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20 Years Ago NYPD Officer Jailed For Chokehold, Why Not Now

February 3, 2015 Christopher Mathias, www.huffingtonpost.com , , ,
The similarities are striking. Both Anthony Baez and Eric Garner, in their final moments, were put into chokeholds by officers from the New York City Police Department. Both of the cops involved were white, while Baez and Garner were minorities and unarmed. Both men’s deaths set off protests across the city, their names added to a long list of black and Latino men who have died in altercations with police. But Francis Livoti, the officer who killed Baez, ultimately spent seven years in a federal prison. In December, a Staten Island grand jury decided not to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo in Garner’s death. That grand jury decision precipitated several tense weeks in New York. Protesters -- organizing around the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter -- routinely took to the streets.

Family Of Ramarley Graham Settle Suit With City For $3.9M

February 2, 2015 John Marzulli, www.nydailynews.com , ,
The family of slain Bronx teen Ramarley Graham agreed to accept $3.9 million from the city Friday to settle their wrongful death lawsuit, the Daily News has learned. The settlement comes amid an ongoing federal investigation by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara into possible civil rights violations against the NYPD cops involved in the Feb. 2, 2012 fatal shooting. Officer Richard Haste, who fired the fatal shot after chasing Graham, 18, from the street into his home, was initially indicted by the Bronx district attorney for manslaughter, but a judge threw out the case on a legal technicality. A second grand jury declined to indict the cop.

$75K Settlement In “I Can’t Breathe” Suit In NYC

January 21, 2015 Rocco Parascandola, www.nydailynews.com , ,
A Brooklyn dad who says cops put him into a chokehold has settled his lawsuit against the city for $75,000, the Daily News has learned. “I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!” Kevin Dennis-Palmer said he gasped in the Feb. 9, 2013 incident — more than a year before Staten Island dad Eric Garner died with those same last words after being put in a chokehold. “It makes you realize how truly blessed you are to get out of that situation,” Dennis-Palmer said of Garner,whose death last July touched off waves of demonstrations across the city. The NYPD banned chokeholds in 1993. Dennis-Palmer, 28, said Sgt. Burt Antoine and Officer Ryan Monteleone pulled up in their police cruiser, lights flashing, as he was attempting to parallel-park near his Brownsville home, after working his job as a first responder for National Grid.

Eric Garner Memorial Burns Down In NYC

January 21, 2015 RT, www.rt.com , ,
A makeshift memorial built in the Staten Island, New York at the spot where Eric Garner died at the hands of law enforcement last year, burned down on Monday evening. Preliminary reports suggest a candle started the blaze. According to the New York Post, the Staten Island memorial caught fire late on Monday, which was also Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Police sources told the paper that a candle was believed to have accidentally fallen and burned down the memorial. “Evil set my dad’s memorial on fire tonight, but cant erase his legacy,” Erica Garner, the daughter of the late New Yorker, wrote on Twitter. “Rebuild 2morrow.”

NYPD’s Counterterrorism Apparatus Is Being Turned On Protesters

January 20, 2015 Alex Kane, www.vice.com , , ,
Activists organizing protests against police brutality in New York are marking Martin Luther King Day with a march beginning in Harlem. Some attendees might be surprised along the way to encounter officers in blue jackets with the words "NYPD Counter Terrorism" emblazoned on the back. But Linda Sarsour, a prominent Muslim-American activist and member of the anti-police brutality group Justice League NYC, one of the sponsors of the march, is almost used to it by now. As head of the Arab American Association of New York, Sarsour has been a leader in the fight against police misconduct. Much of her energy has gone into speaking out against the NYPD's expansive spying program that since 9/11 has targeted Muslims and activists.

NAACP Seeks Non-Staten Island Judge Re Grand Jury Records

January 16, 2015 Jan Somma-Hammel, www.silive.com , , ,
The Staten Island branch and the state conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People want the decision on whether to release the Eric Garner grand jury record moved off Staten Island. The NAACP filed a petition Friday seeking to disqualify state Supreme Court Justice William E. Garnett, who was assigned the case, from ruling on it, and requested it be handled by a justice in one of the other four boroughs. "We believe that the process should be taken out of Richmond County," said James I. Meyerson, a lawyer for the New York State Conference of the NAACP. "The perception of integrity and fairness has been compromised, in our view."

NY Police Slowdown Turns Into A Petty Crime Crackdown

January 15, 2015 John del Signore, www.gothamist.com ,
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the NYPD's slowdown is ending, and it appears that some cops are making up for lost time. We've received multiple tips from New Yorkers who say that in the past couple of days they've been issued summonses for the sort of "quality of life" offenses that the NYPD had all but stopped enforcing over the past two weeks. John Zawadzinski was arrested on Saturday afternoon in SoHo by three plainclothes officers who spotted him affixing a small sticker (for the "Delta Bravo Urban Exploration Team") to the back of a crosswalk signal box. He was handcuffed and taken to the 5th Precinct Stationhouse and held for almost three hours while his arrest was processed.

Report: NYPD Too Quick To Choke, Not Punished

January 14, 2015 J. David Goodman, www.nytimes.com , ,
The first investigation by New York City’s police inspector general includes the finding that in several cases where officers were found to have used a chokehold, the banned maneuver was the officer’s initial physical response to verbal resistance. Headed by Philip K. Eure, who was hired in May, the inspector general’s office examined the circumstances and the disciplinary actions that resulted in 10 confrontations between officers and suspects from 2009 to June 2014 in which a separate oversight agency verified that a chokehold had been used by an officer. In each instance, the agency, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, recommended stiff discipline. However, in the cases that have been decided so far, officers were given little or no punishment by the Police Department.

