VOCAL-NY amongst CPR community groups receiving over $7 million in FY15 City Council slush funds

Despite cheap "progressive" talk from mayor and new Council speaker, New York City Council is still disbursing speaker slush funds, even as one sitting Councilmember's funding had to be supervised due to pending corruption charges.

New York City Council Divvies Up $50 Million in Speaker Slush Funds http://t.co/jUmrGwJxMb via @WSJ

— Informed Voting (@informedvoting) June 25, 2014

RELATED New York City Council Divvies Up $50 Million in Speaker Slush Funds (The Wall Street Journal) Queens Councilman Ruben Wills arrested by Attorney General’s office in corruption probe (UPDATE) (Metro New York) MMV Slush Funds Report For Fiscal Year 2015 Adopted Expense : Budget Adjustment Summary / Schedule C (New York City.gov)

Slush funds allocated to VOCAL-NY include $25,000 for anti-Stop-and-Frisk workshops, even though Mayor Bill de Blasio campaigned to end the "Stop-and-Frisk" era in NYPD policing. Following the Veal Pen Workshop for police reform at the Left Forum 2014, some of the member groups belonging to a coalition known as Communities United for Police Reform, or CPR, were shown to have influence over the stalled social movement to press the New York City government to deliver police reforms. When one of the stalling member groups in the CPR coalition, VOCAL-NY, was pressed about their role in deliberately deescalating public pressure for police reforms, a VOCAL-NY director, Jennifer Flynn Walker, had a meltdown on Twitter after activists pressed whether City Council slush funds played a role in CPR easing off pressure on the de Blasio-Mark-Viverito administration. "Professional" activists like Ms. Walker get a "seat at the table" next to powerholders, precisely because these "professional" activists accept government funding from the very politicians, who grassroots activists are targeting for legal reforms. Those government funding allocations come with implicit strings attached to not embarrass the politicians publicly, to not create any "scandals," and to settle for the low-bar "politics of the possible" that politicians, like Mayor Bill de Blasio, can deliver without upsetting his big money campaign donors. Some police reform activists believe that the mayor announced his controversial pick for NYPD commissioner to placate nervous billionaire real estate developers, who want to keep seeing escalating New York City real estate prices. The only way real estate prices can keep spiraling up out of control is by keeping all the youths and people of color either locked up in school or locked up in jail. Making do by accepting Mayor de Blasio's appointment of William Bratton as the new commissioner of the New York Police Department means that the City Council has to keep funding community programs to deal with police brutality and the violation of innocent people's rights. Indeed, the slush funds allocated to VOCAL-NY include $25,000 that are intended to "provide Know Your Rights workshops to inform people of their legal rights during police encounters (including stop, question and frisk) and role play de-escalation strategies in order to stay safe and calm." (Emphasis Added)

CPR member groups receiving FY15 slush funds are :   -  Bronx Defenders : $1,636,000   -  Legal Aid Society : $5,865,750   -  New York City Anti-Violence Project : $186,755   -  Streetwise & Safe : $10,000   -  VOCAL-NY : $62,000   -  Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice : $24,000 The controversial City Council practise of doling out slush funds was a hallmark issue in last year's mayoral campaign, and the slush fund allocations were used as an accusation of corruption against former Council Speaker Christine Quinn. According to her campaign promises, the new Council speaker, Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito, promised to bring reforms to the City Council never made possible under former Speaker Quinn's leadership. Alas, Speaker Mark-Viverito is using the shady distribution of slush funds to control strategic community groups for political reasons, which is no different from the motivations of her her predecessor. It's not known why VOCAL-NY still needs $25,000 for workshops that will train people how to deal with police use of "Stop-and-Frisk," if Mayor de Blasio campaigned to end the "Stop-and-Frisk" era at the NYPD. The right thing for VOCAL-NY to do is to come forward to press the mayor to deliver the full range of reforms at the NYPD that he supposedly gave lip service to in last year's mayoral election. Unless, of course, some of the CPR community groups are afraid to pressure the de Blasio-Mark-Viverito administration for the full range of legal reforms needed to end police brutality, violations of the Handschu Agreement, and other infringements of civil liberties and civil rights of innocent New Yorkers. For years, activist have wondered how could the City Council fund, on the one hand, police procedures that violate the Civil Rights Act protections of it citizens, at the same time when, on the other hand, the City Council is funding community groups for protection from police brutality ? What kind of duplicitous City Council budget are elected officials adopting ?

2014-05-31 Veal Pen (Left Forum) Contact Sheet (Twitter Handles) (FINAL)(2014-06-25 FY15 Schedule C Slush F... by Connaissable

Long history of prosecutorial and ethical misconduct by Brooklyn D.A. Hynes triggers proposal for state disciplinary commission

In New York, the state Attorney General has lost control over his wayward District Attorneys. Now, the State Legislature wants to appoint a disciplinary commission to review the corrupt acts of the state's "Dirty D.A.'s"

RELATED Prosecutor misconduct commission moves forward in “Hynes” legislature (The Brooklyn Paper) After Bitter Election Loss, Charles Hynes Shredded His Office Documents : Sources (The New York Observer)

