Bloomberg's NYCDOE Covered Up Violence In Schools

This isn't a surprise:

A review of violent episodes at 10 public schools in New York City found that the Education Department failed to report nearly a third of the cases to the state, as required, according to an audit the state comptroller released on Wednesday.

The audit, which examined episodes during the 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years, also found that some were inappropriately classified as less serious than they were.

“When incidents don’t get reported or are in effect downgraded, schoolchildren are put potentially in harm’s way,” the comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, said, adding, “The Department of Education can’t risk leaving parents uninformed about what’s going on in their child’s school.”

The more than 400 episodes that went unreported at the 10 schools included 50 assaults resulting in injuries, among them one case at Intermediate School 27 on Staten Island in which a student pushed another student over a desk, knocking him to the floor with the desk landing on top of him; 13 sex offenses; and two instances of confiscated weapons.

The state uses the city’s annual reports of violent episodes to designate certain schools as “persistently dangerous.” Those schools are required to take steps to reduce violence and to notify parents that they are entitled to enroll their children at a less violent place.

Again, no surprise that the Data King's Department of Education underreported violence in public schools because his police department underreported crimes.

Take this NY Times article from July 2013, for example:

A long-awaited report ordered by the police commissioner in New York has found deficiencies in the Police Department’s efforts to detect whether its crime statistics are being manipulated.

 ...

The report was released on Tuesday, more than two years after Mr. Kelly empaneled a committee of former federal prosecutors to review the department’s internal crime-reporting system.  

The committee’s report did not directly address how often such manipulation occurred, but it identified vulnerabilities in the department’s system for auditing the integrity of its crime statistics. 

Before each report of a crime is entered into the department’s computer system, relatively few controls exist to prevent officers on the street from refusing to fill out any paperwork or for supervisors to alter paperwork back in the station house, the review found.  

While praising the department on the considerable resources devoted to auditing crime statistics, the committee noted that most of those efforts were directed at identifying “human error” — that is, unintentional mistakes in a police officer’s paperwork. But for “an officer who wishes to manipulate crime reporting,” the report said there were “few other procedures in place that control the various avenues of potential manipulation.”  

... 

The 60-page report describes several instances of manipulation in which felony crimes were marked down as misdemeanors. In one instance “a desk officer scratched out the item values in order to bring the total to below the $1,000 threshold for grand larceny,” which is a felony. 

In another instance, police paperwork for lost property “described a complainant who ‘lost property’ following an assault by multiple individuals,” according to the report, which added, “On its face the narrative appears to describe a robbery.”  

In the aggregate, the report found, the effect of such errors, intentional or otherwise, on crime statistics was not negligible. “A close review of the N.Y.P.D.’s statistics and analysis demonstrate that the misclassifications of reports may have an appreciable effect on certain reported crime rates,” the report said.  

The report noted, for instance, that Police Department auditors had already detected an error rate in 2009 suggesting that grand larcenies were undercounted that year by 2,312. The adjusted figures represent a 4.6 percent increase over the figures that the department issued that year. 

Bloomberg's data fetish - the data must always be better!!! - brought about all kinds of manipulation, deception, and outright falsification to how the city government agencies and departments operated.

If there were any independent study of the Bloomberg Years done, it would expose this for all to say.

Alas, there has not and probably will not be and so instead we are left with the myth of the "uber-competent" Mayor Bloomberg.

Too Early To Write Off De Blasio

There was a lot of consternation that Mayor Bill de Blasio was being destroyed by the outright hostility many NYPD officers and the police unions were showing toward him in the past few weeks, but a new Quinnipiac poll suggests protesting cops may have overplayed their hands:

By overwhelming margins, New York City voters objected to the back-turning protests and work slowdown that have roiled the Police Department, an auspicious turn for Mayor Bill de Blasio as he seeks to end weeks of open tensions between officers and City Hall.

A poll released on Thursday revealed deep dismay — across racial, gender and geographic lines — over the tactics and incendiary statements of protesting officers, and a desire to discipline those who deliberately made fewer arrests.

For Mr. de Blasio, who had initially appeared beleaguered as he confronted a rebellion within law enforcement, the poll offers vindication of his strategy of waiting out police protests and refusing to apologize for his efforts at reform.

In their zeal to show the mayor he had neglected them, leaders of police unions appear to have overplayed their hand, giving Mr. de Blasio a key advantage by alienating a public accustomed to years without such explosive tensions in the ranks.

The poll, conducted by Quinnipiac University, comes as Patrick J. Lynch, the president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, faces growing challenges from members who believe he has gone too far in his attacks on City Hall.

The Times article goes on to say that de Blasio purposely didn't engage publicly with the police unions or critics, telling his aides that he trusted the "public’s judgment on how people conduct themselves.”

There's no overall approval/disapproval in the poll on de Blasio - just on Commissioner Bratton (who is up 12 percentage points to 56% approval.)

And you can bet there's some lasting damage from this battle that de Blasio will probably never be able to undo.

But any politician or former politician looking to exploit the battle between the NYPD and de Blasio - including one Eva Moskowitz and one Harold Ford - must understand that de Blasio is a lot wilier and skilled at politics than he appears on the surface.

