PUBLISHED : WED, 12 MAR 2014, 06:23 PM
UPDATED : SUN, 23 MAR 2014, 01:55 PM
''In what The New York Times described as a 'broadly worded, five-page subpoena,' New York City lawyers are demanding that former Village Voice reporter Graham Rayman turn over tape recordings police officer Adrian Schoolcraft made of his superiors at the NYPD’s 81st precinct in Brooklyn," Time magazine reported last December, adding, "The tapes were the basis for Rayman’s book, The NYPD Tapes, which alleges officers manipulated crime data in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn."
It's questionable why city lawyers are infringing on Mr. Rayman's free press protections under the First Amendment, and many bloggers are concerned that the NYPD is harassing Mr. Rayman in retribution for Mr. Rayman's exposé of police corruption. Because of the legal wrangling with the city, one activist, Suzannah B. Troy, wondered whether the litigation was an excuse used by the new owners of the Village Voice to lay-off Mr. Rayman.
Will @BilldeBlasio Withdraw Subpoenas To Former Reporter For Adrian Schoolcraft's #NYPD Tapes Proving Quotas http://t.co/CpkxcjCrOl
— Bold Progress NYC (@boldprogressnyc) March 8, 2014"The city should always be challenged when it uses subpoena power against a journalist," Mr. Rayman told amNewYork.
Will the so-called "progressive" new mayor withdraw these questionable subpoenas and end the police department's other violations of the First Amendment ?