The New York State legislature, that swamp of corruption, is hoping to create an independent commission to investigate the prosecutorial misconduct of New York’s state prosecutors. The commission members would be able to recommend disciplinary actions against prosecutors engaging in "improper activity or whose performance displays a degree of incompetence not suited for the office," The Brooklyn Paper reported. The possibility that the state's district attorneys have become corrupt is too much for the state's attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, to handle. The only way hot political corruption cases like this can be handled is to outsource it to an incompetent commission, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo can then disband if the political heat becomes too much to bear, like what he did with the do-nothing Moreland Commission. The scandal with Brooklyn D.A. Hynes is only coming up now, because Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara is investigating JCOPE ethics complaints and Moreland Commission corruption files. Were it not for Mr. Bharara's ongoing campaign to clean up government corruption, the city's lazy Department of Investigations would not have investigated any of the corrupt district attorneys in New York's five boroughs, much less D.A. Hynes. Naturally, there are rumors being shared amonst activists that the DOI probe into former D.A. Hynes may have been politically-motivated, like all the other take-downs in New York City. Of course, nothing is going to happen in respect of this proposed district attorney investigation commission, unless Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver blesses this commission, which voters know he won't, because Speaker Silver has a long history of enabling corruption all across New York state. But some New York City-based bloggers and activists privately wonder if just the fear of the idea of this commission will scare the crap out of some corrupt local district attorneys, like Manhattan D.A. Cy Vance, who many good government reform activists believe avoids prosecuting political corruption cases. Besides Mr. Vance, the new Brooklyn district attorney, Ken Thompson, also avoids thorny political cases. For example, Mr. Thompson failed to examine the slimy circumstances of how one of the mayor's loyal political supporters was allowed to basically get out jail for free. The long-time Queens district attorney, Richard Brown, refused to find any wrong-doing when the New York Police Department kidnapped and held prisoner the whistleblower Adrian Schoolcraft in the psychiatric ward of a Queens hospital. In New York, whenever political or law enforcement corruption becomes so bad, the only way the corrupt justice system handles it is by outsourcing the investigation to an independent commission or to an independent prosecutor, because the district attorney, attorney general, or federal prosecutor with normal jurisdiction doesn't want the political blowback from these kinds of investigations. Look at how the Staten Island district attorney appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the corrupt Working Families Party ; the Staten Island D.A. didn't want to touch that investigation. These kinds of cases are TOO HOT for the normal investigators to handle. Investigators race to outsource probes to others, who can either afford to take the political heat or who are too stupid to know the difference. But if only voters could see why these investigations have to get outsourced, then that would show voters how the justice system truly has become corrupt, because there should be no reason why there should be a "tale of two justice systems" for political corruption. Meanwhile, as Albany considers more and more layers of supervision over the state's crumbling law enforcement apparatus, it was reported this week that Mayor Bill de Blasio has yet to appoint a chair to the city's Civilian Complaint Review Board, a do-nothing oversight panel meant to push papers about in respect of civilian complaints against the NYPD, in spite of the fact that the NYPD appear to be openly engaging in racing profiling in respect of the low-level marijuana arrests that police are making under the de Blasio administration.

This week in the CPR veal pen

PUBLISHED : THURS, 05 JUN 2014, 05:21 PM
UPDATED : THURS, 05 JUN 2014, 11:13 PM

A reporter from The New York Times apparently was embedded with NYPD for a military style raid in some Harlem public housing projects, resulting in biased reporting that was pro-police invasions, similar to when The NYTimes sexed up its reporting by printing propaganda to sell the public on the U.S invasion of Iraq.

Commissioner Bratton is exploiting The NYTimes' weakness for shock and awe, showing us once again that the Gray Lady apparently learned nothing of its Iraq War reporting prejudices.

Selling military style police invasions like war games

RELATED A report back on activists, who expose and overcome the corrupt nonprofit industrial complex, puppet politicans, and veal pen bouncers (NYC : News & Analysis)

IN THE LAST FEW WEEKS, the New York Police Department have begun raiding homeless shelters to arrest poor people on outstanding warrants (whose only crimes are, basically, being poor), and police have begun invading public housing projects in military style to round up youngsters allegedly involved in gangs on the basis of flimsy evidence. Many professional, nonprofit organizations that lobby for police reform issued statements to denounce the police actions. "This incident goes against what this administration stands for," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, referring to Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration, "and is going to drive people out of homeless shelters." But these profession, nonprofit organizations are nothing but talk these days. Grassroots advocates for wholesale law enforcement reforms are not as restrained as the professional, nonprofit organizations. Last week, some of these advocates attended a meeting, where advocates discussed issues that are blocking professional, nonprofit organizations from resuming the direct action, pressure politics campaign for reforms that were beginning to produce some results in the final year of former Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration. A large coalition of professional, nonprofit organizations is called Communities United for Police Reform, or CPR. These organizations are either administered by operatives loyal to the Democratic Party, or else they are funded by deep pocket donors, who are loyal to the Democratic Party. These close political ties prevent these professional, nonprofit organizations from making Mayor de Blasio look like he is betraying his many campaign promises to reform the NYPD, as these militaristic police actions most certainly confirm. One way many grassroots activists have, to determine how the CPR member organizations are committed to reforms, is by gauging CPR's actions. Are CPR's actions consistent with the intentions of the movement to reform the NYPD ? Right now, CPR is just talk and no action. Of special consternation to some law enforcement reform advocates is the apparent silence of Picture the Homeless, one of CPR's member organizations. As people in homeless shelters are being rounded up and arrested, Picture the Homeless is not calling on help from other CPR member organizations to protest the de Blasio administration's policy decision to shock shelter residents in the middle of the night, forcing them to uncomfortably witness the shackling and arresting of fellow shelter residents under such jarring conditions. Protests by the CPR member organizations against brutal and unconstitutional police tactics peaked on Father’s Day in 2012, when a silent march from Harlem to Mayor Bloomberg’s mansion drew tens of thousands of protesters. Right now, one group visibly pressing for aggressive reforms is New Yorkers Against Bratton. As Commissioner William Bratton continues to stir controversy with the police department's use of aggressive, brutal, and often unconstitutional tactics, more and more New Yorkers are going to plainly see that the CPR member organizations are not committed to reforms, because they are unwilling to back up their talk with action. While the NYPD raids homeless shelters and public projects with no visible protestations from CPR member organizations and while the media play up the dramatic military style use of helicopters and battalions of cops in dawn surprise attacks, another high-profile police reform group, the Police Reform Organizing Project, or PROP, is organizing an art exhibit next week. The NYPD's "Broken Windows Policing" escalates into "Preventative Policing" ? As if all of this just wasn't enough, the NYPD has announced a new program with Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, whereby the police department has entered into a "close collaboration" with prosecutors, sharing electronic surveillance information between prosecutors and police officers on people, who have committed no crime, but who are targets of prejudice for possible suspicion. It's like straight out of Minority Report, where people are arrested by law enforcement for having committed no crimes, yet. The kind of "preventative policing" that NYPD and Manhattan prosecutors envision is an escalation of "broken windows policing," where people are arrested for minor crimes before they theoretically commit bigger crimes. This obsession with preventative and broken windows policing will flood the justice system with many people being tried for minor infractions or no infractions, but these discriminatory approaches to justice will not allow prosecutors to focus on complex public, corporate, and campaign corruption cases -- an imbalance in the prosecution of crimes that lead many law enforcement reform advocates to describe a legal system that treats petty criminals worse than white collar criminals. Indeed, a glaring example of this tale of two justice systems is the police department's military style invasion of Harlem public housing projects for the arrest of alleged young gang members during the same week when former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes remains free with no imminent threat of arrest for having used the money proceeds of drug deals to pay for his campaign consultant.

