The NYPD's week just keeps getting worse. First, the video of an NYPD cop knocking a Critical Mass cyclist off his bike went viral and was widely commented upon. Now we have a second video. This one shows another cop brutally beating a man on the ground with a baton. Apparently, the NYPD was trying to keep people from bringing alcohol into a Manhattan park and stopped this man on suspicion of doing just that. The video doesn't show what happened just prior to the clip, so we don't know what, if anything, provoked this, (nor does it show any alcohol) but what it does show is rather shocking. It's difficult to watch and even harder to listen to.
As a result of the Sean Bell shooting in November 2006, seven officers with the New York City Police Department will face disciplinary charges for their roles in the shooting.
Detectives Marc Cooper, Gescard Isnora and Michael Oliver, who were acquitted on April 25, showed up at Police Headquarters separately and were led into a room where they were handed a sheet of paper with the charges on them - and told to sign them.
Each was accused of firing their weapons outside of NYPD departmental guidelines - charges that could result in their being fired, police brass said.
Isnora also was charged with violating NYPD vice protocols by taking action as an undercover.
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Also in trouble is the detectives' hapless former commanding officer, Lt. Gary Napoli. He was not charged, but prosecutors accused him of incompetence.
Napoli was hit with departmental charges for not preparing an adequate tactical plan before he sent his undercover officers into action. "It was his show and he blew it," a police source said.
Another cop who shot at Bell but was not indicted - Officer Michael Carey - was charged with violating departmental rules on discharging a weapon, sources said. Two crime scene detectives, Sgt. Huey McNeil and Detective Robin Knapp, were accused of compromising the crime scene.
Knapp was charged with failure to process the scene correctly and McNeil with failing to supervise the processing of the scene correctly.
Officer Paul Headley, who also shot at Bell but escaped criminal charges, has not been hit with an additional departmental charge, said his lawyer John Arlia.
Oliver, Isnora and Cooper remain on modified duty - stripped of their guns and badges.
As Rev. Al Sharpton said, this is a step in the right direction. These officers should not escape accountability. So far, this is a positive step by the NYPD. We will see where these charges lead.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of New York Post reporter Leonardo Blair, who was subjected to the NYPD's "stop-and-frisk program." He told his story in this video:
Ironically, Blair's employer has an editorial in today's paper that refers to the NYCLU, New York Times and Rev. Al Sharpton as "anti-cop radicals" and, in a way, arguing against their very own employee's case.
Nor is there any evidence of bias. The data "show a relationship between the percentage of individuals stopped and the descriptions of suspects," an NYPD spokesman, Assistant Chief Michael Collins, explained. In other words, the cops stop people who match the descriptions (race included) reported for criminals.
Of course, no one should be surprised by the allegations of racism - or even wacky suggestions for police, in essence, to disband as a result of the Bell verdict.
You would think that the right-wing views would halt for awhile, especially when this happens to one of their own reporters. But that was not the case. Listen to Blair's story and remember this: He is a graduate of Columbia University and is the crime reporter for Rupert Murdoch's New York City rag.
For the record, here are some numbers put together by the NYCLU regarding this:
- In 2007, the NYPD stopped about 469,000 New Yorkers - almost 1,300 people every day. Eighty-eight percent were completely innocent. Though they make up only a quarter of the City's population, more than half of those stopped were black. Another 30 percent were Latino. Though whites make up more than 35 percent of New York City's population, they were only 11 percent of those stopped. In 2006 and 2007, blacks and Latinos were the target of about 90 percent of the nearly one million stop-and-frisk encounters.
This practice should stop. Some apparently see this as proactive policing but when there is such a huge racial and ethnic divide in who the NYPD "stops" and "frisks", that's where the problem exists.
According to data released earlier this week, New York City police officers stopped more people on the streets during the first three months of 2008 than during any quarter in the six years the Department has reported the data.
In 2007, the NYPD stopped about 469,000 New Yorkers - almost 1,300 people every day. Though they make up only a quarter of the City's population, more than half of those stopped were black. Another 30 percent were Latino. Though whites make up more than 35 percent of New York City's population, they were only 11 percent of those stopped. In 2006 and 2007, blacks and Latinos were the target of about 90 percent of the nearly one million stop-and-frisk encounters.
Here are some of the findings as stated in the press release.
- During the last two years the NYPD reported the race of those shot by police, nearly 90 percent of the people shot at by officers were black or Latino. In 1998 the Department stopped reporting the race of civilian targets and started reporting the breed of dogs being shot.
