Past NYPD experience with video cameras shows pattern of editing to thwart accountability for misconduct

The NYPD have a history of manipulating their own videos, as a 2004 City Council report found

Excerpt from Chapter 7 of "Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn" A special report from the City Council Committee on Governmental Operations showed that, “In the aftermath of the numerous confrontations between demonstrators and police at the February 15th rally the Civilian Complaint Review Board (“CCRB”) investigated 54 complaints containing 114 allegations of misconduct by police officers.” Among the NYPD violations the report found was that the police department’s Technical Assistance Response Unit provided to CCRB heavily edited videos in a deliberate effort to disguise the police officers who committed violations. “Thus, many complaints were dropped where the officers went unidentified.” This is how the NYPD operated when it knew its actions were not going to be supervised or subjected to any accountability. From Chapter 7 of ''Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn'' by Louis Flores (Scribd) How can CCRB, much less the public, have faith and trust in NYPD officers maintaining control over their own body cameras ? According to news reports, the New York Police Department are considering a pilot program to video record police officers on duty. NYPD Commissioner William Bratton told reporters that the pilot program under consideration would allow police officers to control the activation of their own body cameras, raising concerns amongst police reform activists and civil libertarians. How can the press honestly report that this is a "pilot program," and that a police department program aiming to film their own operations is about to be created ? The NYPD have been filming their own operations for years. What is more, many charge that the NYPD make video recordings of activists' peaceful and lawful political activities, which constitutes violations of activists Constitutional, civil rights, civil liberties, and other rights. Some of these records also violate a court order known as the Handschu Agreement. The proposal to use body cameras has been criticised by civil libertarian advocates, who question the police motivations to record innocent citizens. With the NYPD's experience and technology, they have already demonstrated a track record of how they mishandle their own video records and of the recordings of innocent New Yorkers. Based on a report about police misconduct published over a decade ago by the New York City Council, it has been shown that the NYPD cannot be trusted to record themselves, because, in the past, the NYPD have deliberately edited videos of their own performance with the blatant intention to circumvent accountability and oversight for their own misconduct, brutality, and other violations of police procedures. Some police reform activists believe that recording police while they are on duty is a good reform, but not all police reform activists agree. Others take share the same concerns of civil libertarians. However, if there is a way to fully address the concerns of civil libertarians, for the use of body cameras to work, police officers should not be able to control, limit, turn on, or turn off their body cameras in any way. For body cameras to work, both the audio and video should be recorded during the entire duration of police officers' shifts. This information should be stored for as many years as it would be needed to facilitate the frequent federal, state, and municipal investigations into police misconduct. However, it remains to be seen whether the concerns of civil libertarians can truly be addressed. Over the decades, the NYPD have created so much distrust in New York City. The proposal to use body cameras is already polarising some in the police reform activist community. Based on the lack of trust and faith between the NYPD and citizens, it's difficult to tell whether everybody's concerns can be fully addressed.

RELATED 50 NYPD cops set to begin wearing body cameras in pilot program (The New York Daily News) ''Roots of Betrayal : The Ethics of Christine Quinn'' by Louis Flores (Scribd) Report and Briefing Paper, The New York City Council, Committee on Government Operations, 16 June 2004 (Scribd) Michael Hayes, LMT, has practiced massage for more than 20 years as a licensed massage therapist. Flatiron Massage is located in New York City.

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.

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.

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)

Christina Gonzalez Arrested For Being Poor

Christina Gonzalez, the community activist who is running for New York City Council, seems to have been targeted for arrest once again by police yesterday. Here is a recent video of a campaign speech.

Ms. Gonzalez was arrested on Monday, September 24, 2013, for asking for a swipe into the subway system. The persons, who she asked, were police officers and subway employees. Here is a video showing NYPD officers putting Ms. Gonzalez into a police vehicle.

Ms. Gonzalez is a prolific activist with a long record of protesting brutality and other controversial police procedures, such as the unconstitutional policy known as stop-and-frisk. Because of her visibility and criticism, many in the community believe that she has been targeted by police and the justice system for retribution and hostility.

Correction : This post was updated to correct information about the dress and identity of the people whom Ms. Gonzalez approached for a fee subway swipe. The people were police officers and subway employees, not undercover police officers as initially reported.

Christine Quinn no longer advocates for LGBT liberation from de jure discrimination

Man who claimed cops beat him during gay pride party says police made multiple return visits to his home and conducted illegal searches of his apartment.

Christine Quinn, the openly lesbian Speaker of the New York City Council, used to be the director of the Anti-Violence Project. Back when she was head of AVP, Ms. Quinn used to advocate on behalf of victims of violence.

But now that Speaker Quinn is running for mayor, she is afraid to aggravate her close relationship with Raymond Kelly, the commish of the NYPD.

If LGBT New Yorkers get beat up by haters, you can count on Speaker Quinn to elbow her way in for photo opportunities. But if the haters are NYPD officers, you can count on Speaker Quinn to look the other way.

From The New York Daily News :

Jabbar Campbell — a Crown Heights man who claimed cops disabled his apartment’s security camera before beating him during his gay pride party in January now says 77th Precinct cops have since made multiple return visits to his home.

Campbell, who had already filed a notice of intent to sue the city, said plainclothes cops illegally searched his place last week. Campbell said he turned over the footage to investigators.

The Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating both incidents, police said.

Related : Crown Heights man : Cops raided my pride party and assaulted me with fists and anti-gay epithets (NYDN) * Jabbar Campbell files paperwork to sue the city for what he says was a hate crime at his gay pride party Sunday (NYDN)

Read more : Christine Quinn Betrays LGBT New Yorkers