On Thursday the City Council overrode Mayor Bloomberg's veto of the new Stop-and-Frisk law, which attempted to eliminate some of the more aggressive efforts of the police when stops occur and frisks follow. The bill provides that an outside inspector general with subpoena powers be appointed to "study and make policy recommendations to the [police] department," according to the New York Times.
Bill Bratton used to be New York City's Police Commissioner. Before that he was the best police commissioner that Boston ever had, and after that he became the best police commissioner that Los Angeles has ever had. When he came to New York he gained fame by arresting people who jumped turnstiles or broke windows and establishing that no crime, no matter how small, would be tolerated.
His problem was that he gained fame -- Mayor Giuliani grew jealous, fired him, brought in his own tame police commissioner who was unable to control some cops and the Giuliani mayoralty ended in three scandals: Abner Louima who was sodomized by a policeman and Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond who were killed in police errors. Cases against the police were filed and the city paid heavily.
Bratton started his professional life as a cop and still works in the business. He's a senior advisor to Kroll, one of New York's leading security companies, and an advisor on crime to the British government. He's a cop's cop. And I hope and think that the New York police force and its commissioner, Ray Kelly, would comfortably accept him.
I'd love to see him back in town and I think most other New Yorkers would agree.