Salon.com > NYPD

Stop-and-frisk, eviscerated

Tue, 29 May 2012 19:30:00 +0000

This month, a federal judge in New York dealt a blow to “stop-and-frisk,” a policy that resulted in 685,000 recorded police stops in 2011. Eighty-five percent of those stopped were African American and Latino, mostly youths.

U.S. district judge Shira Scheindlin granted class-action certification to a stop-and-frisk lawsuit against the city of New York, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The plaintiffs allege that the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy regularly violates the Constitution by illegally stopping and searching scores of people belonging to a particular demographic -- black and Latino. Pending the city's appeal, the class-action ruling will put stop-and-frisk on trial.

Police arrest artist setting up ‘I Love NY’ work

Mon, 21 May 2012 20:16:00 +0000

NEW YORK (AP) — An artist who was setting up an "I Love New York"-themed public art display in Brooklyn was arrested after the wired contraption was mistaken for an explosive device.

Takeshi Miyakawa, a visual artist and furniture designer, was arrested Saturday after placing the installation in two separate areas of the same New York City neighborhood. His lawyer and employer both called the arrest a misunderstanding.

The first apparatus was found Friday morning after a caller reported a suspicious package to police. It consisted of a plastic bag that contained a battery and was suspended from a metal rod attached to a tree. The bag, which had the classic "I Love New York" logo printed on it, was connected by a wire to a plastic box that contained more wires.

The area was evacuated for two hours until a bomb squad determined that the device was not dangerous.

At about 2 a.m. Saturday, a police officer discovered Miyakawa on a ladder not far from where the first contraption was found. Police said he was tying a similar "I Love New York" bag to a public lamp post.

Why protesters curse cops

Thu, 10 May 2012 20:28:00 +0000

Attitudes toward the police are the source of innumerable disagreements and divisions between those who've participated in Occupy-related actions in the past half year. From Oakland, Calif., to New York "Fuck the Police" marches regularly snake through the streets, while in early encampments chants of "We are the 99%, and so are you!" would ring out invitingly to surrounding police officers. (Unsurprisingly, anti-police sentiment increasingly outweighed support for police as more and more Occupy participants felt the jab of billy clubs and the sting of tear gas.)

It's beyond the purview of these paragraphs to explain the many reasons someone might take to the streets and shout "fuck the police!" However, as a new report from the New York Civil Liberties Union confirms, the consistently racist practices of the NYPD should make fierce anti-police sentiments understandable, even for those who find such an attitude unpalatable.

The NYPD May Day siege

Thu, 03 May 2012 15:36:00 +0000

A number of reports have pointed out that the Occupy calls for a May Day general strike drew tens of thousands in the street Tuesday -- with actions from the militant to the family-minded -- in cities across the country, particularly in New York and Oakland, Calif. The culmination of scheduled action in New York -- a mass march of around 30,000 union workers, immigrant workers and OWS supporters that descended (with a permit) on Manhattan's financial district -- felt powerful from within, as chanting bodies jostled south. But I jumped over the barricades, which hemmed in the crowd, and walked a few blocks away. Only a muffled din signaled the crowd's presence nearby; that and the constant flow of riot cops flooding past me and the police vans lining the street as far as the eye could see.

NYPD must spy on all Muslims to protect us from Iranian photographers

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 19:22:00 +0000

The NYPD is less a "police department" than a secretive and unaccountable international intelligence-gathering organization with a large minority-frisking division and the firepower of a mid-sized army. Lately they have been facing a bit of criticism for their style of intelligence-gathering, which seems to be done with more gusto than concern for civil liberties or... accuracy. Sometimes the NYPD's muscular-but-stupid approach to spying gets them in trouble with the FBI. And when the organization that fights terror by recruiting shady weirdos to try to trick random Muslims into saying "jihad" into tape recorders says your practices are counterproductive and out of line, they are probably pretty counterproductive and out of line.

NYPD raid burgeoning Union Square occupation

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:52:00 +0000

The game of cat and mouse between the NYPD and Occupy supporters over New York space continues. Early Wednesday morning, police ousted around 300 people from the Southern end of Union Square Park, where an occupation had been gathering numbers since the weekend after Occupy Wall Street was once again evicted from Zuccotti Park in Downtown Manhattan in an aggressive police sweep.

Since Saturday night, the impromptu Union Square occupation swelled from 70 people to around 300 on Tuesday night. In line with park rules, no tents had been set up, with only blankets used for comfort during the past few mild, early-spring evenings. Police only interfered with the occupation as the numbers grew. Just after midnight, they forced the crowd onto the sidewalk on 14th Street.

White police officials: “We are the real victims here”

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 19:40:00 +0000

New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Sanford, Fla., police chief Bill Lee have both "come out" as victims of insidious prejudice. Speaking to New York Daily News sports columnist Mike Lupica, Kelly had a bit of a laugh at how upset people get over his department's policy of constant harassment of black men.

The other day, Kelly started to hear it from City Council members about his department’s aggressive efforts to reduce the ridiculously high numbers of minorities in the city being victimized by gun crimes. You probably know that fight ended quickly when Kelly went back at them asking for their own solutions.

Talking about all of it Sunday, he said, “Sometimes it sounds sometimes like people are more comfortable stereotyping me.”

Arrests galvanize Occupy

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 10:00:00 +0000

It's been six months since Occupy Wall Street first inserted itself into public space and consciousness, so writers and pundits this past week have clamored to quantify and assess the movement: What has Occupy achieved? What next for Occupy? This semi-anniversary has prompted a demand for Occupy's Greatest Hits.

