NEW YORK — The video begins over ominous music in a New York City Police Department command center with top brass mulling over surveillance video of a man waving a Palestinian flag and ends with police officials talking tough about their crackdown on protesters at Columbia University Tuesday night.

“The conditions in this courtyard are deplorable. It smells bad. It just reeks … Lawlessness, that’s what this symbolizes,” says Kaz Daughtry, the deputy commissioner of operations, outside Columbia’s 90-year-old Butler Library. The video was posted May 1, the day after the raid.

“We’ll come there and we’ll shock you – take you to jail like we did over here.”

The tone of Daughtry’s remarks and the martial music point to a recent more aggressive theme in the department’s public relations strategy that comes at the same time a number of top brass are also being openly critical of journalists and NYPD detractors.

Critics say the NYPD is in danger of becoming overly political as it seeks to burnish its image, that there is a line between promoting good police work and taking a political stand on issues like bail reform or the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

They point to top brass proudly raising an American flag after arresting pro-Palestinian protesters at City College, and earlier comments made by NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell calling on Columbia and City College to expel “entitled” and “hateful” students engaged in the protests.

“They are supposed to be public servants, they are supposed to remain neutral, and this kind of politicking is inappropriate for police executives,” said Jennvine Wong, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society.

On Friday, Daughtry reposted a comment by Chief of Transit Michael Kemper who wrote, “You should hear the vile, disgusting, hateful, & threatening words coming out of the mouths of far too many of these so called ‘peaceful protestors.'”

“They are treating government social media accounts as personal accounts and using the power of the state as a bully pulpit,” Wong said. “They are attacking journalist and elected officials, whose job it is to hold the Police Department accountable.”

Under the city charter, officials cannot use government resources, like official social media handles, to “electioneer,” or perform activity that’s political in nature. The federal Hatch Act has similar rules against such conduct.

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