NYPD cops are taking a hands-off approach when it comes to policing the Staten Island precinct where Eric Garner was killed in a police chokehold, citing an order from superiors not to “agitate” the community, The Post has learned.
“The bosses told us not to do anything ‘proactive,’ ” a Staten Island cop said, adding that he and other officers were ordered not to make arrests or even hand out summonses unless absolutely necessary.
“I’m not upset,” the officer said. “If we’re not going to get the backing of City Hall, why should I put my career and pension in jeopardy?”
But residents are plenty upset.
Arrests involving most major crimes in the 120th Precinct have plummeted in the month since Garner’s police-chokehold death July 17.
Gang arrests dropped 70 percent, from 35 for the same period in 2013 to just 11 this year, while robbery busts decreased 56.5 percent, from 23 in 2013 to 10 this year.
Drug busts fell 38.3 percent, from 60 to just 37. And arrests in gun-related crimes also dropped, from six to two, a decline of 66.7 percent.
At the corner where an undercover cop put Garner in a chokehold, there were 200 arrests and summonses issued from Jan. 1 up until his death. But since the incident, cops have been rarely getting out of their cars when they drive by, neighborhood residents said.
“There are so many people acting out and getting into fights, sometimes right outside my store,” said Paul DeJesus, who works in a deli on Bay Street near where Garner was taken down.
“When the police make fewer arrests in this neighborhood, that’s a problem,” DeJesus said. “The decision to go easy on these people is going to come back and bite the cops in the ass. When there’s another stabbing or shooting, they’ll be back. It’s sad, but these people need to be controlled. It’s for everyone’s safety.”
As if on cue, right after DeJesus’s interview with The Post, two guys started fighting when their bikes smacked into each other in Tompkinsville Park — right across from where Garner died.
The man who took most of the punches eventually found three cops up the street who took down his story and information.
A senior law-enforcement source scoffed at claims that officers were ordered to ease up in the area.
“It would be wrong to make the inference that we’ve given up enforcement in that precinct,” the source said. “As a practical matter, are we, as a police department, cognizant of local concerns and community concerns? Yes. That’s part of what we call discretionary policing. But that does not prevent us from enforcing the laws that need to be enforced.”
Additional reporting by Kirstan Conley