It is important to note the homes saved from foreclosure by Occupy actions; the policies and mainstream political conversations that Occupy has influenced, both directly and indirectly; the growth in awareness about income inequality, police brutality and racism; as well as the port shutdowns and short-term disruptions to consumer and corporate activity Occupy has notched on its many belts. But any articles aiming to sum up the Occupy effect will miss the point. The temptation for writers is to historicize -- to churn out articles, books and anthologies about "what really happened" and what it all means. It's tempting because it sells and it sells because, well, it feels like something did change since last September and, for a small number of us, at least, the world feels different now that there is Occupy.

Can the NYPD (legally) spy on mosques?

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 21:43:00 +0000

Last August, the Associated Press launched a series detailing how the New York Police Department has extensively investigated Muslims in New York and other states, including preparing reports on mosques and Muslim-owned businesses, apparently without any suspicion of crimes being committed.

The propriety and legality of the NYPD's activities is under dispute. Mayor Michael Bloomberg – who claimed last year that the NYPD does not focus on religion and only follows threats or leads – is now arguing that, as he said last week, "Everything the NYPD has done is legal, it is appropriate, it is constitutional." Others disagree. In fact, Bloomberg himself signed a law in 2004 prohibiting profiling by law enforcement based on religion.

My 37 hours with the NYPD

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 20:50:00 +0000

“You got press credentials?”

I barely had time to say no to the mustachioed White Shirt before he grabbed my forearm and threw me to the ground. As he brought me down I transferred my smartphone – which I had been using to document the NYPD's aggressive arrests following the impromptu celebration in the Winter Garden on Dec. 12 – to my left hand and then my pocket. The website Boing Boing posted a very dramatic photograph of me holding my glasses while police pile on top of me. I've been covering Occupy Wall Street as an independent journalist for its entirety as a radio show host, for Salon, and on the ground.

Mayor Bloomberg’s army

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Billionaire New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has his own army! No, it's not a private security firm, like Blackwater. It's actually, according to the mayor, the New York City Police Department.

Bloomberg, again threatening vaguely to make that presidential run that the American people are decidedly not calling for, told MIT last night that he doesn't even need to be president, because all of his autocratic desires are fulfilled by running America's most populous city as his private fiefdom.

“I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world. I have my own State Department, much to Foggy Bottom’s annoyance. We have the United Nations in New York, and so we have an entree into the diplomatic world that Washington does not have,” Mayor Bloomberg said.

I'm not entirely sure what he means by having his own "State Department." The city's independent nonprofit tourism agency, maybe? But he didn't mention that his army also comes with its own international (and questionably legal) intelligence-gathering apparatus, just like the CIA and FBI, except without any sort of oversight, congressional or otherwise.

I watched two days of Fox News coverage of OWS

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 22:00:00 +0000

I watched Fox News during the daylight hours for two days this week, to see what the conservative cable shouting channel's "straight news" programs had to say about the Occupy movement. And ... they really don't have much to say about it.

Fox is not normally my background noise of choice. When I'm at home, I have local news channel NY1. At the office, it's usually MSNBC. So watching Fox from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. for two days was sort of edifying. I learned some things!

For instance, I learned that basically everyone in Congress is demanding that Eric Holder retire because of something to do with Solyndra. Someone on a panel said that the people in Congress demanding Holder's retirement were not very important members of Congress but that person was shouted down because every member of Congress is important, especially when they are providing grist for the Fox faux-scandal mill.

I also learned that there is a baby missing, named Baby Lisa, and that Baby Lisa's mother almost certainly is responsible, because Baby Lisa's mother had an online dating profile. I had literally never heard of Baby Lisa before Monday, but Fox covered Baby Lisa more than any other story save the Penn State situation. The Murdoch tabloid ethos still drives Fox as much as the Ailes political agenda.

Daily News cheers Occupy Wall Street raid, until Daily News reporter is arrested

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:07:00 +0000

When the NYPD, on Mayor Michael Bloomberg's orders, raided and evicted Occupy Wall Street from Zuccotti Park last night, the editors of the New York Daily News, the city's ostensibly liberal tabloid newspaper, cheered.

"Bravo to Bloomberg's Occupy Wall Street eviction," goes the headline on its editorial published this morning.

The fact that the eviction was done in violation of a court order doesn't bother them:

The amorphous agglomeration known as Occupy Wall Street had transformed a space intended for open community access into a round-the-clock shantytown — and they claimed that the First Amendment guaranteed their right to do as they pleased.

This is not constitutional wisdom. This is self-important, self-indulgent bilge. And a Manhattan Supreme Court justice who ordered a halt to the eviction pending a hearing needs to emphatically so state.

Our militarized police forces

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 22:40:00 +0000

The Atlantic has a good piece on one of those subjects that I am slightly obsessed with, the ongoing militarization of American police forces. As a New Yorker, I am accustomed to being greeted by cops bearing assault rifles bravely monitoring the morning commute, which is more than slightly jarring, but the depressing thing is that that sort of sight quickly becomes normalized.

As former peace officer and Iraq veteran Arthur Rizer and co-author Joseph Hartman write, the police arms race has very clearly spread well beyond the urban borders of the only cities to actually be targeted by foreign terrorists.

Now, police officers routinely walk the beat armed with assault rifles and garbed in black full-battle uniforms. When one of us, Arthur Rizer, returned from active duty in Iraq, he saw a police officer at the Minneapolis airport armed with a M4 carbine assault rifle -- the very same rifle Arthur carried during his combat tour in Fallujah.

The extent of this weapon "inflation" does not stop with high-powered rifles, either. In recent years, police departments both large and small have acquired bazookas, machine guns, and even armored vehicles (mini-tanks) for use in domestic police work.