- The NYPD command structure remains almost entirely white. At the end of 2002, 85.3 percent of the 735 members of the NYPD at or above the rank of captain were white males, with blacks holding only 3.9 percent of those positions. At the end of 2007, after five years of a large number of retirements and promotions, 84.3 percent of leadership positions were held by white males, with the numbers of blacks actually shrinking to 3.7 percent.
- In 77 percent of the incidents where officers fired their weapons at civilians between 1999 and 2006, the officers were the only ones shooting, with officers often shooting at unarmed civilians (like Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo).
- In 2006 (the most recent year for which there is information), police officers fired an average of five shots per incident when they were the only ones shooting, which is the highest number for the entire eight years for which these figures have been reported.
That third point is disturbing. In over three quarters of all incidents where officers fired their weapons at civilians, the officers were the only ones with a gun.
Not as disturbing but disappointing is the command structure of the NYPD. In one of the more diverse cities, the NYPD's top cops are mostly white.
Here is what members of the NYCLU had to say about these findings:
"These numbers scream out for serious review by the City Council," said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman. "As with the hundreds of thousands of stops and frisks and the hundreds of thousands of marijuana arrests, being black should not make people a target for a police shooting."
"In the aftermath of the Sean Bell verdict, it is particularly important that there be full disclosure about every aspect of NYPD shootings, including the role that race may be playing," said NYCLU Associate Legal Director Christopher Dunn, who delivered this morning's testimony. "We are deeply concerned about the figures showing that virtually everyone shot at by the police is black or Latino. Equally troubling is the fact that the NYPD leadership remains almost entirely white, with only a tiny number of black supervisors. The NYPD will never shake concerns about racial insensitivity unless it becomes more diverse at the top."
This report (or reports) was amazing. The NYPD's reputation is slipping by the day if it wasn't completely tarnished already.
This is what the NYCLU said in their press release about the release of this report.
The report, The Marijuana Arrest Crusade in New York City: Racial Bias in Police Policy 1997-2007, is the first ever in-depth study of misdemeanor marijuana arrests in New York City during the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations.
Researched and written by Prof. Harry G. Levine, a sociologist at Queens College, and Deborah Peterson Small, an attorney and advocate for drug policy reform, the report is based upon two years of observations in criminal courts as well as extensive interviews with public defenders; Legal Aid and private attorneys; veteran police officers; current and former prosecutors and judges; and those arrested for possessing marijuana.
"The massive, organized and relentless pursuit of these arrests under two mayors and three police commissioners represents a crusade by law enforcement," Levine said. "But that term does not capture other important characteristics of these arrests - including the harm they inflict on black and Latino young people and their families."
Between 1997 and 2007, police arrested and jailed about 205,000 blacks, 122,000 Latinos and 59,000 whites for possessing small amounts of marijuana. Blacks accounted for about 52 percent of the arrests, though they represented only 26 percent of the city's population over that time span. Latinos accounted for 31 percent of the arrests but 27 percent of the population. Whites represented only 15 percent of those arrested, despite comprising 35 percent of the population.
Government surveys of high school seniors and young adults 18 to 25 consistently show that young whites use marijuana more often than young blacks and Latinos. The arrests also are heavily skewed by gender. About 91 percent of people arrested were male.
"The numbers speak for themselves," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the NYCLU. "The NYPD routinely targets young men based on their skin color and where they live. Arresting and jailing thousands for marijuana possession does not create safer streets. It only fosters distrust between the police and community and strips hundreds of thousands of young New Yorkers of their dignity."
The arrests, which cost taxpayers up to $90 million a year, are indicative of the NYPD's broken windows approach to law enforcement, in which police focus on minor offenses as a method of reducing crime. This approach, also called quality of life policing, has caused a dramatic spike in stop-and-frisk encounters between police and city residents.
The report is astonishing. The press release opens your eyes to some of the report's findings but you need to read the full report to get the whole story.
The three New York City Police detectives who were found not guilty on Friday and three other detectives that were at the scene of the Sean Bell shooting are not finished with their legal woes. According to the New York Times, the not guilty verdict was just a start.
Although three of them - Detectives Gescard F. Isnora, Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper - were acquitted of criminal charges in Queens on Friday, they and their three colleagues are still facing the specter of a federal civil rights investigation, and the possibility of being brought up on departmental charges.
Therefore, all six officers remain in limbo, working without their guns and badges.
