The NYPD is a rogue, out-of-control criminal enterprise!

[markpkessinger]

Last edited Sun Jul 20, 2014, 02:34 AM - Edit history (1)

Chokeholds are illegal, yet the Civilian Complaint Review Board has over 1,000 complaints of its use by cops over the past several years. Fucking outrageous! From The New York Times:

[font size=5]Chokehold Complaints Are Focus of City Study[/font]

By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN and NATE SCHWEBER JULY 19, 2014

The city agency that investigates allegations of police misconduct is studying the more than 1,000 complaints it has received in recent years about police officers using chokeholds, the agency said on Saturday, two days after a man died following a police encounter in which the hold appeared to be used.

The study by the Civilian Complaint Review Board follows an announcement on Friday by Police Commissioner William J. Bratton, who said a plainclothes officer on Staten Island appeared to have used a chokehold on Thursday in trying to arrest the man, Eric Garner.

The department’s patrol guide prohibits chokeholds, which it defines as including “any pressure to the throat or windpipe, which may prevent or hinder breathing or reduce intake of air.”

< . . . . >

The board said that it had received complaints about 1,022 instances, since 2009, in which the police were accused of using chokeholds, but that in only nine instances had the board discovered enough evidence to determine that a chokehold had been used. In hundreds of other cases, not enough evidence was available to make a determination, the board said, or the investigations stalled when the person making the complaint could not be found or refused to cooperate.
< . . . . >

[MrScorpio]

1. Link!!?!!

[markpkessinger]

5. Ooops, sorry!

I placed a link on the article's title in the OP, and here it is as well: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/nyregion/thousands-police-chokehold-complaints-are-focus-of-new-york-study-after-man-dies-in-staten-island.html

[geek tragedy]

2. DeBlasio needs to fix this, pronto.

Worse than stop and frisk, this is.

[markpkessinger]

3. The big question is whether the Staten Island District Attorney will prosecute . ..

. . . and over that decision, Mayor De Blasio has zero authority. The Mayor has called for a full investigation, but unfortunately, as is typically the case, it will be a matter of the NYPD doing an 'investigation' (can you spell c-o-v-e-r u-p boys and girls?) of one of its own. And the Staten Island District Attorney is a conservative Republican, so I'm not holding my breath.

[geek tragedy]

4. 1% upholding of civilian complaints is

problematic. The NYPD answers to him, not the SI DA.

[markpkessinger]

7. Agreed

But the chokehold used by the cop on this guy is already illegal. The cop murdered the guy, plain and simple, using a forbidden method of subduing a suspect. So the question becomes, will the cop be criminally prosecuted. One of the big enabling factors in the ongoing problem of police brutality has been the fact that officers rarely face more than a disciplinary slap on the wrist. Perhaps if we had a few cops convicted and given significant sentences, it might cut down on this sort of thing.

You're absolutely right about the 1% upholding of civilian complaints. The Civilian Complaint Review Board has been a long-standing joke in any case, and it has no real teeth in any case because its findings and recommendations are not binding upon the NYPD.

[geek tragedy]

8. Whole police culture has to change.

Certainly a prosecution is necessary. But it's not sufficient.

[markpkessinger]

10. I absolou8tely agree n/t

[sabrina 1]

6. You forgot, bigoted also. Something NEEDS to be done, it has always needed to be done

but it won't be done. The NYPD is, as we learned during OWS, the 'army of the Wealthy'. They are corrupt, brutal, and way out of control. I think it would take an outside interference to do anything about it, there is no will in this country to rein in our militarized, corrupt, criminal 'law' enforcement entities, the more brutal and corrupt they are, the more those in power like it.

[markpkessinger]

9. Sad but true, Sabrina n/t

[napkinz]

11. #JusticeforEricGarner

http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/eric_garner/




Please take action and demand that NYC Police Commissioner Bill Bratton immediately start the process to fire all the officers involved in this devastating police killing. Furthermore, Mayor Bill de Blasio and District Attorney Donovan have the power and the responsibility to hold the police department completely accountable.

Here's the letter we'll send NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan on your behalf. You can add a personal comment using the box provided.

Dear District Attorney Donovan, Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bratton,

I am deeply troubled by the outrageous conduct of the officers who choked Eric Garner to death in Staten Island. Garner is the latest in a long history of Black and brown New Yorkers who have unjustly had their lives cut short by police officers over the past decades. But this time the entire brutal encounter was caught on tape.

The officers involved can be seen using a violent chokehold to subdue Eric – which runs counter to the NYPD's use of force policy. This brutal choking is yet another example of unnecessary police encounters resulting from policing policies and practices that target Black and brown communities, such as Stop and Frisk and now Commissioner Bratton's "broken windows" tactic. These discriminatory tactics subject Black and brown New Yorkers to constant harassment, violence and can can quickly escalate and turn fatal.

In order for these incidents to end, it is critical that a thorough and fair investigation be conducted, justice be served and all of the officers involved in the deadly altercation be held accountable.

We demand that these officers be held completely accountable for their outrageus conduct and excessive use of force.

Sincerely,

Your Name

[markpkessinger]

12. Done!

Thanks for sharing the link!

[napkinz]

13. ...

[Comrade Grumpy]

14. We need a national commission on law enforcement standards and practices.

It's not just NYPD. The whole culture of policing is rotten in this country.