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Whatever else there is to say about what Bloomberg has done right, he has been totally wrong when it comes to continuing the Giuliani-era NYPD strongarm tactics, especially when it comes to political speech. http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=64625
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This NY Times writer would apparently strongly disagree (and so would I): http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/28/nyregion/28nyc.html?ref=nyregion
Scenes From the Blue Room: A More Flexible Tone Is Heard By CLYDE HABERMAN In a vestibule leading to the Blue Room, the ceremonial parlor of City Hall, the countenances of former mayors gazed from the walls upon all who passed yesterday. There they were, the men who led New York across five decades: Wagner and Lindsay, Beame and Koch, Dinkins and —— Hold on. The last previous mayor was not there. Circumstances have delayed the completion of his portrait, his representatives said; nothing more should be read into his absence. But Rudolph W. Giuliani’s absence was conspicuous yesterday, not only in the vestibule but also more substantively in the Blue Room itself. Gone — exorcised, really — was the hardness that pre-9/11 was his default position in moments of civic anguish, a rigidity that earned him at least as many detractors as admirers. When the unarmed Amadou Diallo was killed in 1999 by four police officers who fired 41 shots, Mr. Giuliani failed to grasp that whatever the wrongs or rights of the case, the collective New York hand needed a reassuring mayoral pat. Instead, it got a leader who stood in the Blue Room alone, lashing out almost Lear-like at his critics. That mayor, in every respect, was absent yesterday. In his place stood Michael R. Bloomberg, who understood that flexibility of the spirit does not necessarily mean weakness. Something terrible happened over the weekend in Queens. Another unarmed man, Sean Bell, was killed, and two other men were wounded by plainclothes police officers who fired not 41 shots but 50. The number boggled the mind. AND so, while insisting that an investigation must take its course before judgments are rendered, Mr. Bloomberg articulated the bafflement that many New Yorkers felt over an event that, plain and simple, didn’t smell right. “It sounds to me like excessive force was used,†he said, adding minutes later, “It’s hard to understand why 50-odd shots should be taken.†Given that difference in tone from 1999, this mayor did not have to stand alone in the Blue Room. He was surrounded by elected officials and clergymen from Queens, all African-Americans, like Mr. Bell. For a symbolically important photo, the mayor was briefly joined by two men who were never invited to the Giuliani City Hall: the Rev. Al Sharpton and City Councilman Charles Barron. In the interest of reaching out, Mr. Bloomberg chose to overlook remarks made by Mr. Barron, a former Black Panther, who came awfully close on Sunday to threatening violence against the police. If the city doesn’t respond to the Bell case, “don’t ask us to ask our people to be peaceful while they are being murdered,†said Mr. Barron, ever the statesman. “We’re not the only ones that can bleed.†That is true. Police officers also can bleed, not that Mr. Sharpton or Mr. Barron is known for speaking out when the spilled blood is blue. Did they call a rally after two black undercover detectives, James V. Nemorin and Rodney J. Andrews, were shot in the back of the head in 2003 while trying to rid the streets of guns? What do you think? Even as the killing of Mr. Bell held center stage, a Staten Island man went on trial yesterday in the detectives’ murder. Perhaps one result of the latest disaster will be a reordering of police undercover procedures. The Diallo case led to changes. But it may be worth noting that the New York police do not typically shoot at anything in sight, despite some of the overheated oratory heard in the last few days. By any measurement — number of shooting incidents, number of rounds fired, number of civilians shot or wounded — police officers reach for their guns far less often than they did 10 years ago. And 10 years ago, under Mr. Giuliani, the numbers were well below those of previous decades. In the early 1970s, an average of 63 civilians a year were shot to death by the police. The figure for 1996 was 30. Last year it was 9. Before the Bell episode, the 2006 total was 10. Of course, statistics get you only so far. Inevitably, something like Mr. Bell’s death reinforces a perception among some New Yorkers that the police are trigger-happy and the ones who pay, almost always, are black men. Mr. Bloomberg said he did not believe that the latest shooting was racially motivated. Yet many people, he acknowledged, sense “a pattern that is unacceptable.†“I find that pattern unacceptable as well,†he said yesterday in the Blue Room, exorcised of the spirit that once held sway there.
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That article is about Bloomberg's response to police use of excessive force. He's been every bit as bad as Giuliani, however, when it comes to using the police to stifle free speech.
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The NY Times hasn't had anything relevant to say since the Pentagon Papers. They really are a crap paper. Why doesn't the Times mention how he uses the law for private purposes such as eminent domain? How he wants to create a loop hole in privacy laws by installing tattle tale blinkers on automobiles that let the NYPD know if you've not only beem speeding, but where you've been and when? The one thing Hizzoner and the NYT have in common is that they're two of the biggest frauds since Walter Winchel and Hillary Clinton."Clamato! Straight Up! No chasah!
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My favorite Bloomberg blunders is the parade permit rules - groups of 10 or more walking 2 or more blocks would require a permit. Also groups of 30 or more traveling by any means would also require a permit. Which would mean funerals, weddings, school trips, etc.
