April 8th, 2000

More Cynical Cop-Bashing

Two of Gotham's leading political lights -- Reps. Charles Rangel and Jerrold Nadler -- stepped front and center yesterday to stick it to the NYPD and, by extension, Mayor Giuliani.

Rangel and Nadler, at a Washington press conference yesterday, called on the U.S. Justice Department to investigate Giuliani and Police Commissioner Howard Safir for allegedly "defaming" three men shot to death by city cops.

It seems that the pair thinks federal civil rights laws were violated when Giuliani and Safir publicly discussed the cases of Amadou Diallo, Patrick Dorismond and Gideon Busch -- each of whom were killed by police bullets.

The shootings, each in their own way, raise troubling questions about police training, tactics and strategy -- but not one of the three appears to rise to the level of federal civil-rights violations.

And the notion that the mayor's discussing the juvenile criminal record of Dorismond -- a particular in the Rangel-Nadler indictment -- is bizarre. The charge trivializes the sacrifices of true martyrs -- men and women who gave their lives during the struggle for full civil rights in America.

Besides which, you can't defame the dead. It's the law.

Now it doesn't take a lot of insight to comprehend the congressmen's real motive. They are laboring in Hillary Clinton's vineyard once again, and are hoping to capitalize on Giuliani's Dorismond-driven dip in the polls.

Well, Rangel is the fellow who came up with the Hillary-for-Senate idea in the first place. For sure, he's got a lot invested in a successful outcome.

And who can forget Jerry Nadler's incredible defense of Hillary's husband during the House impeachment proceedings in 1998. Nadler was like the Energizer Bunny.

It would be easy to chalk the lawmakers' proposal up to politicking and leave it at that. But that would be as irresponsible as the charge itself: Scapegoating cops can have consequences.

After a year of non-stop cop-bashing related to the Diallo shooting, the city's murder rate once gain is climbing. In the first three months of this year, as compared to the same period last year, murder is up 12.4 percent.

Yes, as Police Commissioner Howard Safir is quick to point out, it is necessary to note that a lot of the murders took place in private residences -- and were committed by persons known to the victims. There's not a lot the police can do about that.

Still, the hard fact remains: After years of precipitous decline -- the credit for which in no small way accrues to One Police Plaza, murder is up.

It is almost impossible not to conclude that a lot of cops -- having witnessed one baseless murder trial and having no desire to participate in one themselves -- have decided to sit this particular battle out.

Who can blame them?

Not us.

By the way, if you see a crime being committed on your block, call a congressman. See what good it does you.