New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton told a crowd Tuesday that while cops have protected civil rights, “many of the worst parts of black history would have been impossible without police, too.” Bratton, speaking at a Black History Month event, talked about “the unequal nature of the relationship” between police and African Americans and said “it must not be denied.” Relations between the NYPD and blacks have been particularly strained after the death of Eric Garner at the hands of an officer, who was not charged by a grand jury.