Anti-police sentiments have been at an all-time high in recent weeks in the wake of the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota last month.

Now, it’s been revealed that officers in the NYPD have been retiring in droves since his passing.

The New York Post reported that since Floyd died on May 25, the NYPD has said that 272 uniformed cops have put in retirement papers.

The department added that this is a 49 percent increase from the 183 officers who filed during the same period last year.

A source inside the NYPD explained that these mass retirements could signal a coming crisis for the 36,000-member department, which has also been hit with a $1 billion budget reduction after Floyd’s death as calls to “defund the police” have grown.

“We are worried about a surge in attrition reducing our headcount beyond what we can sustain without new recruits, and are afraid the City Council has not taken the surge into account,” the source said.

Police Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch spoke out to say that officers are “at their breaking point, whether they have 20 years on the job or only two. We are all asking the same question: ‘How can we keep doing our job in this environment?’ And that is exactly what the anti-cop crowd wants. If we have no cops because no one wants to be a cop, they will have achieved their ultimate goal.”

Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, agreed by saying that an “exodus” from the NYPD has already started, adding that close to 80 of his members have recently filed for retirement, and that morale among cops is “at the lowest levels I’ve seen in 38 years.”

“People have had enough and no longer feel it’s worth risking their personal well-being for a thankless position,” Mullins said. “There is no leadership, no direction, no training for new policies,” he said.

“Department brass is paralyzed (and) too afraid to uphold their sworn oath in fear of losing their jobs. Sadly, the people of this city will soon experience what New York City was like in the 1980s.”

Many NYPD officers reportedly see themselves as collateral damage in the chaos that has ensued since Floyd was killed.

“It’s an all-out war on cops and we have no support,” said one veteran Brooklyn police officer, who is retiring next month. “I wanted to wait for my 30th anniversary in October, but the handwriting is on the wall.”

This serves as a reminder that police officers all over the country need our support now more than ever. The men and women in blue deserve better than what they are getting.

This piece was written by PoliZette Staff on June 27, 2020. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

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