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Please. I don't want to get into a tiresome battle of throwing examples and stats at each other about why Bloomberg is good or bad, but when you start making comments like the NYT is a "crap paper" or Hillary is a "fraud", it's tough to take you seriously. Besides, I assume you're both conceding the point that the NYPD culture has improved substantially under Bberg relative to Giuliani, as suggested in the article, since neither of you argued with the point but rather tried to change the topic to other grievances you have. I mean really, eminent domain is not even an NYPD issue at all.
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stacey » the parade permit rules - groups of 10 or more walking 2 or more blocks would require a permit. Also groups of 30 or more traveling by any means would also require a permit. Which would mean funerals, weddings, school trips, etc.
it's an outrage of course that rule will only be enforced for selective harassment of say, communities protesting police misconduct or Critical Mass bike rides but it would be really cool to get groups of schoolchildren to make the point -
escap » Please. I don't want to get into a tiresome battle of throwing examples and stats at each other about why Bloomberg is good or bad, but when you start making comments like the NYT is a "crap paper" or Hillary is a "fraud", it's tough to take you seriously. Besides, I assume you're both conceding the point that the NYPD culture has improved substantially under Bberg relative to Giuliani, as suggested in the article, since neither of you argued with the point but rather tried to change the topic to other grievances you have. I mean really, eminent domain is not even an NYPD issue at all.
I'm with you that a rant about the NYT or HRC is pretty random but escap, you're the one changing the subject - the thread started by addressing the new regs the PD is going for about freedom of assembly and basic first amendment activity. That's a topic worth talking about, and is totally different from a discussion of how public officials react when the cops shoot another Black man in cold blood.Carnivore » Whatever else there is to say about what Bloomberg has done right, he has been totally wrong when it comes to continuing the Giuliani-era NYPD strongarm tactics, especially when it comes to political speech.
We absolutely have a serious and growing problem in this city and this country - free speech is being criminalized, on the street, on the internet and even in the NYTimes. [Okay, that's freedom of the press but it's related. Have you been reading about the phone records of reporters getting handed over? There was a great article in the NYT biz pages at the beginning of the week about the lawyers for Hearst papers freaking out about all the gov attacks they are getting. ] -
escap » Please. I don't want to get into a tiresome battle of throwing examples and stats at each other about why Bloomberg is good or bad, but when you start making comments like the NYT is a "crap paper" or Hillary is a "fraud", it's tough to take you seriously. Besides, I assume you're both conceding the point that the NYPD culture has improved substantially under Bberg relative to Giuliani, as suggested in the article, since neither of you argued with the point but rather tried to change the topic to other grievances you have. I mean really, eminent domain is not even an NYPD issue at all.
Then I will say the same thing about not taking you seriously for your support, moral or otherwise of the NYT and H. Clinton. Sorry, but the Times hasn't contributed anything at all lately, except maybe the Bush thing where the journalist may serve jail time, but most papers reported one "secret" or another before the Times, they're just not getting jailed for it. And, when they give their support to the Atlantic Yards at the same time they are getting a sweetheart deal from the said developer (and correct me if I'm wrong on this fact) then I question their journalistic integrity. Besides, am I the only one who finds them redundant, repetative and except for some headline, way behind the time event/s of their story? As for Clinton, what she done for NYS except vote for the Iraqi invasion, go after video games and attend the Intrepid going away party last week? She uses NYS as a crutch for her '08 White House run. As far as eminent domain and the NYPD, okay I didn't make myself clear, he is using the LAW ( with Pataki and Markowitz) to evict people for a private developer. Concerning the parade nonsense I am not busting the common patrolman/detective, etc, they only enforce what they are told to enforce by City Hall and One Police Plaza. I don't see Ray Kelly being more effective now then when he was under Dinkins. In between the parade suggestion, the closing off of major water front property to stroll on, the obnoxious high fences you see on the bridge walks, video cameras being placed throughout the City "for our protection", NYC is slowly becoming a jail. And I wasn't ranting about Clinton, I was comparing Bloomberg (subject of story) with Clinton, and the NYT (author of story) with Walter Winchell. You drew your own conclusions"Clamato! Straight Up! No chasah! -
Carnivore, fair enough, you're right that I did change the subject a bit. I'm strongly opposed to the suppression of free speech or the media as well (although critical mass annoys me so I don't mind seeing them get the crackdown). Civil disobedience and free speech are very different: when you break the law blatantly as a form of protest (like by blocking traffic), you need to be prepared to face the consequences. You can then hope to have triggered a debate that leads to long run change.
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Idlewild, much of what you said is just opinion so you're entitled to it. I find the Times to be one of the best papers out there in terms of journalistic integrity, along with the Washington Post (which I rarely read since I don't live there), the Wall Street Journal and the Economist, both of which I read often. In particular I like reading the NYT and WSJ editorial reactions to the same events, since it's like the two editorial staffs exist on different planets. As for Hillary, she's basically kept a low profile and I have mixed opinions of stances she's taken, but at least I credit her for attempting to stake a centrist position in an era of radical polarization that I think is very bad for the country. BTW, do you think the NYT editors should recuse themselves from stating an opinion on the largest impact development in Brooklyn for decades, if not ever, just because their corporate parents have an agreement with Ratner? Come on. Or do you think they should just automatically oppose it to prevent the appearance of a conflict, regardless of their true opinion? Is that journalistic integrity? Finally, I hardly agree that the city is becoming a jail. In fact, it felt a lot more like a jail in the 80s, when I was afraid to go outside of my home at night. Now that it is safe to walk from nabe to nabe, ride the subway, and enjoy public spaces, I'd say we are decidedly freer than before.