VOCAL-NY expects Bratton to support marijuana legalization, even though mayor blocks it

The Twilight Zone that is the Veal Pen

Member groups of CPR use tortured logic, such as expecting NYPD Police Commissioner Bill Bratton to support marijuana legalization now that Gov1% Andrew Cuomo made a campaign promise he doesn't intend to deliver, all in an effort to ignore any criticism of Mayor1% Mayor Bill de Blasio, who last week opposed the drug law reform.

Mayor Bill de Blasio broke a campaign promise by announcing he no longer supported marijuana legalization, contrary to his pledges last year, and now the many community groups, which have become the targets of criticisms for failing to hold the de Blasio administration accountable to other campaign promises to overhaul the scandal-ridden police department, find themselves going to great lengths to avoid any criticism of the mayor, even though the mayor is most responsible for updating laws that govern law enforcement in New York City. The backpedaling community groups are members of an umbrella coalition called Communities United for Police Reform, or CPR, and the groups are mimicking the mayor's own backpedalling, leading some political observers to note that the mayor had installed the lobbying firm of Berlin Rosen to supervise external communications of these community groups, in order to keep these community groups in check. Berlin Rosen has been being paid simultaneously to do the political and lobbying work for the mayor.

One CPR member community group, VOCAL-NY, is seizing on the fact that the Working Families Party has extorted a worthless campaign promise from Gov. Andrew Cuomo to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, as a way to increase public pressure on NYPD Police Commissioner William Bratton so that he can begin to support marijuana legalization. What does Gov. Cuomo have to do with how Commissioner Bratton runs the NYPD ? Nothing. What does Gov. Cuomo's empty and meaningless campaign promises to the WFP have to do with the racial bias in NYPD drug arrests ? Nothing. Maybe VOCAL-NY should pressure the WFP to hold Mayor de Blasio accountable for his own now worthless campaign promise to legalize marijuana. The mayor runs the NYPD, not the governor.

Will Bratton evolve now that Cuomo pledged marijuana decriminalization to WFP in de Blasio brokered deal? http://t.co/NPDl3dWGdx @BrentNYT

— VOCAL-NY (@VOCALNewYork) June 1, 2014

Mayor @BilldeBlasio does not support legalizing marijuana, despite campaign promise. http://t.co/McsnnRzuGK

— de Blasio Sold Out (@deBlasioSoldOut) May 30, 2014

DeBlasio & Bratton Increasing Marijuana Arrests In NYC http://t.co/hJ2BsgY7oV via @PopResistance

— jess cochrane (@jkcochrane) June 1, 2014

Are you just going to keep watching NYPD police brutality videos online ?

How Can NYC Police Reform Activists Break Free From The Veal Pen ?

In February, NYPD officers used unnecessary and brutal force to detain and arrest an innocent man after he deboarded the Bx12 bus. The New York Daily News wrote a widely cited article about the police department's over-use of force in that incident. In a viral video of the attack, the innocent man screamed for help, asking of bystanders, "Are you just going to watch this sh-t ?"

Police commissioner William Bratton enforces a "broken windows" theory of policing that deliberately targets the poor, people of color, and other minorities for harassment. If the NYPD is left unreformed, then its foreseeable pattern will be more incidents of brutality. And the inevitable question we will all face each time that more and more of these incidents are recorded and posted online will be, "Are we just going to watch these videos -- and do nothing else ?"

In an excerpt of the video of the attack, we ask you this very question :

Join us for a police reform workshop at this year's Left Forum, where we will engage in activities to prompt community groups to renew their calls for reform. To attend the workshop, you need to register to attend the Left Forum ; after that, you can attend other workshops or panels, as well.

ATTEND OUR WORKSHOP : How can NYC police reform activists break free from the "veal pen" ?

Date : Saturday, May 31, 2014

Time : 3:20 p.m. - 4:50 p.m.

Place : 524 West 59th Street, Manhattan -- Session 3, Room 1.92

Join us for an intensive workshop designed to challenge groups and activists, who have voluntarily de-escalated political pressure for police reform by climbing into the "veal pen" following the election of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Registration is required to attend the Left Forum. REGISTER HERE NOW

veal pen \ vēl pɛn \ noun a holding cell, where young cattle and activists are restrained to keep their bodies tender, until all of their strengths atrophy in preparation for being butchered by the system.

If you want to take part in the conversation to free activists and community groups from the "veal pen," please join us for this important workshop.

2014-05-29 Veal Pen Police Reform Workshop - Movement Action Planning - Flyer (Final) by VealPen2014

Register for the Left Forum to attend the police reform "Veal Pen" Workshop

How Can NYC Police Reform Activists Break Free from the Veal Pen ?

Workshop : How Can NYC Police Reform Activists Break Free from the Veal Pen ?
Date : Saturday, May 31, 2014
Time : 03:20 p.m. - 04:50 p.m.
Place : Session 3, Room 1.92, 540 West 59 Street, New York, NY 10019

Registration is required to attend the Left Forum 2014 : Register here.

Jane Hamsher appropriated the term “veal pen” to describe how the Obama administration subjugates liberal groups and activists in order to demobilize political pressure for reform from the Democratic left. Join us for an intensive workshop designed to challenge groups and activists, who have voluntarily de-escalated political pressure for police reform following the election of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. To demobilize some police reform groups, lobbyists loyal to the mayor now control the media relations for these reform groups. What has been removed from the messaging from these groups has been the urgency for reform that was present before the mayor won last year’s election. In this workshop, designed for experienced activists, we will undertake a specific action and then strategize about how to create new opportunities for organizing in the area of police reform against a backdrop of this new political landscape. In a real "Veal Pen," the bodies of calves atrophy by design. Under the de Blasio administration, which is sensitive to political pressure from the Democratic left as is President Obama, activists’ ideas for police reform are meant to atrophy by design. Since this workshop is designed to overcome frustrations faced by activists, who refuse to be demobilized, the rigorous activities are intended to stretch participants’ ideas and to draw attention to the Veal Pen.

