As the story unfolded and the tabloids howled, it turned out Cover and Lawrence were among at least 47 victims who have come forward. It was a return to “wilding,” a term coined in the 1980s when Central Park was a terrifying place and New York didn’t have a rehabilitated reputation to protect. It was also a new blemish for a police department already mired in controversy over its tactics. “The perception is generating a fear,” says former police commissioner William Bratton, “a fear that we may go back to the bad old days which many New Yorkers remember with great grief.”
New Yorkers and tourists (several of the victims were overseas visitors) were especially aghast that the attacks occurred in broad daylight. Where, they asked, were the cops? About 4,000 police officers had been deployed for the parade, including some 950 in Central Park. But Police Commissioner Howard Safir conceded that commanders did not adapt to the shifting crowds. Worse, some officers apparently dismissed complaints from victims. When Cover and Lawrence recounted their assault to a policeman at the edge of the park, said Cover, he told them he was on traffic duty and barred from leaving his post. Another officer also told them he couldn’t budge, and didn’t have a radio to ask for help. Disgusted, Cover and Lawrence left the city and called 911 from home back in New Jersey. Amid a flurry of similar charges, the police launched an internal investigation. By late last week they had questioned at least 100 officers and their supervisors, and had singled out several for possible discipline. And Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who at first had recited comforting crime statistics–which many women thought was insensitive–later promised a “very intense” inquiry.
Critics argue that police were reluctant to act because of a double standard when it comes to ethnic parades. The reason: officials are afraid of sparking a confrontation with minority groups. Supervisors “tell you to give people breaks,” said one officer. “They don’t want things to get out of control.” One group of four officers looked “like they were at a picnic,” said Peter Noel Duhamel, a former assistant U.S. attorney who was jogging through the park. They “were sitting on the grass drinking water, hanging out…. It was terrifically casual.” Safir objects to that characterization. “The problem, unfortunately, is with the press,” he told NEWSWEEK, “because if we’re assertive they say we’re aggressive, and if we are laid back they say that we’re too passive. But the reality is we police all these parades exactly the same.”
Still, the NYPD is intent on erasing any impression of laxness. By late last week they had arrested 17 suspects, and using amateur videotapes (released to local TV stations), they were seeking at least 14 more. Yet the fallout from the fiasco will continue, as complaints against the police about that day continue to pile up. And Cover and Lawrence are still outraged about their walk in the park: they each intend to file a $5 million suit against the city.
