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New York City's municipal employee vaccine mandate is looming over the five boroughs, but the NYPD's former top cop says there will be no first responder Armageddon in the city this weekend.
Speaking on the WOR 710AM Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning, former NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton recommends "everybody take a big, deep breath, with the idea that it's not the end of the world come Friday... I think what you're gonna see is that they all step back and examine the exemption requests... Meanwhile, let it go through the courts."
Further, Bratton dismissed statements by the mayor and the police unions as "a lot of rhetoric, a lot of blowing off steam... let the lawsuits go forward." Like current NYPD commissioner Dermot Shea, Bratton supports the idea of mandatory vaccines. He also warned the NYPD's rank-and-file cops that "the courts almost universally uphold mandates."
Listen to the full segment via the player below:
Elsewhere in the conversation, Bratton considered how the next two Election Days could affect New York's police officers. Eric Adams, who was a police officer before beginning his political career, is the likely next mayor, but Bratton hopes he isn't hamstrung by critics of the NYPD.
"We're all gonna have to hold our breath and see what Eric Adams is able to do when he comes in," Bratton said. "He'll have a lot of problems to deal with. I hope he's able to walk on water, because he may have to."
Bratton's bigger worry is how a left-wing shift in the 2022 gubernatorial election could affect the country's largest police department.
"That's how crazy Albany is getting, and it's gonna get worse, with the Attorney General [Letitia James] getting into the race," Bratton told the show. "[Gov. Kathy Hochul] is gonna fall so far to the left to stay ahead of the attorney general, it's gonna be loony tunes, if it isn't already."
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