Police Commissioner "Wild Bill" Bratton creates his own Special Forces, SEAL Teams, SAS, OSS and SOE — Then Bratton asks for new laws for all these guys

"Boston Blackie" Bill Bratton says that making “Resisting Arrest” into a “Felony” in New York would be "Very Helpful"  —   Yeah, but for whom ?  —   Certainly not for any LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS rounded up in some misguided “Dragnet” [like during a threat of heavy snow]  —  Maybe, it’s really good for his new Special Ops Cops

Bratton also put in place units of specialized Ninjas* and Stormtroopers** to deal with World War III, Terrorist Attacks, Spikes in Crime, Noisy Demonstrations, The Bay Ridge Ragamuffin Parade and/or Threats to Public Order When Heavy Precipitation Is Predicted

In case you missed it, last week in testimony at a NYS State Senate Joint-Committees Hearing, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton  called for New York State to change resisting arrest from a misdemeanor to a felony.  At the time, Commissioner Bratton was  testifying in front of a joint hearing of four NYS Senate committees See “Bratton: Raising Resisting Arrest to a Felony Would Be ‘Very Helpful’” by Will Bredderman, 2/4/15, NY Observer/ [http://observer.com/2015/02/bratton-raising-resisting-arrest-to-a-felony-would-be-very-helpful/] [@newyorkobserver on Twitter | newyorkobserver on Facebook]).

BRATTON THINKS THAT THE PUBLIC’S GROWING RESISTANCE TO POLICE AUTHORITY NEEDS STIFFER PENALTIES 

Bratton made a number of recommendations to the State Senators and others gathered at the hearing, including his main suggestion that the penalty be increased for resisting arrest [currently, resisting arrest is a misdemeanor carrying a maximum punishment of one year, which Bratton argued did not deter the nearly 2,000 resisting arrest charges each year].

Will Bredderman’s report in the Observer, went on with this version of Bratton’s keyremarks: ‘I think a felony would be very helpful in terms of raising the bar significantly in the penalty for the resistance of arrest,’ Mr. Bratton told reporters after speaking at the hearing in lower Manhattan. ***   The top cop reiterated previous statements that resisting arrest is impermissible, and endangers both law enforcement and civilians. ***   ‘We need to get around this idea that you can resist arrest. You can’t. You just can’t do it. It results in potential injuries to the officer, to the suspect. And we need to change that, and the way to change that is to start [raising the] penalties for it,’ he said....”  

“Mr. Bratton also called for laws instituting more severe penalties for fatally assaulting an officer, for attacking a school safety agent or auxiliary cop...  He also recommended measures mandating bulletproof glass in all police cars...” according to the Observer account of some of Bratton’s testimony.

BRATTON CROSSES A LINE TOWARD ESTABLISHING AN AUTHORITARIAN SOCIETY  —   EVEN A BUDDING  POLICE STATE

All of the above are largely defensive measures and to that extent are quite understandable.  But then Bratton crossed the line.  He wanted the gathered State Senators to support a ban on everyday citizens wearing  bullet-proof vests; and he called for tighter regulations on civilian window tinting, as well as punishments for anybody that publicizes the address and other personal information of  police officers.

Also, Bratton was almost completely dismissive of advocates, who sometimes complain that resisting arrest is often the only charge against someone who was not “resisting arrest” for anything else.  According to Bredderman’s account of Bratton’s testimony, Bratton said, “The vast majority might end up being dismissed...” he said, although Bratton then suggested that district attorneys at times wrongly dismiss such charges out of hand. “We’re asking district attorneys to treat them more seriously than they have been treated in the past.”

A WEEK EARLIER, BRATTON HAD ANNOUNCED THAT HE CREATED  >>>TWO<<<  NEW “STRATEGIC” UNITS OF SUPER COPS:  300-350 HEAVILY ARMED AND WELL-TRAINED  “NINJAS”* —   AND @500 NOT-SO-HEAVILY ARMED AND NOT NEARLY AS WELL TRAINED  “STORMTROOPERS”**

During the week before his testimony to the State Senators, Bratton made other momentous, ominous and controversial announcements indicating that the NYC Police Department will soon have two new groupings of officers: a heavily armed unit, primarily tasked with combating terrorism; and a more mobile unit, put together to handle more common events, like protests and neighborhood crime spikes

According to a report in the New York Times, “...A specially trained unit of 300 to 350 officers with heavier gear will be assigned to counterterrorism patrols currently performed by precinct officers who are temporarily detailed to high-risk areas of the city, like Times Square. ***   ‘It’s time to institutionalize, if you will, make permanent, that concept,’ Mr. Bratton said, standing alongside many of his chiefs. That unit will augment the Emergency Services Unit, whose officers carry heavy weapons and whose Hercules teams are often seen at potential terrorism targets. ***  Separately, he said, the department would create a unit of roughly 500 patrol officers who would help with temporary issues, like a rise in crime in any precinct or large protests. Mr. Bratton said those officers would be known as the Strategic Response Group....” (See ““Bratton Says Terrorism and Protests Will Be Handled by Separate Police Units” by J. David Goodman, 2/2/15, NY Times [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/nyregion/bratton-says-terrorism-and-protests-will-be-handled-by-separate-police-units.html?ref=topics&_r=0]).

The Times article pointed out that “The deployment changes that the police commissioner, William J. Bratton, outlined [ ] differed from those he presented in a speech [a week prior]. At that time, he described a single new unit, called the Strategic Response Group, “designed for dealing with events like our recent protests or incidents like Mumbai or what just happened in Paris.”

The Times noted that the idea of equipping officers with heavy weapons and protective gear to monitor protesters drew immediate criticism the week before, requiring Mr. Bratton to seek to clarify his statements.  —   “I may have in my remarks or in your interpretation of my remarks confused you or confused the issue,” Bratton told reporters. Now, the plan, he said, is to have protests and antiterrorism duties handled by different types of officers, in different corners of the department.

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Ninjas* and Stormtroopers** :   The terms “Ninjas” and “Stormtroopers” were not used by NYC Police Commissioner William Bratton  —   for all that I know, he calls the new units “Archie” and “Edith.”

When first announced, there was going to be a single “Strategic Response Group” of about 900 heavily armed, well-trained anti-terror specialists....  Now, there will be only 500 members in the “Strategic Response Group.”  The rest will be...  well...  Ninjas without names...