Protesters Defy Ban On Die-Ins In Grand Central Station

January 14, 2015 Zishun Ning, www.indypendent.orrg , , , ,
#BlackLivesMatter protesters have been doing events in Grand Central Station in New York on a regular basis. After they held a successful 24 our vigil #CarryTheNames which included putting the names of those killed by police violence on the floor of the station, police announced there would be no more die-ins or putting names on the floor -- such actions were prohibited. When this occurred we asked out loud what would the #BlackLivesMatter campaign do? Would they accept this? We're pleased to report they are continuing to stand up, exercise their rights and raise the consciousness of thousands. In defiance of the recently issued MTA ban on die-in protests at Grand Central Terminal, protestors held another demonstration in the main concourse on Monday to demand justice for unarmed black men killed by police. Although two protestors were arrested at a similar demonstration in Grand Central six days earlier, no arrests were made during Monday's protest. However, the stations loudspeaker repeatedly warned: "Lying on the floor, platform, stairs or landing is prohibited." Check out the video below.

Celebrating The NYPD Slowdow

January 10, 2015 Aurin Squire, www.newrepublic.com , , ,
For the second consecutive week, New York City police have virtually ceased writing tickets and arresting people for many nonviolent crimes, on the order of a 90 percent drop from a year earlier. After perceived slights by Mayor Bill de Blasio, civil protests against police brutality, and the murder of two officers by a deranged gunman, the New York Police Department is fighting back by not doing its job. Or rather, police appear to be using their resentment as an organizing incentive to skip certain non-essential cop duties. The police seem to be trying to teach a lesson to a city they feel doesn't adequately appreciate them. For New Yorkers who value fair policing, though, the slowdown is an occasion to celebrate.

Judge Could Decide To Release Eric Garner Grand Jury Documents

January 6, 2015 Jonathan Allen, www.Reuters.com , , , ,
A New York judge will hear arguments later this month whether to publicly release the records of a grand jury hearing in the case of an unarmed black man killed after a policeman put him in a chokehold while arresting him for peddling loose cigarettes. After an unusually lengthy session lasting nine weeks, the grand jury voted in December not to indict the police officer, Daniel Pantaleo, for his role in the asphyxiation death of Eric Garner on a Staten Island sidewalk last summer. Captured on video, Garner's repeated cries of "I can't breathe!" as Pantaleo holds him by his neck have become a slogan for protesters at rallies across the United States who accuse police forces of being hostile towards black citizens.

Time To Stand Up To The NYPD

January 4, 2015 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , , , , ,
What kind of relationship do communities and individuals want to have with the police? Do police want the respect of the communities and people they serve? How does a city create a vision for the type of policing it wants to see and then achieve it? Unfortunately, the NYPD union leadership seems committed to making things worse. Patrick Lynch has threatened “When these funerals are over, those responsible will be called on the carpet and held accountable.” What does that mean? Is he threatening a police coup of city government? Leaked emails and comments in chat rooms show that the NYPD is working with GOP politicians to continue to escalate protests in order to remove de Blasio from office. De Blasio should not back down. The public is with the mayor because they know there are serious problems within the NYPD. He should escalate his efforts for positive police reforms. It is time to talk about an era of community control of policing where structures are put in place that give the community power in their relationship with police.

The NYPD’s ‘Work Stoppage’ Is Surreal

January 4, 2015 Matt Taibi, www.rollingstone.com , ,
Furious at embattled mayor Bill de Blasio, and at what Police Benevolent Association chief Patrick Lynch calls a "hostile anti-police environment in the city," the local officers are simply refusing to arrest or ticket people for minor offenses – such arrests have dropped off a staggering 94 percent, with overall arrests plunging 66 percent. If you're wondering exactly what that means, the Post is reporting that the protesting police have decided to make arrests "only when they have to." (Let that sink in for a moment. Seriously, take 10 or 15 seconds). Substantively that mostly means a steep drop-off in parking tickets, but also a major drop in tickets for quality-of-life offenses like carrying open containers of alcohol or public urination. My first response to this news was confusion.

Protesters Mark New Year With ‘Black Lives Matter’ Marches

January 2, 2015 , , , ,
Protesters from the East to West coasts of the US ushered in the New Year with ‘Black Lives Matter’ marches against police brutality. In St Louis demonstrators tried to take over a police station, demanding that the “occupiers” be “removed from power.” In a letter addressed to St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson and all other “occupiers of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,” protesters announced in August they were evicting them from the building for a range of alleged offenses, including police brutality and transforming the police department into a “militarizing occupying force.” A grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Ferguson, Missouri teen Michael Brown last month sparked a nationwide protest movement against excessive police force. Just over a week later, a grand jury in Staten Island opted not to indict New York Police in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, bringing the slogan “I can’t breathe” to national attention. The movement has inspired similar protests against police brutality abroad.

Is Zero-Tolerance Policing Worth Chokehold Deaths?

January 1, 2015 Robert Wilbur and Martha Rosenberg, www.counterpunch.org , ,
Such letter-of-the-law police work is also called “zero-tolerance” policing and is based on the “broken windows” theory of crime which postulates that crime flourishes when apathy for enforcement of minor laws is perceived. For example, when an abandoned automobile with no license plates and its hood up was left in a Bronx neighborhood, its radiator and battery were taken in a short period of time and windows smashed and upholstery ripped, reported Philip Zimbardo, a Stanford psychologist, in 1969. Professor Harris told us the progressive decline in violent crime, which continues to this day, is an inexplicable nationwide trend that is seen equally in cities that practice zero-tolerance and those that do not. Professor Harris deemed zero-tolerance policing “harsh” and “unyielding” and devoid of any deterrent effect.
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