"It's devoutly hoped that if the federal government is going to look at this, that they do so expeditiously and in good faith," said Stephen C. Worth, a lawyer for Officer Michael Carey, who was not indicted but is under the same scrutiny now as the three acquitted detectives.
"These officers deserve to have their careers taken off hold," Mr. Worth added.
I certainly don't doubt that a lawsuit could be on the horizon from the Bell family. This was just the beginning for these officers. They might have received a not guilty verdict on Friday, but they do face more scrutiny down the road.
In the aftermath of the not guilty verdict for three New York City police officers who shot and killed Sean Bell in November 2006, protests across the city will occur over the next couple of weeks and Bell's fiancee will be at the front.
"Every march, every rally, I'm going to be right up front," Paultre Bell said, breaking her silence for the first time since the cops were cleared Friday.
"The justice system let me down," Paultre Bell said, her voice strong, her message clear. "They killed Sean all over again. That's what it felt like to us."
Her commitment echoed a vow made a day earlier by Sean Bell's father. At his son's graveside shortly after the verdict was read, William Bell gave his consent "to shut this city down" through a series of nonviolent protests.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who introduced Paultre Bell at Saturday's rally, said a massive citywide demonstration would occur within the next two weeks.
Bell was killed when 50 shots were fired at his car, including 31 by one officer who reloaded in the process.
The three officers were found not guilty on all charges, which included manslaughter and reckless endangerment.
Three NYPD detectives have been acquitted of all counts in the 50-shot killing of an unarmed man on his wedding day.
Michael Oliver and Gescard (ZHEHS'-kahrd) Isnora and Marc Cooper were charged with manslaughter, reckless endagnerment and assault in the 2006 slaying of Sean Bell.
Justice Arthur Cooperman delivered the verdict in a Queens courtroom packed with spectators, including the victim's fiance and parents. The ruling brings an end to a nearly two-month trial.
Bell was killed outside a seedy strip club in Queens on Nov. 25, 2006 - his wedding day - as he was leaving his bachelor party with two friends.
Really? ALL Charges? Even the guy who fired 31 shots into Bell's car? The guy who reloaded?
Look, I haven't exactly been following this case closely, but really? Nothing? Cops can still shoot and kill unarmed citizens with impunity?
A group of protesters marching to free the occupied nation of Tibet were beaten while authorities threatened to kill them. Was this Lhasa or Beijing? Sadly, no. This happened right here on the streets of New York City.
The footage was shot at a free Tibet peaceful assembly in New York on the 14th of March.
It shows the protestors holding flags and signs and peacefully walking down the street towards the UN building in the Turtle Bay neighborhood only to be accosted by police officers with batons.
One officer identified as "Delgado" is seen in the video pushing people as the group crosses the street.
Another officer, identified as "Serano" is caught threatening to kill two protesters as the cameraman passes. He later admits to the threat and apologizes for it.
As the group nears the UN building, cop cars and vans screech onto the sidewalks, cops pour out and begin to beat the protesters with clubs as UN security guards observe without becoming involved.
A non uniformed officer, who seems to be directing the entire operation, then orders the cameraman to step back and move away.
"Look at these cops, clubbing people in front of the UN, unbelievable, protesting to free Tibet, cops clubbing people in their legs on the sidewalk, in front of the UN in America, unbelievable, this is not China." the American cameraman announces in disbelief.
George Martin played his whole NFL career with the New York Giants. He had a few claims to fame during his career. First, he was one of the captains on the Giants Super Bowl XXI winning team. Also, he previously held the record for touchdowns scored by a defensive lineman.
Now, Martin is walking across the country for a great cause: To raise money for the Sept. 11, 2001 first responders.
A Journey For 9/11 hopes to raise $10 million to help pay for health care costs that the first responders and recovery workers who came to Ground Zero require. Here is an explanation of the Journey.
Our mission is to help provide health care for the surviving rescue and recovery workers who rushed to Ground Zero after the 9-11 attacks, by raising a minimum of $10 Million.
One day an idea came to George Martin, executive, humanitarian and former New York Football Giants star. Many of those who had rushed to aid in the aftermath of 9-11 are sick with respiratory and other diseases that can cause permanent disability. Some have even lost their jobs and had no insurance. Mr. Martin wanted to help.
Mr. Martin will walk from the George Washington Bridge (NY) to the Golden Gate Bridge (CA), stopping along the way to promote various events in support of the mission.
