This week, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a statement recommending that a court-appointed monitor be put in place to independently oversee the NYPD, should the courts rule against the city in the federal trial over stop-and-frisk. New York City Mayor and police booster number one Michael Bloomberg, unsurprisingly, called this a “terrible idea.”
Addressing reporters in Queens yesterday, the mayor compared a the prospect of a court monitor to that of an NYPD Inspector General, a position that would be created to oversee the police department if legislation is passed through city council (this prospect depresses Bloomberg very much). According to Bloomberg, the monitor would be “even more disruptive than an I.G.”
Bloomberg was typically blustery and defensive in his remarks addressing the Department of Justice’s position, saying, “I don’t know what experience they have in the streets of New York City.”
Let those fancy DOJ boys come up to East 79th street–the mayor will show them a thing or two.
(Photo: World Bank Photo Collection/Flickr)
