The Bronx County Bar Association must think bias against cops is a virtue in a judge. Otherwise, why would it single out federal Judge Shira Scheindlin for a special honor at its big fund-raising dinner next month?
As The Post reported Monday, Scheindlin is to receive the group’s President’s Award at its Sept. 18 gala.
Yet she’s the judge who was booted from last year’s seminal stop-and-frisk case for creating an “appearance” of bias, after ruling the NYPD program unconstitutional and the cops, in effect, racist.
Comments Scheindlin made in court and in media interviews created an “appearance of impartiality,” wrote a 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals panel. It said she failed to “avoid impropriety” and that “reassignment is advisable to preserve the appearance of justice.”
It’s not clear her ruling would have stood had the city continued to appeal it. But soon after Mayor de Blasio took office, his administration dropped the appeal and reached a settlement in the case.
That left a stain on the rank-and-file of the NYPD — not to mention a court-appointed monitor for the cops and other orders by Scheindlin. Now, eight months into the de Blasio mayoralty, stops by police are down 92 percent — and shootings are up 10 percent.
The bar association says Scheindlin’s stop-and-frisk ruling was among the reasons it chose to honor her. But some observers wonder if its criminal-defense lawyers pushed her based on their ties to her.
Whatever the case, one thing’s clear: If the lawyers cared about justice, law and order — and the appearance of impartiality — they would have found someone else to honor.