Many pols facing what de Blasio faced in the last month might have panicked in response to the crisis.

De Blasio didn't, he let Bratton handle a lot of the public relations and he looks like he may have weathered the crisis - at least for now.

Darkest Day Of The Year

the flags at city hall. #nypd pic.twitter.com/fZ83FUOnFl
— Azi (@Azi) December 21, 2014

A Tale Of Two Papers

DailyNews Editorial:

The grand jury’s vote to exonerate the police officer whose chokehold killed Eric Garner on Staten Island has glaring earmarks of a gross miscarriage of justice.

The ruling is painfully far harder to understand than the Missouri grand jury’s decision not to indict for the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson.

To a large degree, the evidence against Officer Daniel Pantaleo was widely scrutinized by the public in the form of a on-scene video posted to the Internet by the Daily News. The image of Pantaleo wrestling Garner to the ground with his arm around Garner’s neck was horrifying.

Even granting that a cop has wide latitude in using force to make an arrest, Pantaleo’s sudden aggressiveness was unnecessary. The fact that it entailed a chokehold only reinforced the excessive quality of his actions.

After the medical examiner found that a chokehold and chest compression led to Garner’s death, the connection between cause and effect seemed enough to many people not only to indict but to convict Pantaleo.

Deep, intense skepticism about the grand jury’s ruling is fully warranted — while recognizing that no one other than the panel and Staten Island prosecutors have reviewed all the evidence and matched the facts against the law.

Bob McManus column:

BLAME ONLY THE MAN WHO TRAGICALLY DECIDED TO RESIST

Eric Garner and Michael Brown had much in common, not the least of which was this: On the last day of their lives, they made bad decisions. Especially bad decisions.

Each broke the law — petty offenses, to be sure, but sufficient to attract the attention of the police.
And then — tragically, stupidly, fatally, inexplicably — each fought the law.

The law won, of course, as it almost always does.

This was underscored yet again Wednesday when a Staten Island grand jury chose not to indict any of the arresting officers in the death in police custody of Garner last July.

Just as a grand jury last week declined to indict the police officer who shot a violently resisting Michael Brown to death in Ferguson, Mo., in August.

Demagoguery rises to an art form in such cases — because, again, the police generally win. (Though not always, as a moment’s reflection before the Police Memorial in lower Manhattan will underscore.) And because those who advocate for cop-fighters are so often such accomplished beguilers.

They cast these tragedies as, if not outright murder, then invincible evidence of an enduringly racist society.

No such thing, as a matter of fact. Virtually always, these cases represent sad, low-impact collisions of cops and criminals — routine in every respect except for an outlier conclusion.

The Garner case is textbook.

How Many?

Eric Garner.

Akai Gurley.

Ramarley Graham.

Kimani Gray.

Tamon Robinson.

Tim Stansbury.

Sean Bell.

Patrick Dorismond.

Ousmane Zongo.

Amadou Diallo.

Nicholas Heyward Jr. 

What The Bratton Pick Could Mean For Schools

I know there have been some people who were disappointed by de Blasio's pick of William Bratton to be NYPD Commissioner, but I see the Bratton pick as a  positive for both the city and the NYPD.

The NY Times provided some analysis on where Bratton may take the NYPD that leaves me feeling hopeful on a number of fronts:

Speaking at the news conference where Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio announced his appointment, Mr. Bratton said he would conduct an examination of the department’s resources, a process that one person familiar with his thinking said would be part of the kind of broad review that he undertook at the outset of his earlier tenure in 1994. 

This review is intended in part to look at the department’s priorities and resources and how they are allocated. 

Mr. Bratton’s management style could not be more different from his two-time predecessor, Raymond W. Kelly, who has overseen sharp declines in crime over his 12-year tenure and has won both praise and criticism for the counterterrorism units he built from the ground up after the Sept. 11 attacks. 

Mr. Kelly has concentrated almost all decision-making power in the 35,000-member department in his own hands. Mr. Bratton, on the other hand has been the quintessential delegator, pushing down authority to precinct commanders and giving more discretion to officers, both in his earlier time in New York and during his leadership of the Los Angeles Police Department. 

...

At the news conference, Mr. Bratton also provided some broad outlines of his plans and priorities, echoing his new boss’s pledge to “bring police and community back together.” 

One of the people familiar with his thinking, who all spoke on the condition of anonymity because Mr. Bratton’s plans have not been made final, said one goal of the planned assessment was to determine how to reconfigure the department to rebuild relationships, with the community, with other agencies and with the media.

Reaching out to the community, building relationships to stakeholders outside the NYPD, delegating authority to precinct commanders and giving more discretion to individual officers sounds like some pretty good reorganization ideas to me.

If we got a chancellor in the DOE to do those kinds of things - reach out to the community, build relationships with stakeholders outside of Tweed, delegate authority from Tweed to others, give more discretion to individual teachers - that would be a good thing.

