NYC Police Commissioner William Bratton stepping down

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton is resigning his post atop the nation's largest police force, after a tenure in which he received credit for keeping crime down and navigated tension between police and minority communities.

Though de Blasio was elected as a sharp critic of a police tactic that involved stopping and searching huge numbers of young black men, he picked Bratton as a sign that he would balance reform with further efforts to drive down crime.

Adding to a national wave of concern about police treatment of minorities, Garner's 2014 death and a grand jury's decision not to indict Pantaleo sparked protests and tension between the mayor and rank-and-file officers who felt he took protesters' side.

[...] Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were ambushed and shot dead by a gunman who had announced online he planned to kill police in retaliation for Garner's death.

On Monday, Bronx state Assemblyman Michael Blake, who is black, filed an excessive-force complaint against the NYPD, saying an officer handled him roughly as Blake tried to defuse an argument between officers and residents.