For advocates of safer streets in New York City, the NYPD’s indifference to traffic violence is all but a given — why else would so few deaths go uninvestigated? Now, at least one police source is making that apathy explicit to the New York Post. Under Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Vision Zero” plan, the department’s weekly TrafficStat meetings — where cops report crashes and moving violations — are getting out of hand, according to one cop. “Traffic fatalities have replaced homicides, or is running neck and neck, as the top priority,” the anonymous source told the tabloid. “The word is that [TrafficStat] is going to be much more intense — it’s going to be like a nightmare.”
Another cop took a slightly different tack, calling an effort to crack down on jaywalking “retarded.” I agree with the sentiment, even if I wouldn’t word it that way. With 17 traffic deaths already in the first few weeks of the year, the NYPD should be going after drivers, not pedestrians.
(Photo: Sean MacEntee/Flickr)