While I understand why some people are upset with the Bratton pick, connecting it to the Bad Old Giuliani days, I think that there are leadership qualities that Bratton brings that will be a refreshing change from Kelly's "My way or the highway" style.

We'll have to see what de Blasio decides to do at Tweed.

If we got someone who was ready to change as much about how Tweed operates as Bratton says he wants to do at the NYPD, we'll be doing okay.

If Bratton Replaced Kelly As NYPD Commissioner

Interesting piece from City-Journal about William Bratton's time at the LAPD.

Dunno what de Blasio's thinking on NYPD commissioner is, but whomever he picks must be less contemptuous of people of color than Ray Kelly is.

De Basio also must choose someone who will be someone strong enough and savvy enough to handle the pro-Kelly propaganda that will come his way as criticism from the likes of Mike Lupica and others.

I think Bratton could be the kind of commissioner who could transform the NYPD in a positive way while keeping crime levels down.

I bet stop-and-frisk wouldn't have become the issue it became if the mayor and the NYPD commissioner had the trust of people in neighborhoods like East New York and East Flatbush.

Community relations, having police work as part-cop/part-social worker instead of some member of a paramilitarized occupation force, ending the insane monthly quotas that put such pressure on the cops to constantly make stop-and-frisks, hand out tickets or make arrests - these kinds of policy changes could go a long way to making this city safer than ever while transforming the way the police are seen by people in this city.

Bratton is not the only person who could do this kind of transformative work at the NYPD.

But he does have a reputation for doing just that at the LAPD.

Mayor Bloomberg And Commissioner Kelly May Go On Trial Just Yet

From the Daily News:

AN NYPD supervisor has lost his bid to countersue whistleblower cop Adrian Schoolcraft.

Deputy Inspector Steven Mauriello alleged that Schoolcraft — who has a pending $50 million lawsuit against the city — concocted bogus complaints about wrongdoing in a Brooklyn precinct in order to ruin his boss.

But Manhattan Federal Court Judge Robert Sweet has denied the deputy inspector, finding in part that the counterclaims would be unfair to Schoolcraft, who would have to “expend additional resources . . . preparing for trial.”

Schoolcraft claims the NYPD had him committed to a psych ward against his will because he said cops were using quotas and fudging crime stats.

He is suing the city, Mauriello, Jamaica Hospital and two doctors.

 

A commenter writes:

This guy Schoolcraft has them but good. Tapes that prove the quota system that was setup by Billionaireberg and Kelly. Kelly calls them productivity goals but are plain old quotas just with different wording. Also when Schoolcraft went to the IAB to report what he had on tape and what he was going to do with them the IAB told Mauriello who stormed Schoolcrafts home. In an attempt to find these tapes Schoolcraft was put in a psych ward so his home could be searched and wouldn't be released until Mauriello said it was ok. With Kelly and his boss Billionareberg gone soon I can't wait to see who Mauriello turns in to save his own skin.

Another commenter writes:

My good friend is an NYPD cop and I can tell you EVERYTHING this Schoolcraft guy said is true! He tells me that not only is the workload insane (Kelly has stood by his mantra of "Do More with less" which means that each cop is doing the work of the seven thousand less cops the NYPD now has, compared to years ago), but that the boss' torture them for their arrest and summons quotas. He said that there are severe punishments for cops who don't meet their numbers. I'm really surprised more cops don't snap under the stress. The reporter who broke this story wrote a great book about it. With the stuff that's in there you would think this cop worked in communist Russia or something! The NYPD is out to get it's own. Good cops who stand up to the system are tortured. For the good of the public, something has to change.

So far, Bloomberg and Kelly, along with a compliant corporate press, have kept the wraps on the criminality forced upon the cops from the NYPD brass and City Hall in order to meet their insane quotas.

But the Schoolcraft case may expose all of that and put the Bloomberg and Kelly crime stat miracle to the graveyard where myths go.

I have a friend who works in the system who tells me the crime stats are all phonied up - they arrest people just to make their monthly quotas, they refuse to take some criminal complaints, they downgrade felonies to misdemeanors.

Bloomberg gets feted in the press for making the city the safest it's been since the 1940's.

The truth is, none of the stats can be believed - nothing from the Bloomberg Era can be believed.

NYPD Cop Took Part In Vicious Motorcycle Gang Attack

We'll let this story speak for itself:

An off-duty undercover cop was charged with felony criminal mischief Tuesday after smashing the window of a Manhattan driver’s SUV in a fit of rage during a biker-mob attack, sources said.

“He totally lied when he said he did nothing [to help the victim] because he didn’t want to blow his cover,’’ a law-enforcement source seethed.

The 29-year-old detective was awaiting arraignment in Manhattan Criminal court on the rap, which could land him up to four to seven years behind bars if convicted, depending on how much financial damage he did to Alexian Lien’s Range Rover when he bashed in the glass.

The cop didn’t tell his superiors that he’d been part of the ride until three days after Lien’s beat-down — and then claimed that he was afraid of blowing his cover and too far from the action to help Lien at the time.

