New York Police Department's chief of patrol has resigned after less than a year on the job, reportedly because of disagreements with ...
New York Police Department's chief of patrol has resigned after less than a year on the job, reportedly because of disagreements with Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York.
Fausto Pichardo, 41, was the highest ranking Hispanic officer in the NYPD.
Pichardo resigned over friction with City Hall, multiple sources told the New York Post and New York Daily News.
According to the Daily News, Pichardo had endured weeks of tension with the mayor, who has been deeply unpopular among the NYPD for years.
NYPD ranks are thinning to their lowest levels in nearly 10 years, it emerged last week, as 'blue flight' is blamed on low morale from anti-cop sentiment in the wake of George Floyd's death.
June saw almost 400 retire from the force, with more than 400 in each months in July, August and September.
Fausto Pichardo, 41, resigned on Tuesday after reported tension with Bill de Blasio
Pichardo, pictured with the mayor in January, endured weeks of ill-feeling from City Hall
The final straw was after last week’s Orthodox Jewish protests in Borough Park, sources said.
Protests erupted when the area - home to a large Orthodox Jewish population - was placed under lockdown again,as COVID-19 infections spiked in the neighborhood, along with eight others.
Pichardo worked 36 hours straight, then went home to sleep and missed a call from the mayor, the sources said.
The mayor left what sources told Pix11 were 'rude and unprofessional' messages.
When he woke up, he returned the call, and de Blasio summoned him to City Hall to give him a dressing down for not answering the phone, the sources said.
Dermot Shea, the NYPD commissioner, tried to get him to change his mind, sources told Pix11.
In the role, he oversaw a majority of the force's 22,000 uniformed police officers, who are assigned to each of the department's 77 precincts citywide.
'Chief Fausto Pichardo, the NYPD Chief of Patrol, filed for retirement on Tuesday, ending an accomplished more than two-decade long career in the New York City Police Department,' the department said in a statement.
'Chief Pichardo, 41, was the first Chief of Patrol of Dominican heritage in NYPD history and has worked tirelessly in recent months to guide the men and women in uniform through a series of challenging issues that have strained the city and the agency.'
Pichardo is pictured at his promotion ceremony to assistant chief in January 2018
Pichardo celebrates after the January 2018 promotion ceremony
His abrupt resignation on Tuesday afternoon caught many by surprise, and was greeted with sadness within the force.
Jerry Keane, a retired NYPD sergeant, tweeted: 'Wow! @NYPDChiefPatrol Pichardo is a nice and well respected Boss.'
'Big loss according to a few officers I've spoke to,' said John Seravalli, NYS Assembly Regional Coordinator.
Pichardo played a leading role in handling the police response to large protests in Borough Park last week, after Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced new restrictions on schools, businesses and houses of worship in areas where coronavirus infection rates have increased.
The majority of the areas facing lockdowns are home to large Orthodox Jewish populations, and religious leaders have complained of being singled out.
The spike in cases coincided with the back-to-back Jewish holidays in late September.
Cuomo said Sunday that the so-called cluster areas contain 2.8 percent of the state's population, yet have had 17.6 percent of all positive confirmed cases reported this past week.
The Democratic governor urged people living in those areas to abide by the restrictions even though the new rules ban large gatherings in synagogues.
The violent protests resulted in Pichardo working 36-hours straight, and his subsequent confrontation with the mayor.
Masked police officers at the scene where hundreds of Hasidic men gathered on Sunday night
At least one person waved a flag backing President Donald Trump's re-election campaign
A crowd of Orthodox Jewish protesters gathered to express anger at the restrictions
Pichardo was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to New York when he was nine.
He grew up on the Lower East Side at a time when the neighborhood was considered one of the most dangerous places in the city.
He joined the department in July 1999 and rose quickly through the ranks, eventually becoming the precinct commander at the 33rd police precinct in Washington Heights, then commanding officer of the 43rd Precinct in the Soundview section of the Bronx.
Pichardo was named chief of patrol in December 2019.
'I'm proud to represent Dominicans, Latinos, immigrants, my family. It's what really makes me proud, having this tremendous opportunity,' he said, according to Pix11.
De Blasio, mayor of New York since 2014, has a long history of run-ins with the NYPD
De Blasio, the 59-year-old leader of America's largest city, will step down next year at the end of two terms.
He has long had a strained relationship with the police, dating back to his campaign when he pledged to reform the city's stop-and-frisk practices, which the police credited for a decrease in crime but detractors said was institutionalized racial profiling.
In July 2014 he was confronted with the first major challenge of his term, when Eric Garner was killed by a policeman on Staten Island.
Daniel Pantaleo, who killed Garner in a chokehold, remains a New York police officer. The state of New York did not charge him, and the Department of Justice investigated the case and declined to bring charges.
De Blasio was muted on the issue, and maintains it is a matter for the NYPD.
Two police officers were murdered in December 2014 in response to the death of Garner - the first officers to die in the line of duty since 2011.
Many within the force felt that de Blasio did not speak out to defend the NYPD, in the wake of Garner's killing.
Police turned their backs on de Blasio at the Brooklyn hospital where the bodies were being kept. Many more echoed the gesture at Wenjian Liu's funeral the following weekend.
Law enforcement officers stand, with some turning their backs, as Bill de Blasio speaks on a monitor outside the funeral for NYPD officer Wenjian Liu in January 2015
Liu died in a Dec 2014 ambush after the death of Eric Garner. The gunman then killed himself
In February this year, when police were shot at in the Bronx, de Blasio tweeted his outrage at the violence — claiming the shootings were an attack not only on police but 'on ALL New Yorkers and everything we believe in'.
The police union, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, replied by 'declaring war'.
'Mayor DeBlasio, the members of the NYPD are declaring war on you!' the SBA tweeted.
'We do not respect you, DO NOT visit us in hospitals.
'You sold the NYPD to the vile creatures, the 1% who hate cops but vote for you. NYPD cops have been assassinated because of you.
'This isn't over, Game on!'
Tensions have only increased with this summer's $1 billion cut to the NYPD's annual budget.
Pat Lynch, the president of the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, said that the loss of officers and budget cuts puts the city's residents in danger.
'Thanks to the City Council and Mayor's "Defund the Police" lunacy, no help is coming any time soon,' he said. 'Our elected leaders need to be held responsible for the dangerous path they've chosen.'
And the demands on the NYPD are only increasing.
Officers have been told to prepare for more protests ahead of the presidential election and as Judge Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court confirmation hearings begin, according to an internal memo.
Officers have been told to report for duty in uniform and 'be prepared for deployment' from October 25 with demonstrations expected to 'grow in size, frequency, and intensity' in the run up to November 3, the note says.
It warns police should anticipate unrest into the new year.
In the memo, obtained by The New York Post, officers are warned: 'This November 3rd will be the one of the most highly contested presidential elections in the modem era.
'There is also a strong likelihood that the winner of the presidential election may not be decided for several weeks.
'Accordingly, we should anticipate and prepare for protests growing in size, frequency, and intensity leading up to the election and likely into the year 2021.'
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