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escap » although [whoever] annoys me so I don't mind seeing them get the crackdown
my rule of thumb when it comes to the rule of law, the protection of rights, and constitutional protections: if they can do it to ANYbody they can do it to EVERYbody -
pitu » [quote="escap"]although [whoever] annoys me so I don't mind seeing them get the crackdown
my rule of thumb when it comes to the rule of law, the protection of rights, and constitutional protections: if they can do it to ANYbody they can do it to EVERYbody[/quote] Well, I agree with you there, but again I don't equate constitutional protections with the right to disturb others, which critical mass does. You can speak freely, but not, for example, with a loudspeaker outside my bedroom window 24/7. -
escap » Idlewild, much of what you said is just opinion so you're entitled to it. I find the Times to be one of the best papers out there in terms of journalistic integrity, along with the Washington Post (which I rarely read since I don't live there), the Wall Street Journal and the Economist, both of which I read often. In particular I like reading the NYT and WSJ editorial reactions to the same events, since it's like the two editorial staffs exist on different planets. As for Hillary, she's basically kept a low profile and I have mixed opinions of stances she's taken, but at least I credit her for attempting to stake a centrist position in an era of radical polarization that I think is very bad for the country. BTW, do you think the NYT editors should recuse themselves from stating an opinion on the largest impact development in Brooklyn for decades, if not ever, just because their corporate parents have an agreement with Ratner? Come on. Or do you think they should just automatically oppose it to prevent the appearance of a conflict, regardless of their true opinion? Is that journalistic integrity? Finally, I hardly agree that the city is becoming a jail. In fact, it felt a lot more like a jail in the 80s, when I was afraid to go outside of my home at night. Now that it is safe to walk from nabe to nabe, ride the subway, and enjoy public spaces, I'd say we are decidedly freer than before.
I'll do you one better and say that one, what I say is fact, and two I indeed know that I am entitled to state my facts as well as my opinion as is anyone else. The Daily News is for Ratner. At least they gave reasons for it without any hint of being compromised. The NY Sun, my favorite paper next to the Christian Science Monitor also supports Ratner with heartfelt reason and without being compromised. Your definition of Hillary taking a centrist position is my definition of a politician taking an easy way out because he or she has no back bone. This is why unfortunately Bush won a second term. The Dems let themselves be spanked like a red-headed step child. Instead of of actually taking a firm stand they cowered. Just recently when Kerry made the Iraq joke and told GW and the GOP to shove it when they accused him of making fun of the troops, the Dem party got on his back and told him to make nice. The only reason why the Dems swept office was because of the incompetence of the GOP, not because voters felt like Dems such as Hillary can grab a rampaging bull by ears with their teeth and put it down. I will admit however that as First Lady, her health care reforms and wanting to include gays in the military were brave and revolutionary. She lost that spirit and fight when she became senator for NY, specifically after 9/11. What exactly does suppressing a crowd of ten people or more having a gathering, fencing off waterfronts, not allowing people to take pictures of bridges and tunnels, not allowing anyone to walk the park at night, and keeping violent crime, domestic crime, drug crime, etc, down have to do with each other? I also feel safe walking the streets at night, but why throw me in jail because I want to walk the waterfront or take a pic of the Marine Parkway or evict me from my house because I stand in the way of luxury condo complex and a Nets' arena?????"Clamato! Straight Up! No chasah! -
Well, I have no beef with your grievances over some of these specific issues such as the waterfront fences, mostly since I really don't know any details about why the fences are there, who's affected, etc. The pics issue is the city's pitiful and absurd attempt to combat terrorism, and while I don't feel like my liberties have been oppressed, it's pretty sad. Which park can't we walk in at night? I was just in one, so I'm sure it's not all of them. As for the Nets, Bberg may have thrown his moral support behind AY, but he does not have the ability to exercise eminent domain. That's an issue that the courts will decide in the next few months. I'll concede that his administration has been hostile to protesters / gatherers, and though I think you should avoid rhetoric that makes it seem like we live in Cuba or Myanmar or something, I can understand Carnivore's initial concern and criticism on this point. There, happy?
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Nyet!"Clamato! Straight Up! No chasah!