But it turned out that video caught him smashing Lien’s SUV window with his hand in anger during the road-rage attack, sources said. Minutes earlier, Lien had bumped his car into a biker’s ride after the cyclist slowed down in front of him to let his buddies ahead, prompting a high-speed chase and the eventual violence.

If the damage that the cop caused to Lien’s car is above $1,500, it’s a D felony carrying a possible sentence of up to seven years, sources said. If the dollar amount is below that, it drops to an E felony, which carries a maximum possible four-year term.

The NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau wanted to nail the cop on stiffer charges, but prosecutors were still trying to figure out if they could hit him with something such as a gang-assault rap, which carries up to 25 years, sources said.

For that charge to stick, they’d have to prove that he intended to cause someone serious physical injury.

The cop didn’t touch Lien, sources acknowledged.

And while Lien’s 2-year-old daughter was in the vehicle’s back seat when the cop smashed its window, the windows were tinted — so he could argue that he didn’t know she was there, sources said.

Another biker, Reginald Chance, was charged with gang assault even though he also didn’t touch Lien — but that’s because he smashed Lien’s driver’s side window, clearing the way for Lien to be dragged out and beaten by others, sources said.

Prosecutors are still methodically scrutinizing video stills from the scene and witness accounts to see if the cop’s behavior rises to the legal standard of gang assault, sources said. 

Mayor Mike's New York City.

Where the cops do the beat-downs both on duty and off.

Off Duty And Undercover NYPD Cops Took Part In The Biker Chase Of Man In SUV

The Daily News reports:

A pair of NYPD detectives rode last weekend with the motorcycle mob that battered a Manhattan dad as his terrified family watched, a source told the Daily News.

The two cops apparently waited several days after Sunday’s brutal assault before informing supervisors about their involvement in the high-profile case, the source said.

One of the two was an off-duty undercover who acknowledged he was at 178th St. on the Henry Hudson Parkway when the beatdown began — but opted to steer clear rather than blow his cover, the source said.

A second source indicated two or three more officers were riding with the bikers, although their roles in the wild melee were unknown.

I asked in a couple of previous posts where the cops were for the four mile Mad Max biker chase on the West Side Highway that ended in a man being brutally beaten in front of his wife and 2 year old.

Turns out they were there the whole time as part of the motorcycle gang.

And they did nothing to stop the madness.

Outrageous.

Just outrageous.

Apparently holding one's cover intact is more important than stopping a crime in progress.

I wonder if they would have been so passive at Zuccotti.

Why The "Historic Low" Crime Statistics Bloomberg Hawks Are Not Believeable

Howie Wolfson likes to tweet the lie that NYC is the safest it's been since the 1950's, with crime at "historic lows."

But tell that to the man who was chased 50 blocks by a motorcycle gang and then beaten on a Washington Heights street in broad daylight in front of his wife and two year old.

You can see the video of that chase and the brutal aftermath below the fold.

Ever Notice How All The Stats Are The "Best Ever" Under Bloomberg?

Howard Wolfson responds to criticism of the police shooting two innocent bystanders in Times Square on Saturday with this:

@mattapuzzo @mikiebarb the NYPD is on pace to have appro 70 police shooting incidents this year, which is the lowest since records were kept
— howard wolfson (@howiewolf) September 15, 2013

Highest test scores under Bloomberg - until they were exposed as inflated.

Sky-rocketing graduation rates - except the numbers are inflated by credit recovery programs that give semester credits for tasks like watching movies.

Best crime stats ever - except there is ample evidence the police are manipulating the stats.

Quickest emergency response time ever - except they don't count the time callers spend on the line with 911 operators, thus making the stats look better than they are.

News stories abound of NYPD cops shooting lots of people in the last calendar year - but Wolfson says the approximately 70 police shootings will be "the lowest since records were kept."

So many of the statistics and so much of the data that Bloomberg and his minions hawk to prove Bloomberg is the bestest thing ever are phonied up.

I have a difficult time believing anything Wolfson says in general, but especially when he uses phrases like "the lowest since records were kept."

Too much manipulation and out-and-out fraud perpetrated by this administration (though often ignored by the corporate media) to believe these stats.

Sorry - not every stat in NYC can be the "lowest ever" or the "best ever," the way Bloomberg and his hired henchmen claim.

NYPD Shoot Innocent Bystanders In Times Square When Suspect Points Metrocard At Them

Shocking story on the front pages today:

Two NYPD cops opened fire at a deranged man a block from Times Square — as he pretended to point a gun at them — but instead struck a pair of innocent bystanders Saturday night, police said.

The 35-year-old man was behaving wildly in the middle of W. 42nd St. at Eighth Ave. about 9:36 p.m. when he was confronted by the officers, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

As officers tried to corral the hulking wacko, he suddenly “reached into his pocket, took out his hand, and simulated as if he was shooting at them,” Kelly said.

One officer fired a single shot at the man but missed.

The second officer squeezed off two rounds that also went wayward, Kelly said.

A 54-year-old woman who uses a walker was struck in the lower right leg and rushed to Bellevue Hospital.

A 35-year-old woman suffered a graze wound to the buttocks and was transported to Roosevelt Hospital.

