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Well, Jimmy O'Neill keeps his badge. Too bad, it means more than the integrity of the New York Police Department that he directs, somehow.
The commissioner Monday dropped the hammer against scoundrel policeman Daniel Pantaleo, putting an end to the city's five-year-old test, Eric Garner.
But it would be a mistake to think of the case as over. In many important ways, this is just beginning.
First and briefly some details:
On July 14, 2014, the last day of his life, Eric Garner of Staten Island is committed to becoming a cop fighter. It's a risky business for everyone – that must be true, because resisting arrest is fundamentally challenging a city's authority to maintain the safety of its streets, and such clashes will only end in meaning: with restored order.
For Eric Garner – a severely asthmatic diabetic with a failing heart – the day ended in the office of the medical examiner, a personal tragedy, but not attributable to anyone. And this remains true even though much of the New York political establishment has been declining since then.
Garner's supporters and the liberal establishment accuse Pantaleo of killing Garner illegally. But that has never been clear, and anyway, the US Department of Justice said exactly the opposite last month after a long and detailed study of the facts.
The only certainty in this case is ambiguity – and custom, jurisprudence, and common sense in New York have long dictated that in such circumstances, the benefit of the doubt rested with the agent. Try to imagine the chaos that would result if this principle were reversed.
But instead, Pantaleo's head rolled. Why?
Because the mayor of New York is a stupid man.
And because his police commissioner is a careerist whose fate has been an opportunity to show wisdom, judgment and exquisite courage – and who has decided that he likes his badge better.
His call The loss of Pantaleo. But also in New York.
It's easy to misunderstand the stakes of this endless melodrama. Let's be clear: Commissioner O'Neill's primary duty is not to NYPD officers. It is to the city itself and its nearly 9 million inhabitants.
Part of the leader's responsibility, when Garner type tensions arise, is to make it as clear as possible that the street conflict is between cops and specific law-breakers – not between cops and the community in general. .
Too many leaders of the city – Bill de Blasio tops the list – adopt an opposite hypothesis: the police targeted the community, not the lawbreakers, and is therefore the enemy.
It is a dangerous and pernicious notion that has led directly to the abandonment of proven and humane police practices; in the streets and chaotic metros; humiliations on the part of patrol officers – and Sunday's attacks on the real estate project on police officers in Brooklyn.
This animation philosophy was adopted a long time ago in Chicago, where mass sessions are held every summer weekends, without the scary rifles.
Also in Philadelphia, where they hold rallies for accused cops.
Ditto in Baltimore, where. . . Well, Baltimore defies description, let us leave it there.
New York is almost a sea of tranquility measured against these cities. But that was not always the case, and now the question is: what will happen next?
De Blasio does not care. He is clearly in the other camp.
And now, it seems that O'Neill is also, at least to that extent: when he had the opportunity to do what was necessary for an innocent officer caught in an impossible situation, he did not do it.
He blinked.
And the message to the 34,000 police officers in New York is pretty clear: the crucial moment, you can not rely on your bosses.
It is a prescription for fraud, avoidance and negligence. Daniel Pantaleo takes the ball, but New York is the loser.
Bob McManus is a contributing editor of City Journal.
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