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to add to the discussion of policing tactics in our city . . . Herbert's NYT column today about four people approached in a car by undercover cops... Idlewild, I officially could not disagree with you more about the Times. The cover story on the video of the detention of Jose Padillo knocks it out of the park today. And there's always the occasional bit on the OpEd pages, like the following December 4, 2006 Op-Ed Columnist Presumed Guilty By BOB HERBERT The death of Sean Bell at the hands of undercover police officers, who also wounded his two companions in their 50-shot barrage in Queens nine days ago, brought to mind a case from a few years back in which undercover cops, acting on bogus information, attacked an innocent group of young people in a car in Manhattan. The cops in the Manhattan case assumed that the people in the car were lowlifes. They were all Ivy League graduates, and one is currently clerking for U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. The incident occurred about 11:30 p.m. on Jan. 10, 2000. Two men and two women who were running their own startup Internet company, MagicBeanStalk.com, were parked outside a subway station on East 14th Street, near Union Square. Without any warning, a plainclothes officer leaped out of a yellow cab with his gun drawn and rushed the car with the four young people in it. Thinking he was being carjacked, the driver put the vehicle in reverse and tried to get away. He was blocked by an unmarked police car that had pulled up behind him. He ended up hitting both the unmarked car and the cab (which was also a police vehicle) in his unsuccessful effort to flee. The driver, Jason Rowley, who was 25 at the time, had no idea that the man with the gun was a cop. “I thought he was going to shoot me,†he said in an interview last week. “I was trying to get out of there.†The passenger in the front seat, Sheldon Gilbert, said, “We thought we were going to die, plain and simple.†The first cop was joined by two others, also in plain clothes. The officers apparently were enraged by Mr. Rowley’s effort to get away. One smashed the window on the driver’s side of the car and dragged Mr. Rowley through it, ripping his thumb in the process. Mr. Gilbert said his door was yanked open and he was punched in the face and then dragged from the car. The two men were then beaten. The two women, Lauren Sudeall and Marie Claire Lim, were in the back seat, completely terrified. They were taken from the car at gunpoint and handcuffed. All four occupants were arrested. It turned out that the cops were acting on a mistaken computer report that Mr. Rowley’s car was stolen. As frightening as the incident was, the four people in the car were lucky that none of the cops opened fire. “I spent that night in jail,†said Mr. Rowley, “and a lot of the officers told me that if this had been elsewhere — for example, if this has been in the Bronx or Harlem — I’d have been dead.†As the case was processed, the police learned that the car indeed belonged to Mr. Rowley, that all four occupants had recently graduated from college (Mr. Rowley from Brown and the others from Yale), that Ms. Sudeall was carrying an acceptance letter from Harvard Law School, and that they had all been coming home from a long day’s work at their company. None of that protected them from being treated by the police like trash. Mr. Rowley and Mr. Gilbert are black. Ms. Sudeall is of mixed parentage, black and white, and Ms. Lim is from the Philippines. The officers who rushed their car were white. Jonathan Abady, a lawyer who represented the four in a subsequent lawsuit (which the city settled), believes that the race of the victims in that case and in the Sean Bell case — in which some of the cops were black — was a major factor in the way the police behaved. “Our case was a classic example of disproportionate force being used against entirely innocent civilians,†he said. “It was an example of egregiously overaggressive police conduct that I think ultimately is based on stereotypes and perceptions. This case and the shooting of Sean Bell are examples of a very ignominious history of the police taking certain liberties, essentially in communities of color. It’s hard to believe that they would have fired 50 shots into a vehicle on Park Avenue and 57th Street in Manhattan.†The four people who were in the car in the Manhattan incident have since done extremely well. Ms. Sudeall, for example, graduated from law school and is now a clerk for Justice Stevens. Mr. Gilbert has established a new Internet venture based on a program he invented that predicts people’s buying patterns online. It’s very creepy to think how easily one or more of the four could have been killed in their encounter with the police. As Ms. Sudeall said yesterday, “It seems like it’s inviting disaster to be not in uniform, not showing identification and attacking people who may or may not have done anything wrong.†Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
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Lauren Sudeall is the LAST person the cops want clerking for a supreme court justice. that woman's got more power than they'll ever have and could easily push an opinion based on her experience that would affect every cop in the country.like a smoked meat with an earthy youth overnote
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alafairnadia » Lauren Sudeall is the LAST person the cops want clerking for a supreme court justice. that woman's got more power than they'll ever have and could easily push an opinion based on her experience that would affect every cop in the country.