The man, who was not identified, was arrested. He was unarmed when he was taken into custody.

“The only thing the individual had on his person was a wallet which was recovered from his right rear pocket,” Kelly said.

...

Witness Mike Favilla told The News cops opened fire after the man put his hand into his pocket, pulled out a MetroCard and pointed it at the officers like it was gun.

“He aimed it at the cop,” said Favilla, 33, of Elmhurst, Queens. “He was pretending like he had a gun.”

This is a similar to when the cops shot all those bystanders outside the Empire State Building as they were trying to take down a fleeing murder suspect.

That suspect had murdered his former boss and was trying to flee when the police shot him - and nine others - in a hail of bullets.

This time around, nobody was trying to shoot anybody, nobody even had a gun, when the cops opened fired into a crowd and shot innocent bystanders once again.

 

My father was a police officer, I understand the difficulty of the job.

 

You have to make split second life-and-death decisions in these cases and, if you make the wrong decision, someone may get seriously hurt or die.

That someone can be the police officer if he or she is not careful.

So I understand why a suspect putting his hands into his pockets and pulling them out again simulating like he's got a gun can make them trigger-happy.

That said, the NYPD under Bloomberg have a reputation for being trigger happy - whether it was in the Empire State Building shootings or the Ramarley Graham incident (where they shot and killed the kid while he was flushing dope down the toilet), or the Kimani Gray incident (shot teen seven times for having a gun that was never found) or the incident in Times Square a year ago where they shot and killed a knife-wielding emotionally disturbed man in Times Square.

The police in this city seem to think they can fire with impunity and worry about the circumstances later.

The papers were all over the tragedy of a one year shot and killed by someone who was aiming at someone else last week.

Will they be all over the NYPD for shooting innocent bystanders when a man pointed a Metrocard at them?

And when do police officers get held accountable for this stuff?

The cop who shot and killed Ramarley Graham, for example, is getting off scott free.

Thankfully nobody was killed in last night's shootings, or at the Empire State Building, or on 40th Street when the cops shot the knife wielder they had corralled.

But Ramarley Graham is dead.

So is Kimani Gray.

The cops in the Gray case had a documented record of civil rights violations them:

The NYPD sergeant and cop involved in the fatal shooting of Brooklyn 16-year-old Kimani Gray have been named in five federal lawsuits — which cost the city a total of $215,000 in settlements, court records show.

Sgt. Mourad Mourad racked up three suits while he was a plainclothes cop on Staten Island, and Officer Jovaniel Cordova racked up two at Brooklyn’s 70th Precinct — all alleging various civil rights violations including illegal stop and search and false arrest.
Prosecutors later dismissed all but one of the arrests against the six plaintiffs, and the criminal cases were sealed.

The cops in the Gray case claim he had a gun, which is why they shot and killed him.

But a witness told the Daily News Gray had no gun.

 

What happened to the cops in the Gray case?

 

Same thing that always happens to the cops in these cases.

 

Nothing. 

 

And the shootings go on and on and on...

Off-Duty NYPD Cop Slashes British Soldier After Calling Him A "Black Bastard", British Soldier Is The One Arrested

Yeah, seriously:

Six soldiers from the Royal Regiment of Scotland who had travelled to the United States on a rugby tour that included a friendly match against a New York police team have been charged with assault after they allegedly punched an off-duty police officer to the floor in a pub brawl.

The New York police department (NYPD) said that the rugby match had been cancelled due to a "player shortage". The six, all of whom are from Fiji but are based with the regiment in Edinburgh, have been released from detention in Rikers Island prison, the NYPD said, though they still face prosecution and possible discharge from the army if their actions are deemed to merit disciplinary action.

Following the incident, in the early hours of Friday in the 17th precinct of Manhattan, the six soldiers were arrested and brought before a judge. Lance Corporal Iosefo Yavala, 33, was charged with robbery and assault after he was allegedly found in the possession of the police officer's mobile phone.

The remaining five – Private Iliakini Raderua, 30; Corporal Thomas Shute, 34; Private Felite Vunisarati, 34; Private Mosese Kuruala, 27; and Lance Corporal Joeli Raduva, 34 – were all charged with assault.

The Daily Record said that Raduva had been commended for his bravery in the Territorial Army in 2011.

The fight happened outside the Mercury Bar, a sports bar on 3rd Avenue on the east side of Manhattan. The NYPD said that "three to four" of the soldiers were involved in the brawl, which started after the off-duty police officer in plain clothes and his friend began talking to a woman attached to the British group.

One of the soldiers is alleged to have taken the officer's phone as the policeman tried to call 911 to report the assault. As the brawl continued, a Manhattan court heard, the NYPD officer pulled out a knife and slashed one of the soldiers.

The soldiers claimed through their legal representatives in court that the police officer inflamed the situation by calling one of them a "black bastard". When the NYPD officer identified himself as police, one of the six is alleged to have replied: "We don't care. Fuck the police."

