THE NEWYORKER, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 5
lican state senators. One must hope
that the diminishment of their elec-
toral strength will result in the elec-
tions of mayors, comptrollers, City
Council members, state legislators,
and district attorneys who will call
for genuine N.Y.P.D. accountability
and transparency.
Joel Berger
New York City
1
THE RUINATION OF WHALESAmia Srinivasan, in her chilling piece
about the slaughter and despoliation
of whale populations and the pollu-
tion of their ocean habitats, writes
that there has been a “mass gestalt
shift” in our culture “from whales as
an extractive resource to whales as
symbols of a global inheritance” (A
Critic at Large, August 24th). As Mel-
ville showed in “Moby-Dick,” the
whale is a metaphor, a microcosm,
and a mystery all in one. The crea-
ture reflects our greed and our mer-
cantile obsessions (Ahab’s bloodlust);
contains, literally and horribly, the
products of our industrial-capitalist
system, such as the plastics it ingests;
and reminds us that there is so much
in nature that we still cannot contain,
replicate, or commodify.
Srinivasan imagines surfing amid
whales and feeling a terror turn into
a thrill. The one time I was near a
whale—on a whale-watching trip off
the coast of Nova Scotia—I was struck
with a different feeling: unease and
dissatisfaction. As I stared out at the
leviathan, I wondered what I was doing
there, bobbing on the surface of its
world. I felt intrusive, like a voyeur.
We have no right to the whales or to
their space.
Brian Gibson
Annapolis Royal, Nova ScotiaWHAT HINDERS
POLICE REFORM?
I was impressed by William Finne-
gan’s cogent article about the New
York City police unions (“The Blue
Wall,” August 3rd & 10th). I have been
following N.Y.P.D. issues for nearly
thirty years, first as an executive at the
New York City corporation counsel’s
office, and then as a civil-rights law-
yer suing N.Y.P.D. officers.
Unfortunately, police unions are
not the only problem—just the loud-
est. Many governmental agencies have
worked for decades to protect police
officers from public scrutiny and ac-
countability. Among the worst en-
ablers are the New York City Law
Department, led by a cadre of hard-
liners whose super-aggressive tactics
have prompted several federal judges
to rebuke or sanction city lawyers; city
comptrollers, who routinely approve
millions of dollars in settlements
against the police but never condi-
tion that approval on discipline of the
officers; the City Council, which has
failed to enact the stiffer disciplinary
penalties demanded fifty years ago by
the Knapp Commission; the state leg-
islature, which has not repealed an
outdated law, in place since 1940, that
gives hearing officers controlled by
the police commissioner sole jur-
isdiction over disciplinary proceed-
ings; the city’s district attorneys, who
regularly dismiss cases on the basis
of false police reports but never in-
dict the officers who lied in those re-
ports; and the civilian complaint-
review board and the office of the
inspector general, agencies that are
weak and ineffectual.
As for the unions, at least their power
has waned, owing to the changing de-
mographics of the city. Today, the po-
lice unions have very little electoral
strength; their political influence is lim-
ited to a smattering of voters in cer-
tain areas of Staten Island. And, with
the Democratic takeover of the State
Senate, they can no longer cling to
power by throwing money at Repub-
•
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