WATCH J.D. Williams, the actor who played “Bodie” on “The Wire,” talk to Azi Paybarah about opposing stop-and-frisk and getting racially profiled by NY cops “a lot.” (via Capital New York)
“Commissioner, facts are facts… A disproportionate number of people being stopped are people of color.”
"It is an absolute disgrace… The reporting was the most irresponsible, biased journalism I have seen in years."
— Long Island Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, on the AP’s Pulitzer for their reporting on the NYPD’s surveillance of Muslims.
"I remember when I worked for the Times, ‘we can’t have an A.P. logo about New York.’ And that’s understandable. And they ignored it. You didn’t see a whisper in New York. And when it went over to New Jersey, that unleashed them [reporters] and they said, ‘I guess, I’m not supposed to be covering New Jersey so we can use A.P. out of New Jersey,’ and bingo, it becomes a big deal. Not a very big deal, five points, but that’s a change."
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Azi Paybarah reporting (via joepompeo)
Another important Joe Pompeo reblog, featuring Azi.
This week’s cover, The NYPD Tapes Confirmed:
The report police hid for nearly two years that corroborates a Voice investigation — and vindicates a whistle-blower the NYPD tried to destroy.
Truly incredible work from Graham Rayman.
(via rubenfeld)
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King said he was dismayed by the rhetoric coming from some of the candidates for mayor and wondered “what kind of city they want to create.”
He referred to a City Councilman who said people in his district are more frightened by the NYPD than they are of drug dealers. (He could also have been referring to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who expressed that sentiment in a rally calling for an end to the department’s stop-and-frisk policy over the weekend.)
“I find those remarks absolutely disgraceful,” said King.
“Absolutely,” said Kelly. “Well, you know, pandering is going on, that’s the season that we’re entering now.”
"
"After two decades of New York’s forced engagement with radical Islamists, two opposing falsehoods face each other: the myth of the lone gunman and the toxic lie that they are all gunmen. At the fulcrum, where it is critical to find and strike a balance, is the Police Department. It cannot risk the distortions of more fictions, of deliberate dishonesty or honest confusion. The police have to make it their business to get it right and to do it in the sunshine so that the whole world knows."
— Jim Dwyer | When the Police Say One Thing, the Facts Another | New York Times
The Third Jihad - The “hate-filled film about Muslims” shown to more than 1,400 NYPD officers during trainings. This morning, the Times called on Ray Kelly to apologize for screening the film.
ODB’s FBI file opens with a 10-page narrative describing the NYPD’s investigation into the group. Detectives discovered information that suggested Wu Tang was buying guns from contacts in Steubenville, Ohio, a small town which was home to a Wu affiliate. Arrested sellers of the guns identified Wu Tang members as purchasers via photo spreads. One of the Steubenville guns was identified as the murder weapon in the killing of Robert “Pooh” Johnson, a Wu affiliate killed in Staten Island on December 30, 1997. The files state that detectives believed the murder was ordered by someone within Wu Tang. (The case remains unsolved.)
Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Kelly swore in 898 new police officers.
Photo from the NYC Mayor’s Office Flickr, by Edward Reed.
(via NYCDigital and Azi’s briefing)
Meg Robertson, who works for MSNBC, said unreasonable interference is exactly what she found when she sought to cover the protest near the corner of 53rd Street and 7th Avenue, where demonstrators had been corraled into a “free-speech zone,” demarcated by police barricades, near the Obama event.
“I identified myself to a number of NYPD as a member of the press and they would not let me close to the penned in area,” she wrote to Capital in an email account of the events last night.
“I was told to stay in Maison restaurant or exit the restaurant to be escorted outside security fencing on Broadway and 53rd. NYPD outside of Maison refused to escort me to the street to speak with anyone from NYPD Community Relations, even after I identified myself as a member of the media.”
Professor Dinkins sprung up from his chair and instructed the young man to “take it easy.” Several students asked if he was even registered for the course. “No, I go to NYU,” he said. A groan went up and students began asking him to leave.