So wait, let me get this straight - the off-duty cops are hitting on a woman with this group of British soldiers, the Brits get into a scuffle with the off-duty cops (not yet knowing they're off duty cops), one of the off-duty cops calls one of the soldiers a "black bastard", the soldiers start to kick the cops' asses in a brawl, one of the cops tries to call 911 for the cavalry but a soldier takes his phone from him, an off-duty cop pulls out a knife and slashes one of the Brits, and then the Brits are arrested while nothing happens to the cops.

Just a typical day in Bloomberg's NYC - impunity for the cops even though they ought to be in at least as much trouble with the NYPD as the Brits are with the British Army.

Or isn't it a problem when off-duty cops get into a fight with guys in a bar, use racist slurs and pull a knife on somebody and slash them?

Ironic that these off-duty cops had to call 911 for back-up.

I guess they met their match when they decided to take on the British rugby team.

Not used to anybody fighting back, are you boys?

UFT Sends Out Deceptive Bill Thompson Mailer

Daily Politics reports that the UFT has sent out a Bill Thompson mailer using the tragic deaths of Trayvon Martin, Amadou Diallo, Ramarley Graham and Patrick Dorismond to sell voters on Thompson's candidacy:

“We know the Trayvon tragedy here in New York. We’ve lived it, over and over again, from Amadou Diallo to Patrick Dorismond to Ramarley Graham,” reads the piece from United for the Future, a political spending arm of the United Federation of Teachers, which backs Thompson.

"Each time we hear of another innocent young black man killed, with our hearts torn open we hand our heads and pray, "Please Lord, not again, not again," says the reverse of the lit.

"Bill Thompson knows that keeping communities safe from crime doesn't have to come at the expense of feeling unsafe around the police," the mailer continues, in text set next to an image of a black child sitting on a soccer ball and staring down at the pavement.

The flier, a copy of which was obtained by the Daily News, appears to reflect a doubling down on Thompson’s new hard-line stance against stop and frisk, which he has explicitly connected to Martin's shooting in the past.

After the acquittal of Martin's shooter, George Zimmerman, Thompson had said, “Here in New York, we have institutionalized Mr. Zimmerman's suspicion with a policy that all but requires our police officers to treat young black and Latino men with suspicion.”

An excerpt of that quote, part of a talk Thompson -- the only African-American candidate in the Democratic mayoral primary -- gave at Abundant Life Church in Brooklyn, appears on the front of the mailer.

Gee, that mailer makes Bill Thompson seem like a real staunch defender of people of color, especially against stop-and-frisk.

Ah, but Bill Thompson used to be for Bloomberg's stop-and-frisk policy before he was against it.

But Thompson's words on the subject were not always so harsh, with his moderate stance on the tactic garnering him criticism from some black officials. As recently as late July, Thompson was still defending stop and frisk as a misused but potentially “useful police tool."

In one of his most passionate moments of the earlier part of the race, Thompson flared up at Democratic primary rival John Liu during a discussion of the tactic at a March candidate forum in Queens.

The ex-controller sharply chastised his successor after Liu urged Thompson to join him in calling for an outright ban on stop and frisk, with Thompson saying he was the one who had to worry about the cops targeting his child based on the color of his skin.

When asked why the UFT was sending out a deceptive mailer making Thompson sound like a staunch long-time opponent to stop-and-frisk, the UFT issued a no comment:

A UFT representative responded to questions about the mailer with an email saying "we have taken a decision not to comment on our IE activities during this election cycle."

Does it bother me that the UFT leadership has decided to use my union dues to send out deceptive mailers making Bill Thompson sound like somebody he isn't?

You bet.

Thompson was a supporter of stop-and-frisk up until the Thompson campaign realized they were losing black voters over the issue.

That's when they made a political calculation to have Thompson go to a black congregation and speak out against stop-and-frisk.

The reality is, had Thompson's support in the black community not been lagging, he'd STILL be supporting the policy and calling it a “useful police tool."

Just another example of how Bill Thompson has no core political beliefs and ideals other than political expediency and his own career advancement.

Kinda like the UFT leadership.

Mayor Bloomberg Gets Frothy Over Stop-And-Frisk Ruling

A judge said NYC shouldn't be like Pretoria in the 80's and placed limits on how the NYPD can carry out its stop-and-frisk policy.

Bloomberg had a temper tantrum at his press conference over that ruling, as well as at the City Council for passing a law providing oversight for the NYPD:

At a press conference littered with grisly imagery, Mayor Michael Bloomberg ripped apart a federal court ruling today that found current stop-and-frisk practices unconstitutional.

“This is a very dangerous decision made by a judge that does not understand how policing works and what is compliant with the Constitution as determined by the Supreme Court,” Mr. Bloomberg said at a jam-packed City Hall event with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly at his side.

“I worry for my kids and I worry for your kids and I worry for you and I worry for me. Crime can come back at any time,” he warned.

Mr. Bloomberg vowed to appeal the ruling, handed down by Judge Shira Scheindlin, which found that the NYPD adopted a policy of “indirect racial profiling” by targeting blacks and Latinos in far higher numbers than other groups. Ms. Scheindlin’s ruling, if upheld, would place the NYPD under federal oversight, a development that Mr. Bloomberg called “disturbing.”