wouldn't THAT be an awesome outcome what's her story, other than Ivy League? -
around may 2001 I was looking for an apartment in harlem. I'd seen a studio, parlor floor apartment on 148th street btwn 7th and 8th aves and I wanted to put in an application on it. it was cheap cheap cheap - $575 rent stabilized - though I was seriously thinking I'd need to hire a cleaning service to scour the joint and probably seal every visible and invisible hole. and maybe install a new lock. in any case, I really loved the windows in the apartment and wanted to rent it asap. I gave my broker an application. a week later I hadn't heard back. my cousin, who is also a broker for that same firm, the broker and I got into my cousin's roommate's mother's mercedes benz and drove over to this brownstone. my cousin stayed in the car and the broker and i got out. we banged on a few doors, called the land lady on her cell phone, banged on the door again, and then got back in the car kinda like "oh well - lady disappeared". my cousin drove off and as we turned onto 7th ave, we were cut off by a van and an unmarked car came up behind us. yep, the cops thought we were buying drugs in that building. it was metro-north narcotics - they apparently have someone stationed at the end of each of these blocks waiting to see something suspicious. so we all got hauled out of the car. I threw my crim defense lawyer fit and refused to give them my name or let them search me. my cousin and the broker complied and got searched. the car got searched. we got released. I never got that apartment, btw, and I never hear the cops names. years later, I'm stuck on a fuckin' jury for a drug posession case. I'm pissed cause I articulated my views very clearly to the judge (I'm an ex-crim defense atty, I believe drug possession laws are flawed in their current state, etc) and still somehow got on this stupid jury. so I already know I'm probably going to nullify unless the case is rock solid. and it's not rock solid - there's tons of wiggle room. and the DA is complete shit. then the only witnesses are metro north narcotics officers. same officers who lectured me for wanting to live in harlem, for behaving suspiciously, for being white in a black neighborhood, lectured my cousin for being white and driving a pricey car in a black neighborhood, etc. and, amusingly, the "crime scene" photos were either of the building I tried to get an apartment in or one just like it - it was on that exact same block. insane, right?like a smoked meat with an earthy youth overnote
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more of what we were talking about . . . Tuesday, 12 Dec 2006 NYPD assaults videographer, steals camera http://iwitnessvideo.info/blog/index.html
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the city tried to seal the documentation of police misconduct at the RNC . . . a federal judge has just ruled against them. this is huge in civil liberties/public information . . . Records of Arrests at ’04 Convention Can Be Released http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/nyregion/23convention.html NYTimes By JIM DWYER Published: January 23, 2007 A federal judge in Manhattan has ruled that hundreds of city records, including documents, videotapes and testimony, can be made public in connection with lawsuits brought by people arrested during the 2004 Republican National Convention. In a 49-page decision released yesterday that rejected the city’s efforts to keep the material secret, Magistrate Judge James C. Francis cited “the patent inadequacy of the type of formulaic incantations of harm†made by the city. The city had argued that the release of the material would be embarrassing, misleading or dangerous. The city will take a few days to decide if it will appeal, a spokeswoman for the Law Department said. The release of the records had been sought by the New York Civil Liberties Union, which is representing seven people arrested during the convention, and by The New York Times. “The public has an important interest in knowing what was behind the mass arrests and prolonged detentions of protesters during the convention,†said Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the civil liberties group. The city, which has argued that the 1,806 arrests during the convention were legitimate, said the release of its internal police documents “would cause embarrassment and mislead the public if publicized,†Judge Francis noted. “The mere fact that documents were not intended for public view when they were created does not justify a protective order,†he wrote. “Nor, again, does the fact that the N.Y.P.D. would prefer to continue to keep those documents from the public.†The judge rejected the city’s argument that a number of the records should be withheld because they contained information that is “unreliable or subject to misinterpretation.†“The city gives the general public very little credit when it contends that readers will be unable to grasp that the information contained in these documents might be incomplete or inaccurate,†he wrote.
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it's nice that bloomberg's stasi will now be subject to public scrutiny.your anger is delicious. - dieter
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another blow against stasi-tactics: "In a rebuke of a surveillance practice greatly expanded by the New York Police Department after the Sept. 11 attacks, a federal judge ruled yesterday that the police must stop the routine videotaping of people at public gatherings unless there was an indication that unlawful activity may occur." http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/16/nyregion/16police.html?_r=1&oref=sloginyour anger is delicious. - dieter
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an unusual local Stop and Frisk incident: http://brooklynian.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=355535
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The Sunday NYT had a front page expose by Jim Dwyer about extensive NYPD spying on non-violent political groups . . . most emailed, yesterday's NYT cover story today, the follow up (on the cover of the Metro section) is
Lawyers for the city, responding to a request to unseal records of police surveillance leading up to the 2004 Republican convention in New York, say that the documents should remain secret because the news media will “fixate upon and sensationalize them,†hurting the city’s ability to defend itself in lawsuits over mass arrests.
yeah, two or three years later . . . this stuff is just shaking out
today's folo story -
Subject: on and on and on it goes
the video of police chief kicking woman here http://iwitnessvideo.info/blog/10.html http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nycop175174724apr17,0,7553995.storyCity settles excess-force suit BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA April 17, 2007 Bruce Smolka won't have to stand trial after all - the city has settled for $150,000 with the activist who accused the now-retired New York Police Department assistant chief of kicking her in the head at a lower Manhattan demonstration, Newsday has learned. The agreement spares the city a potentially embarrassing moment, as the the May 5, 2003, confrontation that sparked the excessive-force lawsuit was captured on videotape. While sitting on the ground, activist Cynthia Greenberg is seen getting kneed in the head by Smolka outside 26 Federal Plaza. The NYPD and lawyers for the city refused to comment on the settlement, but Jonathan Moore, one of Greenberg's lawyers, called it "a serious amount of money" that makes it clear the city and the NYPD knew a trial would be difficult to win. "The fact they are willing to pay that amount of money is a de facto admission, if you will, that they knew what Smolka did was wrong," Moore said. "They didn't want to risk showing that video to a jury. " Greenberg was on the ground, locked arm in arm with another protester as Smolka tried in vain to separate the two. They were demonstrating against both the war in Iraq and the U.S. government's treatment of immigrants. Smolka had suggested in his pretrial deposition that Greenberg suffered a concussion when her head somehow made contact with his knee. "I saw her head strike my knee," Smolka says in the deposition. "I was moving. She perhaps rocked and that is how her knee, my knee, came in contact with her head. " Greenberg, now 37, could not be reached for comment, but she had previously said in an interview that the video shows only part of the attack. Smolka, she said, also kicked her a number of times about the body, some after she had been sent sprawling onto her stomach and that he used graphic language. Smolka in his deposition denied using such language and said that had he intentionally struck Greenberg, it would have been unreasonable and excessive. The 32-year veteran retired from the NYPD earlier this year to work for the Revlon Corp. He could not be reached for comment and Revlon did not respond to a request for comment. Smolka first made headlines in 1999, when he was in charge of the Street Crime Unit at the time Amadou Diallo was shot dead by four officers from the unit. Smolka was transferred and the unit disbanded, but his star rose again. In 2004, he was named commanding officer of Patrol Borough Manhattan South, one of the most prominent posts within the department, and he was front and center at virtually every major event in the last several years, including the Republican National Convention, a number of anti-war rallies and the monthly Critical Mass bike rides. Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.