Fifty years after Griswold v. Connecticut, NYPD to accommodate safer sex, but stops short of recognizing privacy rights to contraception [UPDATED]

At a nighttime protest in Jackson Heights, Queens, last year, activists held up a banner with a giant drawing of condom locked in a police handcuff to represent the NYPD's criminalization of the use of contraception.

New York Police Department to stop criminalizing use of contraception -- in some cases

Advocates for sex workers and improved public health won a major concession from the New York Police Department's on-going oppression against citizens when police officials announced that they would stop seizing reproductive contraceptives, namely, condoms, as evidence of criminality in police crackdowns against sex workers.

• RELATED : The change in police procedure will end a policy of oppression that health officials had long criticized as undermining their efforts to protect sex workers from disease. (New York Police to Limit Seizing of Condoms as Evidence of Criminality in Prostitution Cases * The New York Times)

Police announced the change in policy after years of demands from activists that the police were stigmatizing the use of condoms, so much so that health officials had long criticized the police practice as undermining their efforts to protect sex workers from disease. In fact, during the 15 years that former Council Speaker Christine Quinn was in public office, she was the city's most visible female and LGBT politician, and she never made any advancement on overturning the police criminalization of condoms. Indeed, under her incumbency, police biases against trans and gender non-conforming citizens extended the anti-condom dragnet against sex workers to include members of the LGBT community. In several media reports, LGBT New Yorkers attested to being harassed, arrested, and stigmatized by the police for innocently carrying contraception -- in direct violation of their privacy rights. What is more, many HIV/AIDS activists had long objected to the police's stigmatization of the use of condoms as flying in the face of advice from city health officials, who advocated their use for safer sex as a way to decrease the incidence of sexually-transmitted diseases and to prevent unwanted pregnancies. For years, if New Yorkers were caught carrying condoms, the prophylactics could be used as criminal evidence in sex worker prosecution cases -- even though the city's Department of Health distributed condoms to all New Yorkers to promote safer sex and greater public health.

In announcing their change in policy today, NYPD officials carved out a backdoor loophole to retain the right to use condoms as evidence in sex trafficking cases, however.

The nominal changes in NYPD condom policy, being spun under the guise as an advancement to public health, comes almost 50 years since the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in the landmark 1965 case of Griswold v. Connecticut that overturned a state law that had criminalized the use of contraception. In The New York Times article posted to their Web site, there was no mention by police as according any reasoning in the policy change to respect New Yorkers' right to privacy. Nor was it mentioned whether police would stop menacing LGBT New Yorkers as part of its new compromised policy. In respect of reproductive rights, it was never explained how police departments across the United States could opt out of compliance in the first place with the Griswold decision.

The partial backpedal on the condom policy is the NYPD's latest half-measure at reform since the election of Mayor Bill de Blasio. Mr. de Blasio campaigned to end the "stop-and-frisk era," but the mayor contradicted his campaign promise by making a regressive appointment of William Bratton as the city's new police commissioner. Commissioner Bratton has promised to continue to use the controversial police tacking known as stop-and-frisk, which has been ruled to be unconstitutional for its racist impact on the community. Mr. de Blasio also campaigned on the promise to stop the arrests of New Yorkers carrying small amounts of marijuana, but Commissioner Bratton's arrest rate for marijuana possession is actually up from the rate of his predecessor, Raymond Kelly. The NYPD has also promised to disband a controversial demographics unit, which targeted New York's Muslim community, but the police department continues to its practice of racial and religious profiling, and surveillance, of Muslims. As Mayor de Blasio tries to resolve many outstanding litigation cases against the police department over its killing of unarmed, innocent civilians and its policy of using brutality against New Yorkers, the de Blasio administration seems to be neglecting long outstanding cases of minority plaintiffs, such as the Central Park 5, further causing tensions over the new administration's insensitivity to the concerns of people long oppressed by the police. Since Mayor de Blasio supports Commissioner Bratton's "broken windows theory" of policing, the NYPD is expected to continue to target its aggressive policing tactics against the city's poor and people of color.

The government compromises its citizens' right to privacy in the new surveillance state, but what happens to citizens' other fundamental rights that are predicated on privacy ?

Meghan Newcomer, a brilliant future lawyer graduating this year from Fordham Law School, published a "Pelican Brief" of sorts last year in the Fordham Law Review entitled, "Can Condoms be Compelling ? Examining the State Interest in Confiscating Condoms from Suspected Sex Workers," about the criminal crackdown by police departments in New York City, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles against sex workers carrying condoms. In Ms. Newcomer's legal analysis, she examined the government's burden in proving it could violate the fundamental right to contraception, and she found that the government could not achieve a compelling state reason to do so. Ms. Newcomer expertly framed her legal reasoning around the constitutional privacy rights established under the landmark Griswold case and other related rulings and laws. After examining the law, Ms. Newcomer concluded in her article that :

Because the Supreme Court has identified a right for all individuals to be free from state interference in their choice of whether to use contraceptive devices, state actors confiscating condoms from suspected sex workers infringes on that constitutionally protected privacy right. The government’s lack of a compelling state interest in taking condoms, coupled with the failure to narrowly tailor the policy so as to involve the least restrictive infringement of the right, means that the conduct cannot survive strict scrutiny. For this reason, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles are enforcing unconstitutional policies and must stop confiscating condoms from suspected sex workers.

There are more issues that need review, which were not the focus of Ms. Newcomer's fascinating article in the Fordham Law Review. Since New York City officials, privacy rights advocates, and women's rights groups are not raising alarms about the privacy violations of the police department's condom policy, are citizens basically consenting to the government's gutting of the Griswold decision ?

In the time since the Supreme Court issued its ruling in the Griswold case, the impact of the court's decision has been unmistakable in expanding constitutional rights to privacy in subsequent jurisprudence. Prior to Griswold, there was no court case that found a privacy right guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. After Griswold, the fundamental right to privacy was found from the court's interpretation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Further landmark Supreme Court case decisions, such as Roe v. Wade, Bowers v. Hardwick, and Lawrence v. Texas, the latter which expanded Bowers by overturning its narrower interpretation, were made possible because of legal precedent that citizens' privacy was protected by the due process clause.

