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To the editor:
In 2015, New York City settled the Nunez class action lawsuit alleging excessive force by Rikers Island correction officers against inmates. Since then, these officers have not only had to deal with increased discipline, but oversight from a federal monitor as well.
So is it any wonder that inmates feel less constrained from assaulting officers? It doesn't take much effort to figure out why slashings and stabbings against Rikers staff are up 136 percent since 2016.
Just how much greater will these assaults increase if Mayor Zohran Mamdani goes ahead with his announced intention to eliminate one tool used to constrain violent inmates, solitary confinement?
In cases where force is truly unjustified, I have no problem with the officers involved being dealt with. But in all other cases, they should not feel constrained from defending themselves.
Rikers Island correction officers are approximately 90 percent people of color. So inmates beating up Black correction officers is not a civil right.
Ideology seems to make people put their brains into neutral. But just as we don't need stupid conservatives telling us that murders committed by ICE agents are not murders, we don't need stupid liberals telling us that officers are not allowed to fight back when assaulted by inmates.
Richard Warren
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