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and the beat goes on . . . NYPD acts like CIA, subpoenas college admission records of arrestee, prevents tourists from attending theater . . . as profiled in a new metro political column in the NYTimes [quote=nyregion April 25, 2007 About New York At the Protest, a Civics Lesson Gets a Twist By JIM DWYER So. By the time Bob Curley got to a telephone, he and his son Neal had been in police detention for a full night. They had been arrested while shuffling down a sidewalk in Lower Manhattan with 225 others, protesting the Iraq war without written permission, a fact, and in disorderly fashion, an accusation. Bleary, Mr. Curley called his wife from a cell that had been specially set up to segregate political protesters from ordinary decent criminals. The number he tried — the Curley home — was registered on a police log, which court records show was created for calls made by protesters. The Curleys had come to the city from their home in Philadelphia the day before, Aug. 31, 2004, an annual pilgrimage made by father and son for dinner and a play in Manhattan. Neal, then 17, was about to start his senior year in high school. Because their visit coincided with the Republican National Convention, they decided that before dinner, they’d join a protest march by the War Resisters League from the World Trade Center site. They didn’t get to dinner, the play or back home that night. A few yards down Fulton Street, they were penned in and arrested. The march and arrests can be seen on a short video. What cannot be seen is that the people arrested that day — hundreds at a time, about 1,100 across the city — had landed in the jaws of a new and largely invisible intelligence bureaucracy, that the mayor and police commissioner said they had set up to protect the city from the murderous strikes of terrorists. For 18 months, preparations for the convention included police surveillance of political groups across the country, most of whom had no plans to break the law. The intelligence operation was conducted legally, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has said, and helped make the convention “a huge success†by protecting the rights of protesters and Republican delegates. How much did it cost to send detectives and support teams around the country, with big overtime and travel bills? Mayor Bloomberg’s press office won’t say. The Police Department says there was no budget. The city’s chief lawyer, Michael A. Cardozo, says there was no surveillance program. Somehow, with no money and no surveillance, police bosses have testified in civil depositions they received intelligence that certain protests would be dangerous. For example, a deputy inspector said he believed the War Resisters would be joined by another group that “was very prone to disruption and violence.†Was this true? Some of the War Resisters openly discussed staging a “die-in†at Madison Square Garden, if they were able to get anywhere near it — but many, like the Curleys with theater tickets in their pockets, had no such plans. As for the notion that violence was in the works, Ed Hedemann, one of the organizers, scoffed. “Government gets information wrong,†he said. “Either they got this information wrong, like the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, or they’re lying.†THE city was given $93 million in federal funds for security around the time of the convention. “Every agency is trying to figure out their angle,†Mr. Curley said. “It’s the only way you get grant money.†For their arrests, the Curleys were grouped with “a political science professor, a father from Madison, Wis., who just dropped his daughter off at Pratt Institute, and a toll collector from the Port Authority,†Mr. Curley said. “Women in their 60s and 70s. Gray-haired protesters.†The police assigned special codes to their arrests to identify them as protesters. They were kept in prolonged custody and fingerprinted, instead of the normal practice of being issued a summons for minor offenses — a policy specifically enacted as a result of the intelligence operation, according to city lawyers. Two months after the convention, charges were dropped against all 227 people arrested on Fulton Street. Of the 1,806 people arrested that week, 90 percent of the cases were dismissed or dropped after six months. Like hundreds of others, the Curleys are suing, perturbed about the collection of personal information. In response to the suit, the city sought every account of the march that Neal Curley had given — including his college admissions file. In September 2005, Neal Curley began studies at the University of Chicago. Soon afterward, the City of New York served a subpoena on the school demanding “a complete copy of the application and all related materials, including essays and short answers submitted by Neal Curley.†A memorable start to college. “And it’s a good way to intimidate middle-class folks from protesting,†Mr. Curley said. E-mail: dwyer@nytimes.com. The Our Towns column will now appear on Thursdays and Sundays.[/quote]
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On the opinion page of today's Wall Street Journal Judy Miller "When activists are terrorists."
Yes, that's the Judith Miller that had to leave the New York Times over her faked reporting about WMD and Iraq. I understand this is her attack on Jim Dwyer's reporting in the NYTimes that can be read upthread...
anyone have a WSJonline subscription?
http://bestofbothworlds.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html#7249622845430671849 -
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/05/13/2007-05-13_dem_big_to_nypd_butt_out.html
NY DAILY NEWS Exclusive Dem big to NYPD: Butt out You're not the FBI, sez Homeland pol BY ERNIE NASPRETTO and ALISON GENDAR DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU
Sunday, May 13th 2007, 12:07 PM
Bennie Thompson: 'The NYPD is not the FBI...it does not have national jurisdiction.'
