NYC Corrections Officers' Union Plans De Blasio Protest

GREENWICH VILLAGE, NY — The local correction officers' union is planning to display large photos of wounded officers right outside a fundraising event for Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday night.

De Blasio is looking to add to his re-election coffers with an evening fundraiser at Le Poisson Rouge, the music venue and event space in Greenwich Village. The NYC chapter of the Corrections Officers' Benevolent Association is planning to park two large trucks near the venue's entrance, each displaying messages for the mayor and photos of officers wounded in city jails, union spokesman Mike Skelly told Patch. He said the association is calling on the mayor to make jails safer.

"Instead of fundraising and hobnobbing with celebrities, you need to pay attention to what's going on in the jail," Skelly said of the group's message to de Blasio.

Rikers Island, home of city's largest jail complex, is notoriously dangerous, one of the many reasons why criminal justice activists have repeatedly said the facility is beyond reform and needs to be permanently shut down. De Blasio acquiesced to demands that the jail be shuttered in March, outlining a plan that would see the jail population shrink and facilities on Rikers closed within 10 years. Until then, however, Rikers daily reality remains dangerous, for inmates and guards: A state oversight agency said this month that the jail was too unsafe for inmates from outside New York City to be transferred to, the New York Times reported. A report by an independent monitor of Rikers said that despite reform efforts, guards are continuing to use force against inmates, most of whom are pre-trial at an "alarming rate." The corrections union claims that violence against guards has increased as well.

The union is also repeating its call for Corrections Commissioner Joseph Ponte to be fired. Ponte, a Maine transplant, started his stint as jails chief with a reputation as a reformer but has recently fallen under intense scrutiny. Violence inside Rikers has remained consistent under Ponte's watch. Last month, the city's Department of Investigation chided Ponte for using his taxpayer-funded, city-owned car for frequent trips outside New York City. De Blasio stood by Ponte and the other officials who were cited in the probe, saying that Ponte had simply received improper guidance with regards to how he could use the city-owned car.

Officers from the union will not be picketing outside the restaurant, but the union's president will be there along with the trucks.

"In reelection year, the mayor is trying to paint the situation as rosy and it really isn't," Skelly said. "The mayor is wedded to his progressive policies as opposed to being committed to public safety."

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images News/Getty Images.