Unfortunately so many police departments are just gangs now with political backing. Just this 4th of July the NYPD decided it was their right to commandeer viewing areas for their families and prevent the public from using them. No repercussions, no politicians demanding an investigation, just armed people in uniform daring you to say something. This is a massive open abuse of power and its just shrugged off.
* Early in it's formation, the historical precursor to the NYPD was two separate police forces; one run by the city and one run by the state. At one point the city police (Municipals) was literally protecting the mayor from arrest by the state police (Metropolitans).
* Having to be rescued by actual nativist[0] gangs after riots broke out after the Metropolitans won out over the Municipals
* Repeated bi-decennial corruption investigations that lead to reforms which just push the corruption somewhere else and make it worse
Fun fact: the NYPD even operates in other countries. There's a weird post-9/11 program called the International Liaison Program[1] in which other countries pay the NYPD to station NYC cops in their country. It's absolutely insane that this somehow doesn't violate some kind of Geneva convention[2].
[0] People who wanted to build a wall and make the Irish pay for it.
On the face of it, the last one does not sound so bad, as long as the NYPD is operating with permission from the jurisdictions where they are operating.
Just like how a company wholly owned by New York City could have contracts with New York City, London and Paris at the same time.
Except cops aren't your Average Joe, they need to obey the local laws regarding a police force operations and without a lot of laws (or a suitable hand-waving) can't do anything more than an American tourist in the destination country.
They should formalize this. They have to work on the 4th of July, I don't actually see a problem with making it easier for them to be closer to the kids/spouse that day.
Why should they get more rights than the populace they enforce the laws over? More importantly this is not a formal policy they simply commandeered the space and forced the plebians out. If you don't think people should lose their jobs and be prosecuted for abuse of power over this I don't know what to say.