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Pete King: 'The NYPD is the best at what it does. And the bottom line is the NYPD has filled a breach in homeland security.'
The NYPD should stick to policing New York City and not run around the nation trying to be the FBI, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee told the Daily News.
"While I understand that chasing down leads in other locales might help keep the city safe, I emphasized that the NYPD is not the FBI, that it does not have national jurisdiction," Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) told The News.
Thompson insisted it is critical that the NYPD "respect the jurisdictions of police departments elsewhere by letting them know when NYPD officers are present."
As proof he knows what he's talking about, the Democrat from Mississippi pointed out that he once was mayor of a "small town." His was mayor of Bolton, Miss., from 1973 to 1979. About 630 people now live in Bolton, and the town covers 1.5 square miles, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
"I was a mayor of a small town who dealt with this kind of issue frequently, and I believe law enforcement partnerships based on mutual respect are ultimately what will make us safer," said Thompson, who is now serving his eighth term in Congress.
Thompson - who replaced Long Island Republican Pete King as the head of the powerful Homeland Security Committee - criticized the NYPD for conducting counterterrorism surveillance beyond the city's boundaries. He told The News he was particularly concerned about NYPD handling of the 2004 Republican National Convention.
Posing as activists, undercover NYPD cops attended meetings of political groups in several states before the convention and filed reports about planned activities in New York City. Civil rights groups have called the tactics illegal, while Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has said cops did an "absolute[ly] superb job."
Thompson voiced his concerns about the NYPD in a March letter and in a meeting with NYPD brass this month. "There is no doubt that New York City is among the primary terrorist targets within the United States," Thompson wrote Kelly in a March 28 letter obtained by The News. "I am concerned, however, that the measures implemented by the NYPD Intelligence Division may have gone too far."
Thompson requested a sit-down with top police brass, and met with NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence David Cohen for about two hours May 2 in Washington, officials said.
"There is no question that the NYPD must remain diligent in its fight against terrorism. However, I emphasized during my meeting with NYPD officials that essential to that fight is an uncompromising respect for the privacy rights and civil liberties of our citizens," Thompson told The News. "While I was encouraged by NYPD's assurances that it hews strictly to tough privacy and civil liberties guidelines and policies, a practice I encouraged them to update me about regularly, I was troubled by the NYPD's revelations about its homeland activities outside New York City."
Asked about the D.C. meeting by The News, Kelly defended NYPD intelligence-gathering and counterterrorism tactics.
"The Police Department takes all appropriate steps necessary to keep New York City safe," Kelly said. "We did so in preparation for the RNC, and we contacted police departments outside of New York in that effort."
Still, Thompson and his staff said they left the meeting with deep reservations. "They are not the National PD - they are the NYPD. That's what Mr. Thompson wants to get across," a Democratic staffer said.
A Republican familiar with the meeting said the talks were more conciliatory than Thompson has indicated and argued that the chairman's concerns are more political than practical. "Thompson has a very liberal staff, which has its own agenda and sees the NYPD as a bunch of right-wing fascists," the source said.
King, former Homeland Security Committee chairman and a staunch NYPD supporter, expressed confidence in the Police Department's tactics and its leadership.
"The NYPD is the best at what it does," King said. "And the bottom line is the NYPD has filled a breach in homeland security."
agendar@nydailynews.com
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http://iwitnessvideo.info/blog/17.html just look . . .
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how to find you or your organization's name on the NYPD RNC planning "intel" documents recently released . . . http://iwitnessvideo.info/blog/18.html
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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/13/nyregion/13parade.html?ex=1339387200&en=1fa7cfcc285542b9&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
June 13, 2007 Dispute Over Arrest Pattern at the Puerto Rican Parade By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS Details of the complaints by police against the people arrested at the Puerto Rican Day Parade on Sunday outline a pattern in the way they were arrested, according to documents released yesterday. Criminal complaints filed against 10 defendants show that the police were concerned about the risk that those arrested would engage in violent or threatening behavior or cause some public inconvenience. The complaints also indicate that the police were looking for signs of gang identification, like clothing colors and hand signals, when they arrested people. Police officials said yesterday that everyone arrested on Sunday was arrested for engaging in specific illegal behavior, like pushing or blocking pedestrian traffic, not for something they had not yet done or for circumstantial reasons like wearing gang colors. “It’s situational — officers reacted to the situation,†Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said yesterday of Sunday’s arrests. “They made, in my judgment, appropriate arrests. It doesn’t seem to me to be out of the ordinary in terms of the numbers that we’ve had associated with parades in the past.†Civil liberties experts said the pattern of the complaints suggested that the police might have been arresting people en masse and swept up some innocent bystanders along the way. Similar concerns have been raised by civil liberties advocates about other group arrests in recent years, as happened at the Republican National Convention in 2004, the World Economic Forum in 2002 and a gathering of young people last month in Bushwick, Brooklyn, when the police arrested about 30 people on the way to a friend’s wake. Christopher Dunn, a lawyer for the New York Civil Liberties Union, said that when there are “indiscriminate mass arrests,†you have “innocent bystanders being arrested,†and that may have happened at the Puerto Rican Day Parade. He added, “These same tactics tarnished the policing of the Republican National Convention.