Former Officer on NY Times’ Anti-Police Op-ed: 'It Has Gone Too Far'

Former Tucson, Ariz., police officer Brandon Tatum, said in an interview with Fox News Tuesday, that the NY Times’ op-ed claiming police are "the problem" is “damaging to the reputation of law enforcement.”

NTD Newsroom

Published: 10/1/2019, 1:14:38 PM EDT

Former Officer on NY Times’ Anti-Police Op-ed: 'It Has Gone Too Far' — New York City Police vehicles sit parked outside the office of the The New York Times in New York City on Oct. 25, 2018. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Former police officer Brandon Tatum said on Tuesday, Oct. 1, that a New York Times’ op-ed claiming police are "the problem" damages the reputation of law enforcement.

“I feel like, in this country, it has gone too far," the former Tuscon, Arizona, officer told "Fox & Friends First."

The article titled "The Police Can’t Solve the Problem. They Are the Problem" and penned by lawyers Derecka Purnell and Marbre Stahly-Butts, focuses on the 1994 crime bill signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton.

New York City Police officers stand outside the office of The New York Times in New York City on Oct. 25, 2018. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images) — New York City Police officers stand outside the office of The New York Times in New York City on Oct. 25, 2018. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

While the op-ed said that the crime bill prescribed policing as the cure to social ills, Tatum argues that police officers have actually become the "scapegoat" for a host of social ills.

"Police officers have become the scapegoat of everybody’s problems,” the former law enforcement officer and activist told Fox News. "When you’re having a problem, you call the police, when you are the problem, you blame the police, and that’s exactly what they’re doing."

NYPD Officer Shot and Killed During Struggle With Suspect

In New York, just days after the newspapers’ op-ed was published, an NYPD officer was killed early Sunday, Sept 29. in the Bronx, after being shot three times while grappling with an armed man.

It was later revealed that the officer died as a result of friendly fire from fellow officers while he struggled with the suspect, reported the NY Post.

The NYPD identified the slain officer as 33-year-old Brian Mulkeen.

NYPD officer Brian Mulkeen. (NYPD) — NYPD officer Brian Mulkeen. NYPD

The 27-year-old suspect was also killed, after five officers fired at him, police officials said. He was pronounced dead at the scene and has not been publicly identified yet.

“We lost a hero this evening,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference outside Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, at an unrelated event, said Mulkeen “made the greatest sacrifice. He put his life on the line and he lost it in service to the people of this city.”

Mulkeen is the second NYPD officer killed in the line of duty, following Detective Brian Simonsen, who was accidentally shot by fellow officers in February while confronting a robbery suspect.

The Associated Press Contributed to this report.