[NYPOST] As Police Commissioner Dermot Shea was reassuring New Yorkers Monday that the NYPD would soon add 900 sorely needed cops, dozens of his rank and file were heading for the exits — continuing a trend that’s sapped the department for much of the year. If the politicians don’t quit the cop-bashing, expect the exodus to grow.
As The Post’s Aaron Feis and Larry Celona report this week, about 50 NYPD officers fled for police work in Nassau County just since Friday. Many had less than five years on the job, so the department is losing its fresher blood — and getting poor payback on its investment in their training.
This flight comes in a year in which thousands of city cops have already quit or retired. Indeed, so many were putting in their papers, police brass actually had to limit their numbers.
On top of that, the #DefundThePolice crowd forced the city to cut the department’s budget, so Mayor de Blasio canceled a class of 1,200 recruits. The result: The total number of uniformed NYPD officers fell to 34,184 — down more than 2,700 from last year’s count, 36,900.
Meanwhile,
...back at the pie fight, Bella opened her mouth at precisely the wrong moment...
violent mostly peaceful crime in the city is soaring, with shootings doubling last year’s rate and murders up nearly 40 percent.
What’s pushing police to leave? Feeling worse-than-unwanted: The anti-cop hostility — fueled by the Black Lives Matter movement and the politicians who back it — has grown overwhelming. For several years, city and state politicians have been undermining law enforcement, freeing criminals and handcuffing cops with new laws and restrictions. This year, the City Council passed an anti-chokehold law that makes it difficult for officers to arrest suspects who resist without themselves breaking the law.
"They are going to a department where they will be better appreciated by their community, local politicians and district attorneys who still value the job they do protecting innocent people and property over criminals," one source told The Post.
New York — both the city and the state — has many ways to rein in the violence, starting with a real fix of the state’s no-bail law. But keeping good cops on the force, and happy, has got to be Priority No. 1. 
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