Wednesday’s Headlines: Cops, Cops and More Cops

Yesterday was another big day on the NYPD beat, after a weekend in which Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials called for 1,000 more cops in the subway in the wake of two killings and two other stabbings, allegedly by a mentally ill man. They’re not getting that number.

The Daily News emphasized in its story that the city was denying the ask, while The Post played up the idea that the 644 more officers the city is dispatching in order to reinforce the Transit and Patrol bureaus was 144 more than it had originally announced.

In more good news (for the cops that is), the de Blasio administration disclosed at a City Council hearing that it opposed the effort of police reformers to curtail the authority of the police commissioner on disciplinary matters and end qualified immunity for officers in certain cases, Gothamist reported. The Daily News, covering the same hearing, led with the angle that Police Commissioner Dermot Shea skipped the proceeding, noting that it was “only the latest in a string of hearings” from which the top cop had absented himself.

In a setback to the force, however, police disciplinary records are now public after a lawsuit by police unions failed in federal court (Gothamist, NY Times), although The City stressed that the mayor was doing his best to make sure that the records won’t be released just yet.

In other news:

• In more subway horror stories, a woman suffered sexual abuse at the hands of a stranger in Brooklyn (NYDN), two women were punched on Manhattan train platforms (NYDN) and a subway rider who was stabbed over the weekend thanked police for the arrest of the suspected assailant (NYDN).
• The MTA’s online public meetings have become condensed on account of the pandemic, stifling oversight and transparency, board members charge. (The City)
• The Post and Streetsblog both trumpeted the news that scooter-company Revel will be offering monthly subscriptions for e-bikes.
• Like Streetsblog, several outlets covered the federal government’s walkback of the Trump-era policy opposing the Gateway rail tunnel under the Hudson (NJ.com, WSJ, Hudson Reporter).
• Former Council candidate Ben Guttman calls for turning parking spaces into mini-parks in a Gotham Gazette op-ed.
• Oh, and placard abuse is alive and well at the NYPD (via Twitter).