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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.

Grassroots Message Against Police Violence, & All Violence, Stands Firm

December 31, 2014 Heidi Boghosian, www.commondreams.org , , ,
Our movements are nonviolent, and are not to blame for the killing of Officers Liu and Ramos. The peaceful demonstrations and direct actions carried out by tens of thousands of people of all ethnicities in recent months are born of a frustration with a system that guarantees impunity to state agents who kill young African American men. We will not be silenced. We hang this banner proudly on the Muste building, and we will continue to fill the streets with our feet and our voices, because racism and police violence are an affront to our values, and because we believe, as A.J. did, that persistent nonviolent protest will ultimately prevail in creating a more just world.

Cops Who Turned Their Backs On de Blasio Should Resign

December 31, 2014 John Tarleton, www.indypendent.org , ,
Rank-and-file cops are upset with a moderately liberal mayor who has failed to offer unconditional support for the most savage acts of police brutality such as the chokehold death of Eric Garner. De Blasio’s innocuous comment that he has warned his Black teen-age son to be careful in his dealings with the police“who are there to protect him” has also become a source of simmering police anger. When members of the NYPD turned their backs again to de Blasio on Saturday, they expressed their disdain not just for the mayor, but for the residents of this majority people-of-color city who gave him his landslide victory last year. They also repudiated the basic democratic ideal that agents of the state who are given the legal power to walk around the city with 9mm semi-automatic pistols on their hips and arrest or even kill people when they deem it necessary should be answerable to civilian leaders, not the other way around.

Chilling, Disgusting: Investigations Into NYPD Corruption

December 30, 2014 Justin Gardner, www.thefreethoughtproject.com , , ,
Grass eaters, meat eaters, pads, bagmen, scores, and doing doors. These are a few of the nicknames cops in the New York City Police Department use for their colleagues engaged in the business of committing crime. It’s no wonder these words have become part of the NYPD lexicon, considering its long history of corruption. Patrick Lynch, the head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, is attempting to use the senseless murder of two NYPD officers as the basis for irrational rants and calls to impose “wartime” measures on the citizens. But the more rational among us know that unprovoked murder is absolutely wrong and is rejected by those protesting police brutality. Awareness of police brutality and corruption is growing exponentially, and, as you will see below, excessive force has risen dramatically in the NYPD since 1993. It should come as no surprise to authorities that people are showing their frustration through peaceful yet powerful protests.

Cops And GOP Teaming Up Against de Blasio

December 30, 2014 Max Blumenthal, www.alternet.org , ,
When hundreds of cops from around the country and as far away as Canada turned their backs on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio during the funeral of Officer Rafael Ramos, the NYPD officer shot to death alongside his partner Wenjian Liu by a deranged gunman, they fired the first salvo in a carefully coordinated political operation aimed at discrediting the liberal mayor and shattering the ongoing anti-police brutality protest movement. AlterNet has obtained emails revealing plans to organize a series of anti-de Blasio protests around the city until the summer of 2015. Billed as a non-partisan movement in support of “the men and women of the NYPD,” the protests are being orchestrated by a cast of NYPD union bosses and local Republican activists allied with Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor who recently called on de Blasio to “say you’re sorry to [NYPD officers] for having created a false impression of them.”

1992: Massive NYPD Protest When Mayor Proposes Civilian Review Board

December 29, 2014 James C. McKinley Jr., www.nytimes.com , ,
The 300 uniformed officers who were supposed to control the crowd did little or nothing to stop the protesters from jumping barricades, tramping on automobiles, mobbing the steps of City Hall or taking over the bridge. In some cases, the on-duty officers encouraged the protesters. While the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association had called the rally to protest Mayor David N. Dinkins's proposal to create an independent civilian agency that would look into police misconduct, the huge turnout -- estimated by the Police Department at 10,000 protesters -- and the harsh emotional pitch reflected widespread anger among rank-and-file officers toward the Mayor for his handling of riots against the police in Washington Heights last July, his refusal to give them semiautomatic weapons and his appointment of an outside panel to investigate corruption.

NYC To Try Settling Suit With Eric Garner’s Family

December 27, 2014 Associated Press, www.bigstory.ap.org , , ,
New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer will attempt to negotiate a settlement of the $75 million civil rights claim brought forth by Eric Garner's family. If an agreement is reached, it would avoid what could be a long trial in federal court. And if a settlement is pursued now, it would also keep Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration out of the process. Officials with the comptroller's office said Wednesday that the push is part of Stringer's strategy to settle major civil rights claims before lawsuits are even filed. It was not clear that a settlement would be reached.