With police departments essentially given discretion to opt out of the law established by the Griswold decision, advocates for police reform are focused on the public health aspects of the dangerous condom policy. Meanwhile, silent are citizens, who appear to be consenting to the wholesale undermining of reproductive freedoms and LGBT civil rights, in addition to the right to privacy established by Griswold. As the government conducts mass warrantless surveillance of its citizens to the outrage of voters, the state doesn't have to go to great lengths to legally violate citizens' privacy rights if the state can first undermine the case law establishing citizens' fundamental rights to privacy. With crime rates so low, why are police departments targeting sex workers carrying condoms ? Perhaps it is to sufficiently restrict citizens' rights under the Griswold case in order to serve the government's "compelling interest" to conduct its unconstitutional surveillance activities. If the state can chip away at privacy rights just enough, it won't technically be violating its citizens' fundamental rights if the state can, ipso facto, succeed at gutting Griswold.

As the government wears down Griswold, where does that leave citizens' rights to an abortion under Roe and to further rights to privacy and substantive due process under the Fourteenth Amendment under Lawrence ? What about the long social movement to end discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity to which Lawrence helped to give critical mass ?

Does race play a factor in New York City wrongful arrest lawsuit settlements ?

The "Central Park Five" still await the settlement of their wrongful conviction and incarceration lawsuit, but the city is moving mighty swiftly in respect of two other significant cases, where both men are white.

The five black men commonly referred to as the "Central Park Five" are still waiting for the legal settlement of their wrongful conviction and incarceration lawsuits stemming from the 1989 Central Park jogger case. They were convicted in trials conducted in 1990. Teenagers at the time, their convictions were overturned in 2002, and the five men have been waiting for over a decade for New York City to compensate them for having had their lives destroyed.

From left, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, and Kharey Wise, who served prison sentences after having been wrongly convicted in the Central Park jogger case, appeared together in this photograph at the New York premiere of Ken Burns’s racial tension-tinged documentary, “The Central Park Five,” in November 2012.

Law enforcement in New York City has a long history of discriminating against people of color. In the recent class action Floyd lawsuit that ruled that the New York Police Department's practice known as ''stop-and-frisk'' was unconstitutional, police were faulted for routinely targeting "blacks and Hispanics who would not have been stopped if they were white."

Based on the different treatment that black plaintiffs face in lawsuits against the city over wrongful convictions and incarcerations, it appears that racial profiling may now extend to the city's halls of justice. Complete statistics are not readily available, but for one 12-month span, New York City settled 35 civil rights cases against the NYPD for a total of over $22 million. New York City must be trying to contain the high cost of police brutality and discrimination against people of color by wearing them out in lengthy courthouse proceedings.

• RELATED : ''Central Park Five'' Push de Blasio to Keep Promise to Settle Their Lawsuit (NY1)
• RELATED : David Ranta, Framed by Detective, Will Get $6.4 Million From New York City After Serving 23 Years for Murder (The New York Times)
• RELATED : City Might Be Ready to Settle With Robert Pinter (Gay City News)
• RELATED : Brooklyn boy, 13, shot in head, triggers debate about NYPD focus on broken windows policing (NYC : News & Analysis)

David Ranta, a white male who spent 23 years in jail after having been wrongly convicted of a 1990 murder, will receive $6.4 million settlement negotiated by the Comptroller's Office. What makes Mr. Ranta's case unique is that his demand was settled before he ever filed a lawsuit. Last year, Scott Stringer was elected as the city's comptroller. It's unknown why Mr. Stringer would be motivated to preemptively settle Mr. Ranta's case without consulting the city's Law Department -- but not take any action to settle the Central Park Five wrongful incarceration case.

Meanwhile, New York City might be prepared to settle the case of the wrongful arrest of another white male, Robert Pinter. Mr. Pinter, a gay man, was arrested in 2008 as part of what has been described as dragnet sexual orientation profiling entrapment arrests in an NYPD crackdown against gay adult video stores. It's notable that Mr. Pinter's case is nearing settlement as a result of negotiations by the city's Law Department, even though he was never incarcerated for a term of years like the Central Park Five. After his arrest, Mr. Pinter "initially pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct," Gay City News reported, but Mr. Pinter later "filed a motion to vacate his conviction, which was not opposed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office," after Mr. Pinter became aware that the NYPD was engaged in sexual orientation profiling against gay men.

Because of the many instances of prejudice that people of color face at the hands of the NYPD, activists are expressing frustration with the lack of reforms at the police department by the new mayor, Bill de Blasio, and by his controversial pick for a new police commissioner, William Bratton. While the Central Park Five await settlement of their case, the NYPD launched a cheap social media marketing gimmick this week to help improve its impression with New Yorkers. After asking citizens to tweet friendly photos of police officers with the #myNYPD hashtag, the police department was overwhelmed by an avalanche of response tweets documenting the long history of police brutality, racial profiling, and other controversial police tactics. One tweet featured the tragic case of Deion Fludd, a black teenager who was beaten senseless by police, eventually leading to death from his injuries. Like other victims or the surviving relatives of victims, the late Mr. Fludd's mother has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the NYPD. With her young son now dead, let's hope Ms. Fludd sees justice in a time frame to make a difference in her life.

• RELATED : Constance Malcolm wrote an op-ed on the murder of her son, Ramarley Graham : "The lives of Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, and so many other New Yorkers like Ramarley — primarily Black and Latino — have not been honored by our justice system." (Justice must be served by U.S. government — for Ramarley Graham's family and for countless others * The New York Daily News)
• RELATED : Before he died, Deion Fludd said he attempted to run away from the brutal cops, who had allegedly chased after the unarmed black teenager, battering him in the head with a flashlight, beating him senseless. (Deion Fludd's mother sues NYPD for using excessive force and causing son's death * DailyMail.uk)

Before 17-year old Deion Fludd died of his injuries, he said he was beaten into a quadriplegic by #myNYPD pic.twitter.com/cBGj68AY0C

— Copwatch (@Copwatch) April 22, 2014

If you want to be part of the conversation about how to bring more attention and focus on efforts to reform law enforcement in New York City, please join us for a special workshop at this year's Left Forum :

• RELATED : How can NYC police reform activists break free from the veal pen ? (The 2014 Left Forum)

The Central Park 5, framed by #mynypd pic.twitter.com/BfPCg3u8qM

— Layla Sola (@ljsola) April 23, 2014

Skepticism Meets Mayor de Blasio, Commish Bratton Announcement on Disbanding of Illegal NYPD Muslim Spying Unit

Another slight of hand press release tricks The New York Times, but not the rest of us.

Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio authorised NYPD Police Commissioner William Bratton to disband an unconstitutional police unit that stalked New York City's Muslim community. Predictably, The New York Times fawned over this token public relations move, but other media have expressed doubt whether the New York Police Department would voluntarily end its use of racial and faith-based profiling to surveil innocent citizens.

• RELATED : NYPD Will Continue Spying in the Muslim Community With Undercovers, Informants (The Daily Beast)
• RELATED : NYPD rhetoric on Muslim surveillance must be met by policy change (Washington Square News)
• RELATED : Was it Justice or Politics that Killled the NYPD Muslim Spy Unit ? (The Daily Beast)

The mayor and the police commissioner made such a public display of their "progressive" reforms to a police force battered by never-ending charges of unconstitutional tactics. "However, talk has circulated that the NYPD has little intention to stop deploying officers into Muslim areas in the city — it merely plans to do so without an official label," reported Washington Square News.

The true intention of the police department's continued violations of the Handschu Agreement is worrisome. Based on the mayor's other cosmetic changes in policy, the fact that some large, entrenched mainstream media outlets continue to accord the mayor and his police commissioner with the liberty to propagate so much political spin should raise serious concerns amongst government reform activists.

Brooklyn boy, 13, shot in head, triggers debate about NYPD focus on broken windows policing

PUBLISHED : TUES, 15 APR 2014, 10:51 PM
UPDATED : MON, 21 APR 2014, 05:48 PM

A couple of New Yorkers, who called into tonight's broadcast of "NY1 The Call," predicted a dangerous summer of crime -- but they are basing their predictions on unfounded fears and other possible biases.

Matt, Astoria on @NY1thecall: "This is the tip of the iceberg with end of #stopandfrisk."

— NY1 - The Call (@NY1thecall) April 16, 2014

The police department uses tragic accidents, like the sad shooting of Gama Droiville, 13 of Brooklyn, to fan the flames of fear to accept more policing.

• RELATED : Gama Droiville was on Flatbush Ave. near Beverly Road with his aunt when he was hit twice by stray bullets around noon Monday, cops said. He was taken to Kings County Hospital Center in serious but stable condition. Doctors said the eighth-grader was in danger of losing his wounded eye, his family said. (Boy, 13, shot in head twice after getting caught in Brooklyn crossfire * The New York Daily News)
• RELATED : The five men wrongly convicted in the infamous Central Park jogger rape case want Mayor Bill de Blasio to explain why he hasn't kept his promise to settle their lawsuit, even after more than 100 days in office. ("Central Park Five" Push de Blasio to Keep Promise to Settle Their Lawsuit * NY1)

But the New York Police Department, headed by the controversial police commissioner William Bratton, openly advocates increasing policing of the poor and people of color under a policing theory known as "broken windows," which dictates that stopping low-level crimes will catch criminals before they commit more severe crimes. Commissioner Bratton also refuses to abandon use of the unconstitutional police practice known as "stop-and-frisk," which has been shown to illegally target the poor and people of color.

But the tragic shooting of the young Mr. Droiville should be an opportunity for voters to demand that the police department should end its controversial tactics that target the wrong people. Stop-and-frisk does not take guns off the street, as has been proven by stop-and-frisk statistics from the New York Civil Liberties Union. Instead, unconstitutional police tactics destroy lives by illegally stopping innocent people without cause and then finding ways to give them tickets or summonses, all in an attempt to meet police quotas for documenting low-level crimes or infractions. For example, when police stopped Jerome Murdough, a veteran, he was arrested solely because he was homeless. Mr. Murdough was detained in Rikers Island, where he died at the negligent hands of law enforcement.

Since the mayoralty of Rudolph Giuliani, New Yorkers have been over-policed to the point that crime statistics, if they are to be believed, show that the city is now the safest it's been in a very long time. Yet, dramatic shooting accidents, like the one that injured the young Mr. Droiville, are used to stir up public fears that will lead to more over-policing that will keep destroying the lives of innocent people. More often than not, New Yorkers should feel safer among other New Yorkers. Sometimes, it's the police, who should give New Yorkers reason to worry.

Like in the case of Mr. Murdough, law enforcement have, under Commissioner Bratton's young second term in office, already injured other New Yorkers. During another crackdown on low-level crimes, this time against pedestrians, police assaulted and battered a frail, elderly man, Kang Wong, aged 84, for jaywalking. Another elderly man, aged 69, was run over by police driving a squad car on the Upper West Side.

The police crackdown on the poor and on people of color under Commissioner Bratton comes at a time when Mayor Bill de Blasio is trying to brandish his "progressive" laurels. Mayor de Blasio promised to end the "Tale of Two Cities" that unfairly treats people with the least worse than the people with the most. But the mayor's vision is at odds with his own police commissioner.

Further, the NYPD's obsession with the policing of low-level crimes comes against a backdrop where public corruption runs rampant from Albany to City Hall. There is no municipal prosecution of political corruption, financial racketeering, and campaign finance scandals, but the poor must face getting stopped-and-frisked, ticketed for infractions when they are not first battered or run over by the police, and then, if the poor are arrested for being homeless, they face the prospect of losing their lives in dangerous conditions in the municipal jail system for lack of a humane shelter system in New York City.

Callers on tonight's broadcast of "NY1 The Call" heard from people, who had let their emotions and fears get the best (or worst) of them, and these callers advocated for more "proactive" policing. Other callers were more cautious about advocating for more aggressive policing based on the NYPD's history of abusing its authority.

Nastaran, Harlem on @NY1thecall: "Don't want to bring back heavy-handed policing, we know detrimental effect it has on neighborhoods."

