com
  22. ↑ Nydailynews.com
  23. ↑ Newsmax
  24. ↑ The Guardian
  25. ↑ "Gunman murders two NYPD officers in Brooklyn before shooting himself". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 December 2014.

External links

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