#NYPD says excluding cops from NYC Pride is ‘hurtful’

The NYPD slammed NYC Pride organizers for their “hurtful” decision to ban cops from marching or participating in the celebration, calling the move “disappointing.”

“@NYCPride’s decision to exclude members of the NYPD from Pride events is hurtful and disappointing,” Deputy Commissioner John Miller wrote on Twitter.

“As this scene reminds us, inclusion and dialogue are the oxygen of reform — everything @GOALny stands for as they relentlessly challenge and make us a better department.

Coordinators of the world’s largest gay pride celebration announced Saturday that corrections and law enforcement exhibitors will not be able to participate for at least the next five years in order to “create safer spaces” for “marginalized groups.”

“The sense of safety that law enforcement is meant to provide can instead be threatening, and at times dangerous, to those in our community who are most often targeted with excessive force and/or without reason,” organizers said in a statement.

“NYC Pride is unwilling to contribute in any way to creating an atmosphere of fear or harm for members of the community.”

Detective Brian Downey, president of the NYPD’s Gay Officers Action League, said that members of the police department have been marching at the celebration for nearly four decades.

“I don’t know what the end game is here,” Downey said of the decision. “When you create an echo chamber and you take a dissenting voice other than the voice of these activists, who don’t want reform they just want abolition.”