The goal is to raise a minimum of $10 million for medical care for Ground Zero workers. Mr. Martin is looking to raise funds and, in addition, whatever amount he raises, participating Hospitals and Medical Care partners will provide a dollar-for-dollar match in medical services essentially doubling the amount of help care available for The Heroes of Ground Zero.
Rudy Giuliani ordered the NYPD to chauffeur his then mistress and current wife far earlier than he has previously admitted. In fact, she was assigned a "security" detail due to unspecified threats against her even though she wasn't a public figure and her affair with the married Mayor wasn't yet public knowledge. One source even claims that Nathan was assigned her chauffeur service as early as 1999. Her "security" detail often included up to 7 NYPD detectives who took her shopping, carried her packages and even walked her dog. Former neighbors and even an NYPD source describe a "full-scale valet service at Nathan's beck and call well before the affair became public."
Judith Nathan got taxpayer-funded chauffeur services from the NYPD earlier than previously disclosed - even before her affair with then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani was revealed, witnesses and sources tell the Daily News.
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When pressed by The News Thursday, aides to the Republican presidential hopeful conceded that Nathan got police protection "sporadically" before December 2000 - the previously acknowledged beginning of her taxpayer-funded detail.
Then-Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik said in January 2001 the NYPD assigned Nathan round-the-clock protection the month before because of an unspecified threat against her on a streetcorner near her home. He insisted at a news conference she had no guards until then.
Thursday, Giuliani aides changed their story. They said Nathan had received previously undisclosed "threats" earlier in 2000, and that protection was provided at those times.
They refused to provide dates, describe the nature of the threats or confirm - as witnesses and a law enforcement source now contend - that the protection began before she was publicly identified as the married mayor's girlfriend in May 2000.
That would make the threat justification all the more puzzling, because she wasn't a public figure.
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The law enforcement source said that Nathan eventually had as many as seven detectives assigned to her, and that like any protected person, they took her wherever she wanted to go.
"Whether it was to take her shopping or business - you can't say 'We are not going there,'" the source said. "[If you did] you'd be walking a foot post in the seven-five [Brooklyn's 75th Precinct] somewhere."
The docs were dumped as a huge, unsearchable .pdf file. (Maybe Bruno is "consulting" for the NYPD?) The good folks at i-witness video are building a searchable database that they plan to have up shortly.
We have begun the process of posting all 600 pages of documents to the website. We will get them up just as soon as we can. We'll also be adding new indexing and searching capabilities to help you navigate through the documents.
After a quick scan of the content of the files, many of which are stamped "N.Y.P.D. Secret," I have to admit that I see plenty of sensationalism on display. Like the "intelligence analyst" who concluded that "First-aid" advice posted on the Internet for people who were attacked by police meant "that participants of direct action protests may be willing to physically resist and confront disorder control personnel." [000102668]
Perhaps we should all offer some help to NYPD by reviewing some of the groups listed in the N.Y.P.D. Secret files and explaining precisely what they do. Film festivals: [000102685] they show movies where people sit in the dark and stare quietly at screens. The Brooklyn Center for
Anti-Violence Education: [000102706] dedicated for over 30 years to teaching anti-violence. The New York City AIDS Housing Network: [000102978] just like its name, it places people living with AIDS in decent housing.
What kind of training are these "analysts" receiving when they go out to collect "intelligence" information about a "mass leafletting" campaign conducted by a peace group, United for Peace and Justice? Information which is then placed in a file marked "Limited dissemination to law enforcement personnel and designated local, state, federal and military officials with a need to know"? [000102809]
It's sad, really, that the NYPD, for all its talk of "counter-terrorism initiatives" and "information-sharing", cannot seem to tell the difference between these folks voicing their opinion on the streets of the city and al Qaeda.
Seriously. I know that being a Republican and all, you are predisposed to both extra-legal surveillance and, ya know, lying about it, but please, for the love of Fiorello LaGuardia, please stop bullshitting me. It's unseemly and it makes you look like an even bigger ass. Today I read in the New York Times that you had to unleash the NYPD on all those "potential terrorist" and "anarchist" groups that may have been "planning to cause or take advantage of any disruptions", but that "We were not keeping track of political activities" and "We have no interest in doing that."
Bullshit. You know it and so do I.
"We had a fundamental responsibility to learn whether groups might include any potential terrorists or anarchists planning to cause or take advantage of any disruptions," Mr. Bloomberg told reporters at a news conference. Toward that end, he said, the Police Department monitored those who said they intended vandalism or disruptions and, he added, "in a few instances, we did keep track of groups or individuals who did plan to come to New York for the R.N.C. convention and who might have been planning violent acts."