When asked if stop-and-frisk would continue to be implemented during the appeal process and potentially into the next mayoralty, the term-limited Bloomberg bluntly implied it would.

“Boy, I hope so,” he answered. “I wouldn’t want to be responsible for a lot of people dying.”

Maybe if you had a police commissioner who didn't brag about how he wants every black man in the city to be in fear that he will be stopped by the NYPD at any time for any reason, the NYPD wouldn't now be subject to federal oversight.

In this case, NYPD overreach + Bloomberg/Kelly arrogance = federal oversight.

Bloomberg and Kelly have dismissed concerns over stop-and-frisk for years.

Bloomberg figured he had more money than God and no one would dare challenge his policy.

Now Mikey discovers that some judges actually don't care about his money.

They care about the Constitution.

Imagine that.

Bloomberg's Stop-And-Frisk Policy Declared Unconstitutional

Excellent news:

A Manhattan federal court judge today ruled against the NYPD’s controversial stop-and-frisk practices, saying the city acted with “deliberate indifference” to these “unconstitutional” stops.

“I find that the City is liable for violating plaintiffs’ Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights,” US District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin wrote.

“The City acted with deliberate indifference toward the NYPD’s practice of making unconstitutional stops and conducting unconstitutional frisks.”

The judge found that "in each of these stops, a person's life was interrupted."

There were 4.4 million people between 2004 and 2008, and 80 percent of them black or Hispanic, according to the judge.

More on this when we get more details.

Bill Thompson Gives Speech Comparing Trayvon Martin Killing To Stop And Frisk, Fails To Mention NYPD Shootings

From Daily Politics:

The only black candidate for mayor said Sunday Trayvon Martin was killed because he was black - and the NYPD’s stop and frisk policy is driven by the same kind of bias. 

“Trayvon Martin did die because he was black. Of that there is no doubt,” ex-City Controller Bill Thompson told the congregation at Abundant Life Church in Brooklyn, saying that regardless of legal merits of George Zimmerman’s acquittal, “George Zimmerman was suspicious of Trayvon because he was young and because he was black.” 

 

He turned the issue into his most forceful attack to date on the NYPD’s stop and frisk policy.
 

“Here in New York City, we've institutionalized Mr. Zimmerman’s suspicion with a policy that all but requires our police officers to treat young black and Latino men with suspicion, to stop them and frisk them because of the color of their skin,” he said, charging young men of color “are profiled, as Trayvon was profiled. If our government profiles people because of skin plot and treats them as potential criminals, how can we expect citizens to do any less?"
 

Thompson said his natural instinct is to steer clear of the topic of race.
 

He has taken a moderate stand on stop and frisk compared to some of his Democratic rivals, criticizing it as abusive and calling for an overhaul but opposing its abolition as well as bills to create an NYPD inspector general and allow people to sue over racial profiling.
 

But in an unusually passionate speech for the typically subdued candidate, he said he felt compelled to speak out after the not guilty verdict in Martin’s killing, “after a jury of our peers declared the killing of an innocent black youth to not be a crime."
 

He said the verdict prompted tough conversations between children and parents, “especially those of us like me with young black sons.”
 

“I do not believe our government can fully stop racism, but I do believe we must constantly look to see how it may enable it, even unintentionally,” he said. “So we must ask ourselves, when fear of young black men ends in deadly violence against the innocent, has our government perpetuated that fear by targeting people of color with suspicion?”

 

Let me know when Thompson feels "passionate" enough to connect Trayvon Martin's tragic death to the tragic deaths of young black men shot and killed by the NYPD here in NYC and call for the NYPD to stop killing black men for crimes like having a hand in a waistband or trying to flush dope down the toilet.

 

Somebody said in a comment on another post here at Perdido Street School that they could never vote for Bill Thompson because he is the ultimate hack.

 

I think there is something to that.

 

Even in this supposed "passionate" speech which Thompson gives about an issue he says he cares a lot about, he takes the hack route and softballs his criticism against the NYPD.

 

Here's a part of the speech Thompson conveniently left out:

 

Trayvon Martin was killed by George Zimmerman because Martin was black, there is no doubt about that.

 

Kimani Gray was killed by the NYPD because he was black, there is no doubt about that.

Ramarley Graham was killed by the NYPD because he was black, there is no doubt about that.

Just as George Zimmerman targeted Trayvon Martin because of his race, ultimately killing him with impunity and walking away a free man from the crime, the NYPD targets black men in this city every day and every so often, they too ultimately kill one with impunity, as has happened in both the Graham and Gray cases.

See - you can connect the Trayvon tragedy to the NYPD's killing of black men in this city.

 

Thompson should be taking a stand on these NYPD tragedies instead of giving a speech on stop and frisk that he's had poll tested to death for a couple of weeks before he had the guts to go public with it. 

 

He has been trying to thread the needle on stop and frisk and NYPD police brutality for the entire campaign.

 

But you can't thread the needle on this issue.

 

You just can't.

 

Trayvon's killing was a tragedy and an outrage.

 

But so were the murders of Ramarley Graham and Kimani Gray.

