The Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA) smeared Bronx City Councilman and Congressional candidate Ritchie Torres as a “first class whore” Friday after he called for an investigation into a possible work slowdown at the NYPD.
Torres participated in a press conference Friday with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams outside City Hall in Manhattan, where they called for an independent investigation into a possible slowdown in police responses.
“In 2020, we saw nearly a doubling of the surge in summertime shootings. The NYPD is making fewer gun arrests, solving fewer cases and responding more slowly to gun crimes in progress,” Torres said. “The dramatic increase in gun violence can be best explained by the dramatic decrease in gun enforcement. That’s why we are calling for an investigation to examine whether there is, in fact, a work slowdown, and to what extent has the work slowdown driven the growth in violence in New York City.”
The summertime surge in shootings has all but doubled in NYC. Fewer gun arrests, fewer gun cases solved, slower response times to gun violence: are these signs of an @NYPDnews slowdown? @BKBoroHall
& I are calling for an independent investigation to answer that very question. pic.twitter.com/APQPefHLrk— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) September 4, 2020
That prompted the SBA — led by its president, Ed Mullins — to issue the misogynistic tweet later Friday afternoon criticizing Torres for his position. Their tweet included a photo of Torres being arrested at a 2017 rally against the Trump administration’s plans to cut Housing and Urban Development funding.
“He [sic] we go America this is what a first class whore looks like RITCHIE TORRES. Passes laws to defund police, supports criminals, & now because he’s running for office he blames the police to protect what he voted for. Remember Little Ritchie? Meet LYING RITCHIE,” the SBA tweeted.
https://twitter.com/SBANYPD/status/1301943424447377410
Torres responded with a retweet in which he blasted the SBA as a “bona fide hate group masquerading as a union.”
“The racism, misogyny and homophobia of Ed Mullins gives @realDonaldTrump a run for his money,” Torres charged.
He accidentally tweeted at the Small Business Administration in his tweet, but Torres followed up with a correction that included the SBA’s official Twitter account, adding “I intended to refer to the NYC hate group, not the small business agency.”
The @SBA is a bona fide hate group masquerading as a union. The racism, misogyny, and homophobia of Ed Mullins gives @realDonaldTrump a run for his money. https://t.co/mS8R7HW5lW
— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) September 4, 2020
The accusations that Torres and Adams made of a possible police slowdown were also critiqued by the Police Benevolent Association on Twitter — although their response to Torres was far less caustic.
They intimated that the City Council’s vote to defund the NYPD was partially to blame for the rise in shootings. Torres had supported the budget on June 30, which purportedly shifted a billion dollars away from the NYPD — though that figure is disputed.
“Should be a short investigation: 2000+ retirements and resignations this year, ZERO new cops hired since Jan., hundreds of millions in overtime funds cut, and a raft of new laws that killed proactive policing. What did you think would happen?,” the PBA tweeted.
Torres, in replying to the PBA tweet, referenced an Independent Budget Office report that indicated the NYPD would likely exceed the overtime cap by $400 million.
“You feel hamstrung by a cap that exists only on paper? I wish there were a cap on the @NYCPBA’s endless excuse-making and self-pity,” Torres said.
According to the Independent Budget Office, the @NYPDnews is projected to exceed the overtime cap by 400 million. You feel hamstrung by a cap that exists only on paper? I wish there were a cap on the @NYCPBA's endless excuse-making and self-pity. https://t.co/jKbPriwR6t https://t.co/lI1Ej1dHTs
— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) September 4, 2020
The Sergeants Benevolent Association got into trouble previously for its tweets, taking flak for mocking homelessness and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s policies on the housing crisis. Twitter temporarily suspended its account after doxxing Chiara de Blasio, the mayor’s daughter, and publicizing her info following her June arrest during the George Floyd protests.