— NY1 - The Call (@NY1thecall) April 16, 2014

• RELATED : New York is the country’s largest city and one of its most progressive but since 2001 it’s also been at the forefront of some of the most regressive and unconstitutional anti-terrorism tactics. (Mayor Bill de Blasio's decision to end the NYPD's controversial Muslim surveillance program started under former Commissioner Ray Kelly has more to do with politics than with justice * The Daily Beast)

Fighting to reform this broken system is a group of activists, New Yorkers Against Bratton, who last Friday publicly delivered outside police headquarters a community report and speak-out marking the first 100 days of the second Bratton tenure. Until the police commissioner, and the mayor who made his regressive appointment, end each of the crackdown on low-level crimes in public transportation systems, the attempts at coordinated sweeps of homeless New Yorkers, and the mayor's "Vision Zero" initiative, the poor and people of color will get no justice from the city's law enforcement. Instead of using non-violent methods, like buy-back programs, to take guns off the streets, the police want to continue to erode public trust by using tactics that target innocent people based on their economic status, race, and practice of faith. Meanwhile, the rich and powerful will get away with crimes, for which the justice system never makes the resources, much less the political will, available to fully address.

Will Mayor de Blasio withdraw subpoenas to former Village Voice editor over NYPD Quota Recordings ?

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 ?

• RELATED : Reporter Graham Rayman unyielding on documents (March 10, 2014 * amNewYork)
• RELATED : NYPD Sends Subpoena To Reporter, Reporter Fired, NYPD Ticket Fixing, Other Free Press Updates (December 10, 2013 * NYC : News & Analysis)

Assaulted and Battered by Police Officer, Cecily McMillan Faces Retaliatory Felony Charge

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance's office is prosecuting a second degree felony assault charge against Cecily McMillan, even though Ms. McMillan was the victim of NYPD brutality. Listen to attorney Martin R. Stolar's exclusive interview with We Are Change CT for details of the police's dubious charges against Ms. McMillan. How can the Manhattan district attorney seriously bring this case to trial ? The DA has discretion and should be able to see that the charge lacks merit. The NYPD wouldn't be able to get away with so much brutality if it wasn't for how much the DA's office basically enables police misconduct.

Ms. McMillan's next trial date is scheduled for March 3 at 100 Centre Street.

What does dropping NYC stop-and-frisk appeal change about NYPD discrimination ?

From: Louis Flores
Subject: Stop-And-Frisk Appeal
Date: 30 janvier 2014 21:31:53 UTC-05:00
To: thecall@ny1.com

Before Bill de Blasio dropped the appeal today, he had said that stop-and-frisk was no longer a problem, because Bloomberg and Kelly had already lowered it. Dropping the appeal was good, but what really changed ?

Today's press conference overshadowed the nomination hearing of the new Department of Investigations chief, who said that the mayor will have an input in deciding who the new NYPD Inspector General will be. Also overshadowed today was a protest outside NYPD, calling for justice in the beating death of a Islan Nettles, a transgender woman of color.

The whole fight for NYPD reform began because we need independent oversight of the police. Dropping the appeal changes nothing, because it was already a fait accompli.

Bill de Blasio and Bill Bratton are already acting as if there will be no real police oversight, even as the community continues to demand justice for minorities.

Louis Flores
Jackson Heights

Ydanis Rodriquez and Jumaane Williams Confronted on Bratton Appointment

"What a hypocrite," one activist shouted at Ydanis Rodriguez

Activists critical of Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio's appointment of William Bratton as NYPD commissioner confronted Councilmembers Ydanis Rodriquez and Jumaane Williams on the steps of City Hall on Tuesday, Dec. 10. Some of the activists included family members of people murdered by police when Mr. Bratton was first Police Commissioner, from 1994 to 1996.

When activists asked Councilmember Rodriguez what he thought of the Bratton appointment, Mr. Rodriguez responded by saying, "I support the mayor," shocking the conscience of activists.

"You support the mayor ?" one activist asked, having to repeat Mr. Rodriguez's statement, because Mr. Rodriguez was only recently a very visible critic of abusive NYPD policies, such as stop-and-frisk. The one activist continued, "You support the mayor, when you used to march with us [against] police brutality ?"

Indeed, on Feb. 29, 2012, blogger and activist Javier Soriano reported that Mr. Rodriguez stood alongside Councilmember Williams at a demonstration in support of NYPD reform legislation. (New Yorkers United to End Stop-and-Frisk and Discriminatory Policing * JavierSoriano.com)

Yet, Mr. Rodriguez was now supporting the Bratton appointment, which reform activists view as a betrayal of community demands to end the state-sponsored forms of racism that are at the crux of stop-and-frisk and police brutality, which have been sources of conflict in Bratton's history.

"What a hypocrite," another activist shouted at Mr. Rodriguez. Through other jeers, still yet another activist is heard telling Mr. Rodriguez, "You support the people, who have no respect for human rights."

Mr. Bratton's selection to succeed Ray Kelly as NYPD commish has been Mr. de Blasio's first administration scandal, triggering a wave of protests weeks before Mr. de Blasio is set to be sworn into office. It appears that the mayor-elect is breaking a major campaign promise to "end the stop-and-frisk era." The betrayal comes from the fact that Mr. Bratton has been described as the "architect of stop-and-frisk," and he has had a controversial record in Los Angeles, where he was once police chief, and other municipalities, where he has served as an outside consultant to other police forces. One would never have guessed from Mr. de Blasio's campaign propaganda against stop-and-frisk that Mr. de Blasio's pick to lead the NYPD would be the "architect of stop-and-frisk." (Bill de Blasio Bill Bratton Stop and Frisk Broken Campaign Promises * YouTube)

Already Mr. de Blasio has reacted with cunning calculation against the stop-and-frisk protesters by thwarting their First Amendment rights to protest by deploying both NYPD and FDNY resources. (Did Bill de Blasio misuse FDNY Fire Drill To Thwart Stop-And-Frisk Protest ?)

Back on the steps of City Hall, when activists noticed Mr. Williams, they swarmed around him. One activist pointed out Mr. Williams' duplicitous support for Mr. de Blasio's pick to lead the NYPD. "Look at what they did to you," one activist said, adding, "Do you think they care about you ?"

This was a reference to the egregious incident when the NYPD detained Mr. Williams for no other reason than the color of his skin. (Police Detain Brooklyn Councilman at West Indian Parade)

Activists are trying to appeal to the conscience of past reform leaders, who used to call for an end of racism and brutality by the troubled police department. But many activists see the past reform leaders being paid off with appointments, City Council slush funds, lucrative Council chairmanships, or promises of increased power, authority, or influence under the incoming de Blasio administration as some reasons why past reform leaders are turning their backs on previous commitments to reform.