 

POSTSCRIPT: And don't get me started on Thompson's aggrandizing Obama's Trayvon speech.  

 

I'm sure it hasn't occurred to a hack like Thompson, but given Obama's drone bomb killing track record killing men of color, Obama is, in the words of Cornell West, "a global George Zimmerman."

Mayor Bloomberg's "Legacy"

Along with the CityTime fraud (which Bloomberg said yesterday was the swellest thing that ever happened to NYC) and the 911 system mess and the Bloomberg Boxer Day Blizzard Disaster (9 dead - Go see a play!) and phonied up test scores, graduation rates, crime stats and emergency response stats is a New York City police department completely out of control:

A college-bound  Brooklyn teen says a vengeful cop handcuffed him and dragged him off to jail for leaving his bicycle on the sidewalk — eight days after he slapped the officer with a lawsuit alleging false arrest.

Officer Daniel Berardi and Rayquan Callahan, 19, first crossed paths on Feb. 24 in Brownsville. Callahan, then a senior at Brooklyn Collegiate High School and working seven days a week at McDonald’s, was walking out of the Rockaway Ave. subway station with two friends.

The trio stopped to talk to a 16-year-old acquaintance, according to court papers, when Berardi and several plainclothes cops started frisking the young men. The 16-year-old bolted.

The cops chased him down and recovered a gun he had tossed under a car — then inexplicably put a call over the police radio for officers to be on the lookout for Callahan and his two friends, who had already been searched and were found not to be carrying anything illegal.

They were arrested and spent 15 hours in custody before the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office declined to press charges. Callahan filed suit and a related complaint was served on June 26 at the 73rd Precinct stationhouse where Berardi was assigned.

Just over a week later — on July 4 — Callahan and Berardi, 25, crossed paths again. The cop, sued twice in three years, immediately recognized the teen on Pitkin Ave.

“This is the guy who’s suing us,” Berardi told his fellow cops, according to the complaint. “I don’t care, the money isn’t coming out of my pocket.”

Callahan, who has been accepted to Ohio State University, had left his bicycle on the sidewalk while he was inside a check-cashing business. Berardi handcuffed the teen on a fabricated charge of riding on the sidewalk, according to court papers filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Callahan denies he ever rode his bike on the sidewalk.

The teen should have been issued a summons for the alleged bike violation, but was instead taken to central booking. He spent 30 hours in custody before a judge dismissed the charges. Before the encounters with Berardi, Callahan had a clean record. “I have nothing to say to you,” Berardi told the Daily News in a brief telephone interview.

Callahan’s lawyer, Joel Berger, was livid. “Never in 45 years of practicing civil rights law have I encountered such a brazen retaliation against a plaintiff by the very officer he has just sued,” Berger said.

Berardi is also being sued by eight plaintiffs who were allegedly rounded up by Berardi on March 9 because they were in the vicinity of a shooting near Dumont Ave., their lawyer David Zelman said. Six were released after 12 hours without seeing a judge; two spent the night at Rikers Island and were also cut loose without being charged, court papers state.

A spokeswoman for the city Law Department said Callahan’s allegations were being reviewed.

An NYPD spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Now Bill Keller and the rest of the suck of journalists busy lapping at Bloomberg's ass with their "legacy" pieces don't care about this sort of thing because they're white and they're kids are white and they're not subject to the abuse.

But you can bet if Keller's kid or grand kid was the kid in this story, Keller would see Bloomberg's "legacy" differently.

John Liu: Stop-And-Frisk As Bad As Stand Your Ground

Comptroller John Liu attacked Mayor Bloomberg for his hypocrisy over his stop-and-frisk policy yesterday:

In a statement released earlier this afternoon, Mr. Liu equated the attitude officers use when stopping New Yorkers with George Zimmerman, the Florida neighborhood watchman who was found not guilty Saturday in the high-profile fatal shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

In particular, Mr. Liu blasted Mayor Michael Bloomberg‘s response to the controversial verdict, which had largely focused on criticizing Florida’s “shoot first” laws.

“Mayor Bloomberg’s statement on Saturday’s verdict rings hollow. If he were truly concerned, he would realize that the same mindset that allowed Zimmerman to believe he was justified in following an innocent young black man permits the NYPD to justify the targeting of black and Hispanic youth in its stop-and-frisk operation,” Mr. Liu said.

“We must work to undo the misguided perception that black and Hispanic youth are guilty until proven innocent,” he added. “Just as states like Florida must repeal their dangerous Stand Your Ground legislation, the City must abandon its stop-and-frisk campaign.”

NYPD Commissioner Kelly has been quoted as saying the goal behind stop-and-frisk is to "instill fear" in every young black and Latino male in the city "that every time that they left their homes they could be targeted by police."

Liu is correct to say that stop-and-frisk is every bit as racist as Stand Your Ground laws and to call Bloomberg out for his hypocrisy.

The mayor's office did not respond to Liu's statement.

In all honesty, that's because there is no way to respond to it.

What Liu said is absolutely true.

Stop-and-frisk and Stand Your Ground come from the same infected place.