Brooklyn Councilman, Often a Critic, Praises the Police
By JONATHAN P. HICKS
Over the course of his public life, Councilman Charles Barron’s critiques of the New York Police Department have been nothing short of scathing. In fact, Mr. Barron, a Democrat from Brooklyn and a former Black Panther, is perhaps best known for his highly public and unyielding condemnation of the police.
So, understandably, the ears of many a New Yorker perked up when Mr. Barron lavished praise upon New York’s finest over the last couple of days. Specifically, Mr. Barron commended officers for the role they played over the weekend in helping him and a team of negotiators coax a 19-year-old woman who had barricaded herself in her apartment to surrender to the police.
“The police officers did an excellent job,” Mr. Barron said in an interview on Monday. “They handled the situation with real professionalism. This could have been a far more volatile, dangerous situation. But they acted judiciously. It was well handled.”
Why the effusive praise for a police force that has for so long been the target of much of his criticism?
Mr. Barron’s fellow Democratic politicians suggested that it was a reflection of the fact that the councilman is running for Brooklyn borough president next year in what is expected to be a crowded Democratic primary. And, in an effort to gain support outside his political base of East New York, he must make an effort to appear less strident in his statements about the police, the politicians say.
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