Refusing To Wage War

December 25, 2014 Robert C. Koehler, www.commonwonders.com , ,
And so we grieve over another national tragedy. Two New York City police officers, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, were shot — assassinated — as they sat in their patrol car this past weekend. Let the needlessness of their deaths rip our hearts open. Let the humanity come first. “Now is a moment for empathy and deep listening.” The words are from a statement issued by #BlackLivesMatter, a grassroots movement emerging this year over the spate of police killings of young men of color. The murder of the officers is part of the same tragedy. Black lives matter. Blue lives matter. All lives matter. Any thinking that embraces less than this is part of the problem, not the solution.

The Police Aren’t Under Attack. Institutionalized Racism Is.

December 24, 2014 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, www.time.com , , , ,
At the same time, however, we need to understand that their deaths are in no way related to the massive protests against systemic abuses of the justice system as symbolized by the recent deaths—also national tragedies—of Eric Garner, Akai Gurley, and Michael Brown. Ismaaiyl Brinsley, the suicidal killer, wasn’t an impassioned activist expressing political frustration, he was a troubled man who had shot his girlfriend earlier that same day. He even Instagrammed warnings of his violent intentions. None of this is the behavior of a sane man or rational activist. The protests are no more to blame for his actions than The Catcher in the Rye was for the murder of John Lennon or the movie Taxi Driver for the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. Crazy has its own twisted logic and it is in no way related to the rational cause-and-effect world the rest of us attempt to create.

We Will Not Be Silent

December 23, 2014 Ferguson Action, www.fergusonaction.com , , ,
Activists issued a scathing statement this afternoon in response to recent attempts by the NYPD to silence the efforts of citizens seeking justice for victims of police violence. The letter, drafted by Ferguson Action, and cosigned by over a dozen grassroots organizations takes aim at PBA president Patrick Lynch and Commissioner Bratton for their reckless attempts to conflate constitutionally protected protest activities with the tragic murders of officers Ramos and Liu: “The events of this weekend are tragic. We renew our condolences to the families and friends of those injured and killed this weekend. As those who stand with the victims of police violence, we know all too well the deep sense of loss that a community feels when they lose a loved one."

100 Brooklyn Public Defenders Walk Out In Eric Garner Protest

December 19, 2014 Ayana Harry, www.pix11.com , ,
Over 100 Legal Aid attorneys walked out of Brooklyn Criminal Court Tuesday morning to protest the grand jury outcome in Eric Garner’s case. “Mr. Garner was our client and we wanted to show solidarity with our clients,” said attorney Rebecca Kavanagh. Bina Ahmed is a public defender on Staten Island. “We see a lot of police brutality,” she explained. “We see a lot of charges of resisting arrest when people are beaten to a pulp by the NYPD, to justify the brutality” After leaving the courthouse, the attorneys staged a ‘die-in’ on the front steps of the boroughs detention complex and a march outside District Attorney Ken Thompson’s office.

Tens Of Thousands Surge Through Manhattan, Decry Police Violence

December 15, 2014 John Zangas, www.dcmediagroup.us , , , ,
Like the waves of a tsunami tens of thousands surged through Manhattan on Saturday to decry police violence and the killings of unarmed Blacks. The Millions March reflected growing public anger towards a broken justice system tilting towards police impunity for misconduct. Marchers chanted “Black Lives Matter,” I can’t Breathe,” and “No Justice, No Peace,” popular catch-phrases of the growing movement.The Millions March was “unlike anything I’ve seen since the civil rights movement,” said Tippy Brooks, an activist who has been involved in social justice issues for 50 years.

Defying Ban, Students March To Brooklyn

December 10, 2014 Colin Moyhihan, www.nytimes.com , , ,
The grand jury decision last week not to indict a police officer in the death of Eric Garner did not go unnoticed at East Side Community High School. The principal of the school, in the East Village, distributed a letter to students lamenting the decision. A “teach-in” was planned with activities like writing to the families of Mr. Garner and Michael Brown, whose shooting death by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., also passed without indictment, and writing to police precinct stations inviting officers to come talk with students about their jobs.
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