Mr. de Blasio isn’t going to say it, but somebody has to: With these acts of passive-aggressive contempt and self-pity, many New York police officers, led by their union, are squandering the department’s credibility, defacing its reputation, shredding its hard-earned respect. They have taken the most grave and solemn of civic moments — a funeral of a fallen colleague — and hijacked it for their own petty look-at-us gesture. In doing so, they also turned their backs on Mr. Ramos’s widow and her two young sons, and others in that grief-struck family.
These are disgraceful acts...
But none of those grievances can justify the snarling sense of victimhood that seems to be motivating the anti-de Blasio campaign — the belief that the department is never wrong, that it never needs redirection or reform, only reverence. This is the view peddled by union officials like Patrick Lynch, the president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association — that cops are an ethically impeccable force with their own priorities and codes of behavior, accountable only to themselves, and whose reflexive defiance in the face of valid criticism is somehow normal.
It’s not normal. Not for a professional class of highly trained civil servants, which New York’s Finest profess to be. The police can rightly expect, even insist upon, the respect of the public. But respect is a finite resource. It cannot be wasted. Sometimes it has to be renewed.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was greeted with boos and jeers Monday as he addressed a ceremony for 900 graduating police cadets at Madison Square Garden. A section of the audience again turned their backs on the mayor, two days after hundreds of officers did the same at the funeral for one of the officers shot and killed last week.
As de Blasio remarked during a groveling speech Monday that the new officers will face problems they did not create, one heckler shouted, “you created them.”
How much does it cost you to live in your house? If you are a renter, the answer to that question is fairly straightforward (although if your rent includes a gym membership and heat, it is not clearcut what the simple cost of occupying your place is).
But suppose you are an owner. What is it costing you every month or every year to live in your house? The truth is, you don't know with a great deal of precision, and neither does anyone else.
There are two ways to look at the issue.…Pretty much like the right wing went after Clinton and Obama. Now it's De Blasio's turn.
Stop “the right people, the right time, the right location,” Deputy Inspector Christopher McCormack is heard saying on the recording.
[...]
“So what am I supposed to do: Stop every black and Hispanic?” Serrano was heard saying on the tape, which was recorded last month at the 40th Precinct in the Bronx.
[...]
“I have no problem telling you this,” the inspector said on the tape. “Male blacks. And I told you at roll call, and I have no problem [to] tell you this, male blacks 14 to 21.”
The tape and testimony are a part of a class-action lawsuit against the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy.
Outgoing NYC Mayor Bloomberg attempts to vacate ‘stop and frisk’ rulings (via Raw Story )Students demonstrating in front of a City University of New York location were brutally attacked by police for no apparent reason. The use of heavy handed police tactics is now standard all across America, but NYPD under Ray Kelly and Michael Bloomberg ranks among the most aggressive. Gestapo-like tactics. What can be done?
This is a very scary trend and I saw it first hand during the Occupy protests back in 2011, where heavily militarized NYPD units moved on peaceful protesters.
There is no "un-doing" this at this point and since the "owners" of our country (i.e. the 1-percent, corporations, billionaires, etc) control law enforcement and the justice system, they can pretty much get away with anything. The rest of us are slaves.
Part of what's known as the "1033 Program" passed by Congress in 1997 and meant to augment police departments fighting the drug war, military gear is showing up in large numbers, and in some unlikely places...
Starting Saturday June 1st, 2013, Occupy will be holding a homecoming celebration in Zuccotti Park, NYC to occupy the space where our movement began. By day we will celebrate and reconnect with old friends to plan the future of this movement, and by night we will take a militant stand against the NYPD to assert our right to exist in public spaces (nonviolently of course).OccupyWallStreet
This is too much! Why is Trump getting a police escort to get gas while average New Yorker and New Jerseyans have to wait on line for hours just in the HOPES of getting some gas?
Why are police being PAID to take this guy around to fill his vehicles? Why is he getting this treatment? It's bad enough that the wealthy can do whatever they want, but this bloviator?? It's too much!!!!
We all know what's happening in America...if you are a billionaire, a member of the wealthy elite, or a Wall Street banker, you get to do whatever you want, without consequences, with the sanction and even protection of the state. And US FOOL TAXPAYERS ARE PAYING FOR THIS!!!
Donald Trump is corrupt. NYPD is corrupt. Ray Kelly is corrupt. Michael Bloomberg is corrupt. All for starters.
ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!
| For more than two years, Adrian Schoolcraft secretly recorded every roll call at the 81st Precinct in Brooklyn and captured his superiors urging police officers to do two things in order to manipulate the "stats" that the department is under pressure to produce: Officers were told to arrest people who were doing little more than standing on the street, but they were also encouraged to disregard actual victims of serious crimes who wanted to file reports. |
| "Last night at Occupy Wall Street in Times Square, Marine Sergeant Shamar Thomas boldly defended the occupiers. Sergeant Thomas calmly asked the NYPD why they aren't protecting the peaceful protestors. The NYPD ignored his questions and continued telling protestors to leave the sidewalk otherwise "they'd get hurt." Then, in an epic scene, Thomas approached the line of NYPD officers who held their batons. While many Occupy Wall Street demonstrators had been arrested for merely crossing the street, he exclaimed, "These are U.S. citizens peacefully protesting! These are the people you are supposed to protect!" The 10-15 NYPD officers he addressed dared not to touch him. Sergeant Thomas continued denouncing the NYPD's actions shouting, "This isn't a war zone! I've served overseas, that's a war zone! Get rid of your batons and helmets!" After five minutes of severely and loudly criticizing the NYPD, the Sergeant walked away leaving the scorned officers behind. The few people who were there applauded and cheered. Whether those officers mindset will change is uncertain. What is certain, however, is that the NYPD is conflicted when confronted by Members of our Armed Services. That said, I hope more Marines will join in defending U.S. citizens from megalomaniac individuals leading corrupt financial and political institution. Thank you Sergeant Thomas for defending American's rights to protest. You really are The Few and The Proud." |