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But the records show that the police did covertly monitor political activity. Virtually every intelligence report, even those about expressly peaceful groups, described the political viewpoints of the organizations.
For example, a Feb. 6, 2004, police report said that Leslie Cagan, the national coordinator of United for Peace and Justice, an antiwar organization, would speak at a conference later that month at City University Graduate Center. Her presence, a headline in the report said, "indicates a reinforcement of ties between organizers and expanding activist youth movement."
Stu Loeser, Mr. Bloomberg's chief spokesman said: "We weren't seeking political information. We were seeking security information. It wasn't because of the political views expressed. The only concern was what security ramifications came from the activities of those groups."
I'm not buying it, Mr Mayor. Prove me wrong. Release the surveillance records. I'm quite curious to see what intelligence the NYPD may have gathered on the Protest Warriors, the only group I saw all that week engage in violence of any sort. My guess? Nada.
There were indeed terrorists in town that week, folks responsible for mayhem on a global scale. There were individuals and organized groups and garden variety criminals in New York that week that had committed multiple acts of violence upon hundreds of thousands of innocents at home and abroad. They weren't the ones in the streets. They were meeting in Madison Square Garden.
We'll be discussing the recent revelations of NYPD spying on political activists with our guests Monet Oliver de Place, national co-chair of the ever fabulous Billionaires For Bush and Ed Hartzog, Executive Director of New Democratic Majority. You can listen live here and call in with questions, comments or your own story about those days of the summer of '04 at (646) 652-2783. You can also send your questions via IM to thealbanyproject on AIM or to the email address in my profile.
I may even be telling my story of NYPD/Fed wackiness from those days as well. Hope you can tune in...
UPDATE at 6:23EST: We are LIVE in 6 minutes.
UPDATE 2 at 7:31EST: The archived stream of this broadcast can be found here.
There's a big story in The New York Times today, confirming what many people involved have long suspected: the NYPD's intelligence unit infiltrated and subsequently filed reports on various Progressive left political groups in New York City that were engaged with the 2004 Republican National Convention under the pretext of stopping criminal activity in opposition to that event. This also provides a case study into government dysfunction in New York on several levels.
But potential troublemakers were hardly the only ones to end up in the files. In hundreds of reports stamped "N.Y.P.D. Secret," the Intelligence Division chronicled the views and plans of people who had no apparent intention of breaking the law, the records show.
These included members of street theater companies, church groups and antiwar organizations, as well as environmentalists and people opposed to the death penalty, globalization and other government policies. Three New York City elected officials were cited in the reports.
In at least some cases, intelligence on what appeared to be lawful activity was shared with police departments in other cities. A police report on an organization of artists called Bands Against Bush noted that the group was planning concerts on Oct. 11, 2003, in New York, Washington, Seattle, San Francisco and Boston. Between musical sets, the report said, there would be political speeches and videos.
"Activists are showing a well-organized network made up of anti-Bush sentiment; the mixing of music and political rhetoric indicates sophisticated organizing skills with a specific agenda," said the report, dated Oct. 9, 2003. "Police departments in above listed areas have been contacted regarding this event."
The New York Times' Empire Zone is reporting that an attorney for one of the police officers involved in the shooting death of Sean Bell has indeed been indicted by a grand jury.
A lawyer for Detective Marc Cooper, 39, one of the five officers involved in the Sean Bell shooting, said he believed his client had been indicted. The Queens grand jury finished its work today, but the action it took is under seal until Monday.
The lawyer, Paul P. Martin, said his client has to "surrender for a formal arraignment," but he declined to say when that would occur. Detective Cooper fired four of the 51 shots that night, the lawyer said.
"I am disappointed with the grand jury's decision but this is just the first stage of a long process and I am confident that once all the facts are considered by a jury of Detective Cooper's piers, that he will be exonerated of all charges," Mr. Martin said.
Asked what the charges were, he said, "I wish I knew."
He said he did not know what action, if any, the grand jury had taken against the other five officers.
A grand jury on Friday indicted at least three of the five officers in the 50-shoot barrage that killed an unarmed man on his wedding day, officials said.
After a flurry of media reports, President of the Detectives Endowment Association Michael Palladino confirmed the indictments in a late afternoon news conference, but said he did not yet know the charges.
