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 Lynch's challenger for control of the Patrolmen's Benevolent
Association (PBA), arguably the most powerful police union in the
United States, is a former friend and onetime ally from Brooklyn
named Brian Fusco, a union trustee and 27-year NYPD veteran.
"Pat Lynch's leadership has failed," said Fusco in an interview on
Tuesday. "We'd like to give police officers the representation they
deserve."
Fusco painted a portrait of Lynch as a charismatic, telegenic leader
who, during his 16-year tenure, has grown complacent and isolated on
the job. He noted that under Lynch's tenure, police have been
without a new contract for five years, and rookies have seen their
disability benefits diminished.
In an interview last week, Lynch, who has not faced a challenge
since 2003, said he was responsible for turning a "corrupt,
ineffective PBA into a member service organization where the
members' needs are always first and foremost." He also noted that
the NYPD has seen a 56 percent cumulative pay raise since he took
office in 1999.
 Fusco's campaign slate, called Strengthen the Shield, includes four
other union veterans. Two of them, Michael Hernandez and Joseph
Anthony, are representatives from the Bronx and were among a group
of officers who were investigated in 2011 for making tickets of
friends and family disappear. The case is pending.
It was widely felt by many police officers that the indicted
officers were scapegoats made to take the fall for hundreds of other
officers who were investigated but not charged in the probe.
That is a point with which Lynch agrees. "These officers are
sacrificial lambs, unjustly suffering for a common practice and I
don’t blame them for the way they feel," he said.
The long-simmering feud between the PBA and City Hall hit a new low
in December after a New York grand jury decided not to indict a
white officer in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man.
That decision, coupled with a similar decision a week earlier in
Missouri in the case of an unarmed black teen who was shot and
killed by a white police officer, sparked a wave of national
protests against the use of excessive force by police.
Heated exchanges between Lynch and de Blasio intensified in late
December after two police officers were shot and killed, execution
style, as they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn.
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The gunman, who later committed suicide on a New York City subway
platform, had said on social media that he was avenging the police
killings of unarmed black men.
Lynch accused de Blasio of having "blood on the hands" because,
prior to the slayings of the officers, de Blasio had spoken about
how he and his wife, who is black, had counseled their son to be
careful around police.
In the weeks that followed, Lynch became the face of a revolt in
which some officers turned their backs on the mayor at police
funerals, and organized a job action in which the issuance of
tickets and summonses virtually ground to a halt.
For a time, it seemed as if the mayor had lost control of his police
force, the largest in the United States.
At a union meeting at a Queens catering hall last week, it was Lynch
who seemed to be losing control as about 100 of the 400 union
delegates present openly challenged him during a question-and-answer
session.
When the meeting devolved into an expletive-filled shouting and
shoving match, Lynch adjourned it.
Later in an interview, Lynch said he welcomed the challenge.
"Democracy is a good thing," he said.
(Reporting by Michelle Conlin; Editing by Toni Reinhold and Lisa
Shumaker)
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