Cop records a year of NYPD corruption. He is arrested and put in psych ward.
1:28 pm - 05/06/2010
The NYPD Tapes: Inside Bed-Stuy's 81st Precinct
Two years ago, a police officer in a Brooklyn precinct became gravely concerned about how the public was being served. To document his concerns, he began carrying around a digital sound recorder, secretly recording his colleagues and superiors.
He recorded precinct roll calls. He recorded his precinct commander and other supervisors. He recorded street encounters. He recorded small talk and stationhouse banter. In all, he surreptitiously collected hundreds of hours of cops talking about their jobs.
Made without the knowledge or approval of the NYPD, the tapes—made between June 1, 2008, and October 31, 2009, in the 81st Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant and obtained exclusively by the Voice—provide an unprecedented portrait of what it's like to work as a cop in this city.
They reveal that precinct bosses threaten street cops if they don't make their quotas of arrests and stop-and-frisks, but also tell them not to take certain robbery reports in order to manipulate crime statistics. The tapes also refer to command officers calling crime victims directly to intimidate them about their complaints.
As a result, the tapes show, the rank-and-file NYPD street cop experiences enormous pressure in a strange catch-22: He or she is expected to maintain high "activity"—including stop-and-frisks—but, paradoxically, to record fewer actual crimes.
8-page article at village voice starts here
http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-05-0
Two years ago, a police officer in a Brooklyn precinct became gravely concerned about how the public was being served. To document his concerns, he began carrying around a digital sound recorder, secretly recording his colleagues and superiors.
He recorded precinct roll calls. He recorded his precinct commander and other supervisors. He recorded street encounters. He recorded small talk and stationhouse banter. In all, he surreptitiously collected hundreds of hours of cops talking about their jobs.
Made without the knowledge or approval of the NYPD, the tapes—made between June 1, 2008, and October 31, 2009, in the 81st Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant and obtained exclusively by the Voice—provide an unprecedented portrait of what it's like to work as a cop in this city.
They reveal that precinct bosses threaten street cops if they don't make their quotas of arrests and stop-and-frisks, but also tell them not to take certain robbery reports in order to manipulate crime statistics. The tapes also refer to command officers calling crime victims directly to intimidate them about their complaints.
As a result, the tapes show, the rank-and-file NYPD street cop experiences enormous pressure in a strange catch-22: He or she is expected to maintain high "activity"—including stop-and-frisks—but, paradoxically, to record fewer actual crimes.
8-page article at village voice starts here
http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-05-0
2) I don't see the article saying anything about a psych ward. I never heard that in any articles at all. The article, in the post script, mentions a possible psych evaluation. I think that's notably different, but even then I find it odd that the article doesn't actually cover anything about the who/what/why of that. I guess it bugs me because the entire thing is fucked up, and I don't want to see false stuff being leaked into it in order to discredit what is really going on in a really bad way.
Yeah, not surprising that, even if there's no *stated* policy about the numbers at HQ, the higher-ups are obsessed with getting them "right" even if it comes at a cost of proper public service and trust.
Regarding your #2, there's this on page 7 of 8: Eventually, Deputy Chief Michael Marino, the commander of Patrol Borough Brooklyn North, which covers 10 precincts, ordered that Schoolcraft be dragged from his apartment in handcuffs and forcibly placed in a Queens mental ward for six days. Since this is the first part of a three-part story, and there's definitely an angle on it, I suspect we're not seeing the full facts at this point.
I keep forgetting to put this into every post you have.
I am not surprised.
Meanwhile, lemme ask you about the justification for the Iraq War, again? Or, I'm sorry, what was it that you said about it before, you didn't want to talk about it because you'd be wrong. It's a little strange to imply somebody who can actually apply logic to their thoughts is a 'crackpot' when you can't elucidate yours beyond "Just 'cause".
I disagree with this reasoning.
Thank you for posting this.
P.S. Omar Love
Edited at 2010-05-06 08:48 pm (UTC)
Thank you for posting this.