Would there have been unrest if they acted? No. Fortunately, we know these few police who gripe about the Latino public response to law enforcement are wrong. There were at least three arrests for disorderly conduct in incidents unrelated to the assaults, 686 summonses were issued for various offenses (almost doubled from last year's parade), 2,601 bottles and cans of alcohol were confiscated (only 200 were taken in the St. Patrick's day parade) and some policeman did intervene when they heard of the assaults. In a crowd of 2.5 million people, there were over 3,000 occurrences of the police being diligent in their job. None of the 2.5 million people rioted. Nobody is calling the police racist because they did their job three-thousand times on that Sunday. It's possible to enforce the law without emptying guns on innocent men or assaulting someone with a plunger. There has to be a setting between extreme and apathy - and citizens respect that. The Latinos celebrating their culture respect that.
Looking at next year's parade, some police are saying it'll be "a whole different ballgame". This hint of spite is the beginning of what leads to the extreme button being pushed. Instead of festering in anger for 350 days, until the next festivities, they should be working with the parade coordinators and the community to set expectations of law enforcement. Young men should not be groping women in this parade or any other, and all communities should self-correct this type of behavior. This includes the Mardis Gras celebrations, Woodstock concerts, the Puerto Rican Day Parade and any other public festival. They should also look at the cops who have a lawless image of the Latino population and consider whether they need to be on vacation during the parade, or disciplined for their inaction, racial profiling and/or apathy.
The 3,000 acts of law enforcement tell me the police did an excellent job on policing the actual parade and the community respects law enforcement. Unfortunately, others did a despicable job in reacting to reports of assault and need strong discipline for their inaction on these foul assaults on women. Moreover, the bands of criminals need to have the harshest sentencing imposed on them for their actions. In these incidents, the police who did nothing are wrong. There are good cops and bad cops. There are good Latinos and bad Latinos. Good Americans and Bad Americans. The "bad" in each group need to be removed from the streets and the public understands that. Latinos understand that. The finest in the NYPD understand that. Why can't some of the embittered ranks of the NYPD and the ever-defensive Guiliani understand that?
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