No, these departments are not collapsing, though they’re strained due to rising crime rates and the influx of illegal aliens. The immigration issue has become such a fiasco that Gov. Kathy Hochul is pleading with Joe Biden to help purge the Empire State of these migrants. It’s not a national story, though I probably would have picked up on it if I still lived in the Tri-State area.
Mayor Eric Adams was supposedly going to be a different mayor regarding relations with law enforcement. That relationship reached its nadir under Mayor Bill de Blasio, who took an overt anti-cop attitude during his tenure. Adams is a former cop whose political base that got him elected made progressives wary; he didn’t need them to win. Adams promised to restore plainclothes units to combat violent crime. It’s been a mixed bag since his swearing-in, and there’s been some high-pitch drama from the commissioners' offices from the city’s fire and police departments.
What the hell is going on? Adams made history by appointing two female commissioners to head these world-renowned departments. Laura Kavanagh heads the FDNY, with Keechant Sewell helming the ship at One Police Plaza. But 18 months into the job, Sewell quit, reportedly over the fact that the mayor’s office consistently undercut her (via NBC News):
Sewell took over as commissioner when Adams, a former NYPD captain, became mayor in January 2022, having pledged beforehand to name a woman to the post.
During her brief tenure, she oversaw a decrease in some categories of crime — including murders — while contending with several high-profile crises, including the fatal shooting of two officers during her first month on the job. In a statement, Patrick Lynch, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, said her leadership would be “sorely missed.”
Sewell shied from New York’s spotlight, rarely making herself available to press, even as Adams has made crime-fighting a centerpiece of his administration.
She also faced speculation that she was not truly in control of the department, fueled in part by Adams’ decision to appoint a former NYPD chief and key ally, Phillip Banks, as a deputy mayor of public safety. Banks has been holding weekly public briefings on crime, often without Sewell in attendance.
Edward Caban has been tapped to lead the NYPD, the first Latino to do so.
Over at the NYPD’s rival department, the FDNY, Kavanagh faced intense criticism from the rank-and-file for demoting some chiefs in February. Of course, lawsuits were also filed (via CBS News):
There is a major controversy surrounding the FDNY due to the demotions of three chiefs, moves that allegedly prompted two senior officials to react in protest.
The uncomfortable situation was felt at a promotions ceremony …
New York's Bravest filled the room with cheers for fellow FDNY members as 113 were promoted. But at the start of the ceremony, when Commissioner Laura Kavanagh was introduced, there was faint clapping and some booing.
Following that, there was loud and long applause for Chief of Department John Hodgens, who sat alongside Kavanagh.
It all came in reaction to recent shakeups at the department. CBS2 was told Kavanagh recently demoted three chiefs and we asked why.
"I'm picking a staff that's going to lead us forward into the future and accomplish the goals of myself and the mayor and, most importantly, a staff that's going to serve what the members need every day," Kavanagh said.
That move appears to have created irreparable damage, as she was booed again during the FDNY/NYPD hockey game in April (via NY Post):
Embattled FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh was loudly booed when she was introduced at the annual FDNY vs. NYPD hockey game at UBS Arena in Long Island …
As soon as Kavanagh’s name was announced on the loudspeaker before the friendly match, a cacophony of boos rained down from the stands as she made her way across the ice, video obtained by the Post shows.
“She was booed by firemen, we don’t like her and trust her,” one fireman who attended the game told The Post “She is ruining the fire department. She has no idea what it’s like to be a fireman and fight fires.”
The heckling came just hours after The Post reported that a tenth top FDNY chief has requested a demotion amid ongoing turmoil within the department since three top FDNY officials were abruptly demoted by Kavanagh in February.
Kavanagh sparked a mutiny among top FDN Y officials after she made the unprecedented move of demoting the three officers — breaking an unwritten, long-standing Fire Department protocol and chain of command.
By late July, the number of chief demotions had risen to nearly a dozen:
FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh is in a “Mexican standoff” with 10 top chiefs who asked to be demoted in protest of her controversial department shake-up, The Post has learned.
Chief of Department John Hodgens and Chief of Operations John Esposito requested demotions in February after Kavanagh demoted three staff chiefs without consulting them, calling it a “breach of trust. The mutiny grew to eight other chiefs asking to be downgraded in solidarity.
Kavanagh asked for a 90-day “cooling-off period.” But in the past six months, she has not acted on any request, and won’t say when, if ever, she will do so — leaving tensions simmering.
“It’s a Mexican standoff,” said a person familiar with FDNY operations.
[…]
Kavanagh’s first deputy, Joseph Pfeifer, raised the fire officers’ ire after telling New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd he didn’t see how any of the mutineers could be part of the team going forward.
“There’s a lot of very experienced people in the field that we can bring up, that may even have more experience than some of the people that want to self-demote,” he said in her April 8 column.
“No one has replaced the chiefs because no one else has the necessary incident-command experience,” said Jim Walden, a lawyer for the three demoted chiefs and other FDNY staffers who have joined an age-discrimination lawsuit against Kavanagh and Banks. “It’s total paralysis.”
In terms of office political drama, the NYPD merely had a commissioner resign. The FDNY firehouse appears to be on fire, with no one willing to put out the flames, least of all the woman who appears to have tried to gut the entire chain of command.