Patrolmen's Benevolent Association Of The City Of New York
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The Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York (PBA) is the largest
police union A police union is a trade union for police officers. Police unions formed later than most other occupations, reflecting both a conservative tendency and relatively superior working conditions. The first police unions formed in the United States. Sh ...
representing
police officer A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...
s of the
New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...
. It represents about 24,000 of the department's 36,000 officers. The PBA was originally called the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association. On January 14, 2019, it changed its name to the
gender-neutral Gender neutrality (adjective form: gender-neutral), also known as gender-neutralism or the gender neutrality movement, is the idea that policies, language, and other social institutions (social structures or gender roles) should avoid distinguish ...
Police Benevolent Association Police unions in the United States include a large number and patchwork variety of organizations. Of those Police union, unions which conduct labor negotiations on behalf of its police members, 80% are independent and have no affiliation to any larg ...
of the City of New York.


History

As a benevolent or
fraternal organization A fraternity (from Latin ''frater'': "brother"; whence, " brotherhood") or fraternal organization is an organization, society, club or fraternal order traditionally of men associated together for various religious or secular aims. Fraternity i ...
, the New York City's Patrolmen's Benevolent Association was founded in 1892. In 1901, it advocated for and received 8-hour workdays. In 1967,
New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...
passed the
Taylor Law The Public Employees Fair Employment Act, more commonly known as the Taylor Law, is Article 14 of the New York State Civil Service Law, which defines the rights and limitations of unions for public employees in New York. The Public Employees F ...
, which sets the rules for municipal union organization with regard to representation and bargaining.
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
set up the Office of Collective Bargaining for municipal union demands.


Lindsay Administration

The PBA was successful in its campaign to defeat Mayor
John Lindsay John Vliet Lindsay (; November 24, 1921 – December 19, 2000) was an American politician and lawyer. During his political career, Lindsay was a U.S. congressman, mayor of New York City, and candidate for U.S. president. He was also a regular ...
's proposed
Civilian Complaint Review Board The NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) is the oversight agency of the New York City Police Department (NYPD), the largest police force in the United States. A board of the Government of New York City, the CCRB is tasked with investigatin ...
in 1967. After a SBA (NYPD
Sergeants Benevolent Association The Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA) is an American police union that represents the sergeants of the New York City Police Department (NYPD), while the department's nonsupervisory patrol officers are represented by the larger Police Bene ...
) lawsuit which was expected to succeed failed, officers who had been expecting a favorable settlement began a
wildcat strike The wildcat is a species complex comprising two small wild cat species: the European wildcat (''Felis silvestris'') and the African wildcat (''F. lybica''). The European wildcat inhabits forests in Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus, while the ...
. This unplanned
police strike A police strike is a potential tactic when law enforcement workers are embroiled in a labour dispute. Sometimes military personnel are called in to keep order or discipline the strikers. Police strikes have the potential to cause civil unrest. Li ...
of 1971 was in violation of the Taylor Act which prohibits police from engaging in job actions. The PBA publicly disavowed the strike. In 1973, New York City began assigning female police officers to work street patrols. The association was opposed to the change, claiming women lacked the physical strength needed to back up male officers.


Koch Administration

In January 1978, Mayor
Ed Koch Edward Irving Koch ( ; December 12, 1924February 1, 2013) was an American politician, lawyer, political commentator, film critic, and television personality. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1977 and was may ...
prohibited city agencies from discrimination on the basis of
sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...
. Samuel DeMilia, then the president of the association, explained in an article in ''The New York Times'' that the order was "unworkable in the police department and can do more harm than good."


Dinkins Administration

In September 1992, the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association organized a rally of thousands of police officers who blocked the
Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/ suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River ...
to protest police oversight proposed by Mayor
David Dinkins David Norman Dinkins (July 10, 1927 – November 23, 2020) was an American politician, lawyer, and author who served as the 106th mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1993. He was the first African American to hold the office. Before enteri ...
. Other uniformed officers jumped over police barricades to rush City Hall. Some were openly drinking, damaging cars, and physically attacking journalists from ''The New York Times'' on the scene. On-duty officers did little to control the riot.