†Paul J. Browne, a deputy police commissioner, defended the arrests. “There were no pre-emptive arrests made at the Republican National Convention, none made in Bushwick, and there were none made here,†he said. The police said they arrested 208 people at this year’s parade, including 132 who were charged with unlawful assembly. Mr. Dunn said it was customary for people charged with minor offenses to be given summonses and allowed to go home. Instead, dozens were arrested, jailed overnight and fingerprinted before being released, according to a supervisor with the Legal Aid Society. Mr. Browne said most of the people the police suspected of being gang members were from out of town, and so did not qualify for desk appearance tickets. The number of arrests made at last year’s parade was also in dispute yesterday. News reports of the 2006 arrests said at the time that roughly 50 to 60 people were arrested, and yesterday’s New York Times report on Sunday’s parade adopted the figure of “at least 50†used in The Times’s 2006 account. But Mr. Browne said yesterday that there were actually 151 arrests made at the parade last year. He also said there were 223 arrests at the parade the year before, in 2005. But in describing the 2006 arrests, the Manhattan district attorney’s office yesterday gave a number much lower than the Police Department’s. “We were informed by the Police Department that there were 64 arrests last year,†Barbara Thompson, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said yesterday. Later, Mr. Browne said that the 64 arrests were processed at Police Headquarters but that 87 more arrests were processed at precinct stations or went directly to court. The police acknowledged that the number of people suspected of being gang members arrested at the parade this year rose sharply to 198 from 69 last year. Mr. Browne said that although the parade committee had expressed concern that a gang, the Latin Kings, might try to crash the parade, the police were not acting on an order from any public official like the mayor or the police commissioner. Edward McCarthy, a Legal Aid Society lawyer, said during the arraignments on Monday that most of the defendants did not appear to have prior criminal records. Mr. Browne said he could not confirm or deny that. In interviews on Monday, many of those arrested at the parade said they were not gang members. Although a few of those who were arraigned on Monday were wearing yellow or gold and black, the colors of the Latin Kings, many more people were wearing red, blue and white, the Puerto Rican flag colors. Even some of those wearing yellow and black denied that they were gang members, and Panama Vicente Alba, a Puerto Rican activist, said yesterday that the black and gold beads and clothing associated with Latin Kings were popular for other reasons as well. “The use of beads is particularly prominent amongst the many thousands (perhaps millions) in our community who practice the Yoruba religion,†Mr. Alba wrote in an e-mail message. “Many such individuals were either arrested or ordered to remove their beads during this year’s Puerto Rican Day Parade.†Al Baker and Thomas J. Lueck contributed reporting. Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
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Brooklyn Science teacher's brush with NYPD ends with a heart attack
an excerpt » Cursing at him, they ordered Jacobs out of the car and roughly cuffed him. "One officer crushed his knee into Mr. Jacob's back," the complaint states. "They then repeatedly slammed his head onto the car and then pressed his head against the car for some time." Additional officers arrived on the scene with a witness to the earlier accident. The witness told them Jacob was the wrong guy. "'I told you it was a white Maxima,'" the witness reportedly said, according to the complaint. Jacob drives a white Infiniti. Jacob told the cops he was experiencing chest pains and began coughing uncontrollably. A female cop said, "Nice acting," according to Jacob, and then drove off. Jacob said he struggled to drive home, stopping to vomit on the side of the road.
Assholes!
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That one comment by the female cop just opened the NYPD to another lawsuit.
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NYPD Can Not Submit Secret Testimony in RNC Case http://www.onnyturf.com/blogs/view_post.php?content_id=18605 the nuttiness of what went on during the RNC continues to make its way through the courts... from the NYCLU: A federal judge has strongly rejected an attempt by the NYPD to rely on secret testimony from the head of its Intelligence Division in an effort by the department to keep secret various reports produced during the nationwide political surveillance operation the NYPD ran before the 2004 Republican National Convention.
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Surveillance camera vindicates 4 suspects framed by NYPD. http://wcbstv.com/local/Undercover.NYPD.Officers.2.759420.html
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Nypd. Assholes. http://jezebel.com/5024826/walking-while-femaleOk, now I'm crazy. Another goal achieved.
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Amazing footage of NYPD violating New Yorkers' rights and abusing their authority: http://glassbeadcollective.blip.tv/file/784711/
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Have you heard this nonsense about Bloomberg trying to change the laws so he can have a next term? WE MUST NOT ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN
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I actually don't support any term limits. I think elections are the appropriate way to get rid of Bloomberg.
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Carnivore » I actually don't support any term limits. I think elections are the appropriate way to get rid of Bloomberg.
Didn't he win by the largest margin EVER last time for a Repub? Like 20%+ or something? Not that I don't necessarily agree with you. Just that some animals are more equal than others."It's only as boring as you make it."
You're making me want to poke my eyes out with a spoon. Stop that.
Bringing the term thin-skinned to a whole new level! -
Looks like the Denver cops are taking lessons from the NYPD: http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5670682
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