NYPD Commissioner Bratton admits cops have contributed to the 'worst parts of black history'

During an event for Black History Month on Tuesday, New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton told an audience that although police officers protect civil rights, cops have also contributed to civil rights issues.

"Many of the worst parts of black history would have been impossible without police, too," Bratton said at a breakfast at the Greater Allen AME Church in Queens. "Slavery, our country’s original sin, sat on a foundation codified by laws enforced by police, by slave-catchers."

Tensions between the NYPD and African-Americans have been more strained after a Staten Island grand jury failed to indict a New York police officer responsible for the chokehold death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man selling loose cigarettes.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up

Bratton said Tuesday that police are working to provide the NYPD with better training, and that police need the support of their local communities. "We cannot change the past, but working together we can change the future," he said.