Giuliani Administration

The PBA's relations with Mayor
Rudy Giuliani Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (, ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 198 ...
(mayoralty, 1994–2001) were marked by years of labor disputes. In 1997, it led a campaign asking Giuliani not to attend the funerals of city officers killed on duty. The PBA urged members to resist the mayor's incentive pay initiative in 1998. Additionally, in a five-year contract, officers were subject to a two-year freeze on salaries before seeing salaries increased 13 percent during the last years of the Giuliani tenure. During November 2007, in anticipation of the 2008 presidential election, PBA president Patrick Lynch criticized the relationship between Giuliani and the NYPD. He said that the union would not endorse Giuliani. He criticized the mayor on pay issues, saying, "The inability to keep veteran cops on the job or to recruit adequate numbers of new ones can be traced directly back to the Giuliani mayoralty." He added, "While the city was rolling in money, the Giuliani administration cried future poverty and stuck New York police officers with three and half years without a pay raise." Lynch further asserted that "Rudy Giuliani has no real credentials as a terrorism fighter."


September 11th

Many officers perished at the Twin Towers during the
September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
in
Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
. In the course of their work shifts, scores more were exposed to toxins—produced by the collapse of the Twin Towers during the
rescue and recovery effort after the September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center elicited a large response of local emergency and rescue personnel to assist in the evacuation of the two towers, resulting in a large loss of the same personnel when the towers collapsed. Afte ...
at Ground Zero. Surviving first responders and their advocates are asserting that their illnesses resulted from exposure to toxins at Ground Zero. The PBA filed a lawsuit to secure benefits for Officer Christopher Hynes (then aged 36). In March 2004, he was diagnosed as having
sarcoidosis Sarcoidosis (also known as ''Besnier-Boeck-Schaumann disease'') is a disease involving abnormal collections of inflammatory cells that form lumps known as granulomata. The disease usually begins in the lungs, skin, or lymph nodes. Less commonly af ...
. Despite the diagnosis, the NYPD refused to grant line-of-duty injury status to him. Hynes had worked for a total of 111 hours at Ground Zero and its vicinity. He has claimed that he was never given a proper respirator for his work at Ground Zero. He has had difficulty in paying medical bills because of the denial of line-of-duty status. The PBA noted that firefighters, by contrast, have been given line-of-duty status for illnesses traced back to working at Ground Zero.


de Blasio Administration

Following NYC Mayor
Bill de Blasio Bill de Blasio (; born Warren Wilhelm Jr., May 8, 1961; later Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm) is an American politician who served as the 109th mayor of New York City from 2014 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he held the office of New Yor ...
's election in 2013, running largely on a political campaign advocating for reform in publicly unpopular NYPD policies, including " Stop and Frisk", the PBA began actively organizing against de Blasio, accusing him of failing to support the NYPD, as these policies were heavily promoted by previous mayoral administrations to prevent violent crime. Prior to these policies being instated, the city was suffering from a crime epidemic which promoted the aggressive "Stop and Frisk" policy under the Bloomberg administration. This was a shift from a mildly successful movement towards community policing under the Giuliani administration. The PBA felt that their officers were being wrongly blamed for the failed change of policies by politicians, rather than being supported in transitioning to a new form of policing by the de Blasio administration. Following the killing of two NYPD officers in Brooklyn on December 20, 2014, in an execution-style shooting, the PBA's opposition to de Blasio reached an all-time high, with PBA President Patrick Lynch accusing Mayor de Blasio of having blood on his hands, and of encouraging violence against police and acting like the leader of a "f-ing revolution." Further, the PBA asked members to sign letters ordering the Mayor not to attend their funerals, should they perish in the line of duty. They felt that if the Mayor were to attend their funerals it would be out of political motivation rather than a sincere appreciation of their sacrifice to protect the citizens of New York City. Lynch urged the police to stick close to the rules to protect themselves. Lynch's comments were much criticized by supporters of Mayor de Blasio. Many feared Lynch's comments would further inflame the more radical elements of his opposition, serve to incite further acts of violence against the NYPD, and lead to further police abuses carried out as a result of the "wartime" posture. On January 31, 2017, the city and the union reached an agreement on a new contract. If ratified by the union members, the contract called for an 11% pay increase for police officers on the force and cuts to officers hired in the future. In March 2020 NYC Health Commissioner
Oxiris Barbot Oxiris Barbot (, born ) is an American pediatrician who served as the Commissioner of Health of the City of New York from 2018 to 2020. She was then appointed to public health positions with Columbia University and the Jeffry Picower, JPB Foundat ...
denied a
New York Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...
(NYPD) request for 500,000
surgical mask A surgical mask, also known by other names such as a medical face mask or procedure mask, is a personal protective equipment used by healthcare professionals that serves as a mechanical barrier that interferes with direct airflow in and out of re ...
s. She told NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan during the heated dispute that “I don’t give two rats’ asses about your cops.” The Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York called for her to fired. Barbot later apologized.


