The NYPD Tapes

Is there no protection for whistle blowers in the NYPD?

In The Village Voice's "NYPD Tapes" series, secret audio recordings by a police officer in Brooklyn's 81st precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant reveal a disturbing pattern of illegal police conduct:

* Manipulation of crime statistics to artificially lower numbers and categories of crimes;
* Threats against police officers if they don't meet their stop-and-frisk and arrest quotas;
* Intimidation of crime victims through "callbacks" to pressure them to downgrade or drop their complaints;
* Instructions to police officers to clear streets by arresting and detaining people for doing nothing more than standing around on streets in their own neighborhoods;
* Arrests of people for not showing identification outside of their own homes (this sounds like the NYPD version of arrests under Arizona's new immigration law, which even Mayor Bloomberg has denounced);
* Arrests by officers who didn't personally witness criminal activity (notwithstanding their own sworn complaints).

In the fourth installment of "The NYPD Tapes," the whistle blowing cop claims that a deputy chief stepped on his face with a boot, and subsequently dragged him to a psychiatric ward of a Queens hospital, where he was hospitalized and medicated against his will for six days.

The NYPD has had little to say about the accusations by the whistle blowing cop beyond stating that no one at the 81st precinct has been disciplined and claiming that there is an internal inquiry. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has declined to address a letter of complaint from City Council member Albert Vann and other elected officials, community leaders and clergy.

Unfortunately, there is no indication that investigations are underway by the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, the U.S. Attorneys of the Eastern or
Southern District of New York, or the Brooklyn District Attorney.

The police misconduct in Bed-Stuy is part of a broader pattern of police misconduct in New York City under Commissioner Kelly, which includes illegal arrests during the Republican National Convention in 2004; investigations and political arrests in Staten Island of individuals who did little more than "annoy" local politicians; bogus prostitution arrests of gay men; and hundreds of thousands of marijuana possession arrests each year, predominantly of African Americans and Latinos.

Civil liberties must matter in NYC. There must be accountability for systemic violations of our rights. We should never accept the attitude reflected by the police commissioner's recent statement that million dollar settlements of police misconduct lawsuits are simply the "cost of doing business" (New York Magazine, "Boss Kelly," May 24, 2010).

Surely we can fight crime without making criminals of NYPD officers. And surely things have changed in NYC, and the NYPD, since the days of famed whistle blower Frank Serpico, who coincidentally also worked for several years in the 81st precinct.

Scott

http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-06-15/news/adrian-school-craft-nypd-tapes-whistleblower/

http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-06-08/news/nypd-tapes-3-detective-comes-forward-downgrading-rape/

http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-05-11/news/nypd-tapes-part-2-bed-stuy

http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-05-04/news/the-nypd-tapes-inside-bed-stuy-s-81st-precinct/