Photo: AFP
Many in law enforcement across upstate New York are hoping that President Biden will put off his as-yet unannounced Thursday visit to Syracuse.
The trip is to bring attention to the $6.1 billion CHIPS Act grant which Senator Schumer’s office has said is going to be given to Micron, to expand its plant in Boise, Idaho, and to help build its expected plant in Clay, a Syracuse suburb.
The issue is that the recent murders of two Syracuse law-enforcement officers have put an emotional and organizational strain on police officers and agencies. In a Sunday night ambush and gunfight, Onondaga County sheriff’s Lt. Michael Hoosock and Syracuse police Officer Michael Jensen were shot and killed.
Jensen’s funeral was held Saturday and Hoosock’s will be held Monday.
When contacted by the United States Secret Service and tasked with providing 150 officers to support the president’s visit, the department asked if the trip could be put off a week. A presidential detail requires every officer of the Syracuse Police Department to be on duty, and creates a high-stress event just five days after the burial of a beloved brother officer.
Emotionally, the Syracuse department did not want to put its officers through that. The department hoped that a week’s delay would allow officers to grieve and prepare.
The White House refused the request for a delay.
Hopefully it will reconsider.
Because it is not just the Syracuse Police Department that will be impacted. Other agencies, perhaps most notably the New York State Police, will have their officers unduly stressed by a presidential visit.
In order to allow Syracuse officers to attend calling hours and the funeral of Officer Jensen, the New York State Police assumed all law-enforcement responsibilities for the city of Syracuse from 3 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Sunday. Most of that burden fell on Troop D.
Policing an entire large city, while also covering the routine patrol duties of the seven-county Troop D area, is a very heavy lift which required individual troopers to work extra shifts and days off.
Which they were happy to do.
But to have that immediately followed by a presidential visit, which will again push them to extra shifts and working on days off, is a taxing burden.
And an unnecessary burden.
Because the Micron announcement is not date specific. Senator Schumer has already told people about the money. The presidential visit it most accurately described as a campaign stop. And while that is important, it will be just as important a week later, and its value to the president will not be diminished by delaying it a week.
Beyond the Syracuse Police Department and the New York State Police, there is also the matter of the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office, which had a well-beloved 17-year veteran and watch commander murdered in this incident. It will bury Lt. Michal Hoosock – who left a wife and children aged 3, 5 and 7 – on Monday and be expected to support a presidential visit on Thursday. That’s another detail requiring deputies to pull extra shifts and work on a day off.
The chief won’t say anything, the sheriff won’t say anything, the troop commander won’t say anything. Neither will the governor, the superintendent or the mayor.
But something needs to be said.
It is too much to ask the defunded and understaffed law-enforcement agencies of Central New York to put their officers, troopers and deputies through the rigors of a presidential visit so soon after the murder and funerals of these two heroes.
Sometimes supporting law enforcement has to be more than a slogan. Sometimes it’s got to be something real.
And what the hundreds of men and women traumatized and stressed by these cop killings need is to be spared the rigor of providing presidential security and escort this week.
Do it next week.
Give them a few days to mourn and rest, and then do Central New York the honor of a visit.
The White House hasn’t announced the trip yet. I am the only one who has reported it. The date could be moved with no embarrassment or need for explanation.
And I hope the message will get high enough up the food chain for that to happen.
I doubt President Biden wants to burden these officers in this way. I am confident he would understand.
But I don’t know about his staff or the people at the Secret Service.
So this is the appeal. On behalf of a variety of people in a variety of uniforms, please, reschedule the president’s looming visit to Syracuse. Just a week.
As a sign of respect to two murdered cops, and as a token of gratitude and understanding to their brothers and sisters in blue.