Eric Garner's death

PBA president Patrick Lynch blamed the
killing of Eric Garner On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner was killed in the New York City borough of Staten Island after Daniel Pantaleo, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer, put him in a prohibited chokehold while arresting him. Video footage of the incide ...
by policeman Daniel Pantaleo on Garner's resistance to arrest.


Shake Shack incident

In June 2020, three policemen from the
Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
were on duty because of civil unrest in
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. They ordered milkshakes from a nearby
Shake Shack Shake Shack is an American fast casual restaurant chain based in New York City. It started out as a hot dog cart inside Madison Square Park in 2001, and its popularity steadily grew. In 2004, it received a permit to open a permanent kiosk with ...
using a phone app. They picked up their order, but became suspicious of how the milkshakes tasted. The manager apologized and gave them coupons for free food. The police officers left and later reported the incident. This led to an investigation that determined there was no foul play. The Police Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch stated that the police officers had come “under attack” from a “toxic substance, believed to be bleach.” The association later retracted their comments and deleted their online posts.


Endorsement of Donald Trump

On August 18, 2020, Lynch and the PBA endorsed
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...
for
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
in the
2020 United States presidential election The 2020 United States presidential election was the 59th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. The Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and the junior U.S. senator from California Kamala Ha ...
. Lynch appeared at the Republican National Convention to praise Trump. Lynch had not conferred with the PBA before endorsing Trump on the union's behalf.


Adams Administration

After the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for city employees was repealed, the PBA called for officers that were dismissed for noncompliance to be rehired and given back pay.


PBA Cards

The PBA issues cards to its officers that read “The bearer of this card is a supporter of the PBA, and you should try to extend every courtesy possible.” Prior to 2018, officers were allowed to receive a maximum of thirty cards and retired officers a maximum of twenty; this has since been reduced to twenty and ten, respectively. Sometimes referred to as "get out of jail free cards" or "courtesy cards," they are officially given out as a "public relations tool" and do not provide immunity from arrest. Citizens that claim to have used them say the cards have allowed them to avoid punishment for offenses. Other police unions also issue cards, including the Detectives Endowment Association and the
Sergeants Benevolent Association The Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA) is an American police union that represents the sergeants of the New York City Police Department (NYPD), while the department's nonsupervisory patrol officers are represented by the larger Police Bene ...
.


See also

*
Detectives' Endowment Association The Detectives Endowment Association of the City of New York is one of three major police unions representing police officers of the New York City Police Department. The other two being the Police Benevolent Association and Sergeants Benevolent As ...
*
Health effects arising from the September 11, 2001 attacks The health effects arising from the September 11 attacks refers to the illnesses and negative health effects experienced by survivors of the terrorist attacks. Within seconds of the collapse of the World Trade Center, building materials, electr ...
*
Sergeants Benevolent Association The Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA) is an American police union that represents the sergeants of the New York City Police Department (NYPD), while the department's nonsupervisory patrol officers are represented by the larger Police Bene ...


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Police Benevolent Association Of The City Of New York New York City Police Department Police unions in the United States Trade unions established in 1892 Law enforcement in New York City Organizations based in New York City 1892 establishments in New York (state) Trade unions in New York (state)