The struggle over the next top cop comes at a challenging time for a police force beset by a ticket-fixing scandal, continuing controversy over the city's appeal of a landmark stop-and-frisk court ruling, and allegations of malicious motivations to interfere with freedom of the press. The incoming de Blasio administration would love nothing better than to quiet down any community backlash to his appointment of Bratton.

Bill Bratton Stop and Frisk Protest Monday

• VIDEO OF PROTEST : Bill Bratton Bill de Blasio Stop-and-Frisk Protest at The Nation Gala

The Two Tales Of The Two Bills

There are two stories that the two Bills are telling.

The first Bill (de Blasio) started out saying that he would put an end to the "stop-and-frisk era" during the mayoral campaign, but now the story that de Blasio is telling is that stop-and-frisk is a valid police tactic, in spite of the racial profiling, false arrests, and ruined lives it causes.

The second Bill (Bratton) was the grand-daddy of stop-and-frisk in New York City, under General Rudolph Giuliani, and Bratton has been saying on MSNBC how the police have to do stop-and-frisk, no matter what, but now this week-end Bratton was chauffeured over to Rev. Al Sharpton's, where Bratton said that, “Your police force will be respectful," adding, "It will practice what Mandela preached.”

Somebody on Twitter tweeted, "DeBlasio rode a wave of support generated by civil rights & racial justice activists for whom Bratton is a slap in the face. Painful to see."

Well, activists are now planning a protest Monday night against the two tales of the two Bills.

Ray Kelly Booed Off Stage During Brown University Talk

Ray Kelly Booed Off Stage During Speech at Brown University in Boston : "Racism is not for debate"

A student-led backlash to NYPD Police Commish Ray Kelly speaking at the Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University had been brewing for days, The Wall Street Journal reported. Several student groups and Providence residents attempted to get the university to rescind Mr. Kelly's invitation, which was denied. "Mr. Kelly has been heralded for bringing crime in New York City to the lowest point in more than 50 years, but he has also been in the spotlight after a federal judge ruled that the NYPD's stop-and-frisk practice was unconstitutional because it disproportionately targets minorities," The Wall Street Journal report added. Watch the video of the heckling. One student shouts, "Racism is not for debate !"

• Video : Ray Kelly Heckled Off Stage At Brown University (Gothamist)
• Ray Kelly Booed Off Stage During Speech at Brown University (The Wall Street Journal)

During the recent Democratic primary race for the next mayoral administration in New York City, Mr. Kelly became the intense focus of criticism when former primary front-runner Christine Quinn expressed her unflinching support for Mr. Kelly's unconstitutional policies of racism and police brutality. Controversies over police procedures has been a hallmark of the Bloomberg-Quinn administration.

Christine Quinn NYPD Abner Louima Brutality Task Force Anniversary

Christine Quinn Watered Down Rudy Giuliani's Abner Louima NYPD Police Brutality Task Force Recommendations.

Quinn Then Went On To Enable NYPD Culture Of Racism And Brutality.

Before the evening of August 9, 1997, was out, NYPD police officers had brutalized and tortured Abner Louima inside a police station house in Brooklyn.

After the tremendous public outcry, then Mayor Rudy Giuliani appointed a police brutality task force, and among the task force members he named was Christine Quinn. She was one of the driving forces to weaken the task force's recommendations, and eventually her efforts lead to a split among the task force members.

The weaker recommendations, which Quinn championed, went on to be represented in a majority report of the task force, while a set of more aggressive recommendations were formulated in a minority report. Read this excerpt from a report published by The New York Daily News :

Norman Siegel, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union and a task-force member, spearheaded a dissenting report that made a connection between race and police misconduct. "On issues like police brutality and race, you never compromise," Siegel said. But Quinn said her strategy was to make it easier for Mayor Giuliani who called some of the report's recommendations unrealistic to adopt reforms quickly in the wake of the sodomy and torture of Abner Louima, allegedly by police. (NYDailyNews * Saturday, February 20, 1999, 12:00 AM)

On the anniversary of Mr. Louima's torture and brutality, let us not forget who Speaker Quinn sides with.

Who's Been "Moving On Up" During the Bloomberg-Quinn Era ?

A new video posted on YouTube takes a satirical look of New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s political record. The video is set to a Karaoke recording of ''Moving On Up'' -- the famous theme song from the hit sitcom, The Jeffersons, and the video uses sarcasm when Speaker Quinn denies some of the most controversial political choices she’s made.

Among the issues addressed in this short video are :

• the $30,000 in campaign contributions Speaker Quinn accepted from Rudin Management Company, which basically foreclosed on St. Vincent’s Hospital ;
• Speaker Quinn’s controversial support for police commissioner Ray Kelly, who oversaw a culture of racism and brutality at the NYPD ;
• Speaker Quinn’s controversial use of fictitious accounts to hide her political slush fund ; and
• the ever-changing rationale for extending term limits.

NSFW : Christine Quinn Ray Kelly Police Brutality Video

Christine Quinn Supports Ray Kelly.
Does She Endorse Police Brutality ?

A new video posted on YouTube shows New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn heaping praise on NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, even though the NYPD has had a record of racism and brutality under Commissioner Kelly. The new YouTube video shows six real examples of how law enforcement officers have a pattern of using excessive force.

Links to examples of excessive force used by NYPD and by peace officers :

• Peace Officers beat man in Queens (May 2012)
• NYPD beat man with club in LES (July 2008)
• NYPD shoves Critical Mass rider (July 2008)
‪
• Woman yanked by hair (Nov. 2011)
• OWS pepper spray attack (Sept. 2011)
‪
• Pitbull shot by police (Aug. 2012)
‪

Chapter 7 of Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn, which is being serialized this summer, addresses the NYPD’s history of violating the civil rights and civil liberties of activists. The conversation around reforming the NYPD needs to be enlarged to also address the police department’s persistent violations of civil rights and civil liberties. A task force should be empaneled with subpoena power and charged with investigating and issuing binding recommendations to finally overhaul the NYPD.

Since its debut on Scribd, a free preview of Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn has generated over 16,000 combined reads, and research from Volume I inspired Michael Grynbaum to write a front page article in The New York Times : Quinn’s History of Mastering the Insiders’ Game.