Breaking Grannies

Even if (and with the NYPD that's a big "if") a swing and a miss happened, how do you justifiably get to a 71-year-old grandmother with a broken hip:

NEW YORK (CBS) ― The family of a 71-year-old grandmother is making a police brutality claim, saying she was hurt when she was knocked down by officers inside a Queens stationhouse.

The woman is now at Jamaica Hospital, undergoing surgery for a broken hip.

Last Wednesday evening at the 107th Precinct in Queens, a group of parents, their teenage daughters, and one grandmother – Elizabeth Gorden – showed up to find out why a man they say slapped one of the girls near a bus stop wasn't arrested.

What happened next inside the precinct depends on which side you believe. Gorden's family says the police are responsible for her being at Jamaica Hospital with injuries that include a fractured hip.

"I did witness a group of police officers come out of nowhere and just pounce my mother to the ground," daughter Sharon Gorden says.

So the parents, the grandmother, and some of the kids go to the 107th precinct to find out about the man who had the encounter with their children. After that, the stories diverge dramatically – either there was a melee and police were pushed and shoved, or it was the police who were doing the pushing and the shoving.

The bottom line, though, is that 71-year-old grandmother Elizabeth Gorden fell and got hurt.

Gorden's family says she's having surgery Monday for the fractured hip.

Police say Elizabeth Gorden took a swing at an officer and missed. Gorden was given a desk appearance ticket and charged with obstructing governmental administration.

That's some more brave, brave police work from the big apple.

And They Have Tasers

NYC's finest are behaving badly and costing taxpayers loads:

NEW YORK - The amount New York City is paying to settle claims or cover judgments related to improper police conduct is soaring.

According to a report in the New York Post, the city paid $66.4 million last year to 1,265 claimants who accused the NYPD of bad behavior. That compares with $31.8 million paid to 571 claimants in 1998.

Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, says those figures reveal an increasing problem of police wrongdoing during Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration. She says the rise in payouts parallels an increase in police-abuse complaints made to the city's Civilian Complaint Review Board.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne says payouts don't always reflect misconduct because the city frequently settles cases in which the police are innocent of wrongdoing.

A Call For Stopping Pre-Trial Electrocutions

Today is the Day of Blogging for Justice: Standing Up Against Pre-Trial Electrocution. It's a day to blog about police abusing African Americans with their tasers. Be sure to check out some of the writings.

The statistics are few and far between, but where they exist they demonstrate clear racial selectivity in whom police are choosing to tase (Yes "choosing." Can reporters please stop writing things like "police were forced to tase...").

Last year I blogged about some statistics out of Syracuse, NY, where examining two years of data revealed that over half of taser draws were directed at black people.

Here in NYC, given the NYPD's documented practice of harassing minorities, it's likely that if anyone gains access to the statistics (and the NYPD is loathe to release them), they'll find a similar racial disparity in taser usage.

The police, and police apologists, can try to rationalize racial biases as much as they like (and yes, that's disgusting all on it's own), but at the end of the day, minorities still suffer at the hands and taser probes of the police.

Just To Be Clear

This is why it's tough to believe the police when they deny claims of abuse (with a taser or otherwise):

The protest followed a similar occupation of a cafeteria in the same building nearly four months earlier. That protest ended peacefully. This time, the university’s response was more confrontational, and the outcome violent. “The Police Department was asked to arrest individuals trespassing on the property,” said Paul J. Browne, the department’s chief spokesman, who said the operation “was done in a very organized, orderly fashion.”

But students at the scene described a tumultuous situation in which protesters were pepper-sprayed before being placed in handcuffs and loaded by police officers into the back of a white van, around 11:30 a.m.

Mr. Browne said it was “untrue that pepper spray or mace was used in effectuating the arrests” — though he later clarified that he meant the arrests inside the building.

Then there's the video:


It's hard to take something like that out of context. It's unjustifiable regardless of the complicated history behind this situation, and no matter how aggravated the cop was. It also doesn't matter how much you hate "hippies." The police don't get to abuse citizens, annoying or otherwise. Period.

What The NYPD's Been Up To

Active racism, that's what. From a report by the Center for Constitutional Rights:

The NYPD's use of stop-and-frisk is on the rise. In 2005, the NYPD made less than 400,000 stops in comparison to a projected 543,982 stops by the end of 2008. Over a period of 3.5 years, the NYPD has initiated nearly 1,600,000 stops of New Yorkers.

The NYPD continues to disproportionately stop-and-frisk Black and Latino individuals. From 2005 to 2008, approximately 80 percent of total stops made were of Blacks and Latinos, who comprise 25 percent and 28 percent of New York City's total population, respectively. During this same time period, only approximately 10 percent of stops were of Whites, who comprise 44 percent of the city's population.

Blacks and Latinos are more likely to be frisked after a NYPD-initiated stop than Whites. Between 2005 and June 2008, only 8 percent of Whites stopped were also frisked, while 85 percent of Blacks and Latinos who were stopped were also frisked.

Blacks and Latinos are more likely to have physical force used against them during a NYPD-initiated stop than Whites. In addition to rising rates of NYPD use of physical force, the data reveals that a disproportionate number of Blacks and Latinos who are stopped have physical force used against them. In 2005, 19 percent of Whites stopped had physical force used against them , compared to 26 percent of Latinos and Blacks; by the first half of 2008, 18 percent of Whites, compared to 24 percent of Latinos and Blacks, had physical force used against them during NYPD-initiated encounters.

Stops-and-frisks result in a minimal weapons yield and/or contraband yield. The data demonstrates a paucity of stops resulting in weapons and/or contraband yield across racial lines. Of the cumulative number of stops made since 2005, only 2.6 percent resulted in the discovery of a weapon or contraband. Though rates of contraband yielded were minute across racial groups, stops made of Whites were slightly more likely to yield contraband.

The proportion of stops-and-frisks by race does not correspond with rates of arrest. Arrest rates during the period of 2005 through the first half of 2008 were low for all racial groups at between 4 and 6 percent of all NYPD-initiated stops during that period.

Seriously, go there and check out some of the statistics and accompanying graphs. They're staggering. We're a post-racist society in the same way that pigs are taking flight from my butt.

That Would Be Nice

New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn wants independent prosecution for police brutality cases. That would be nice.

Right now, NYC has a Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) that has the power to ..., well they don't really have any power. They can send complaints to the police department who handle things internally and experience no external oversight. To no surprise, the NYPD fails to prosecute (or see here) a significant portion of cases substantiated by the CCRB.

The latest move by the NYPD to quiet calls for civilian oversight has been to include lawyers from the CCRB in prosecutions. Sadly, it's a meaningless gesture. The degree of involvement allowed the CCRB lawyer is determined by the head prosecutor for the police department.

What's needed is true civilian oversight. It should be the CCRB deciding which cases are prosecuted and the extent to which police department lawyers are involved. The people shouldn't have to go to the NYPD to meekly ask them to police their own.

Maybe I'm wrong about all of this. Maybe accountability to the taxpayers is an unrealistic ideal. Can someone explain to me how having a police department with zero accountability to the people is good for NYC and its residents? Please?

Remember This?

Remember that NYC cop that attacked a bicyclist in Times Square?


Well, he's been indicted (w00t):

A police officer who was caught knocking a man off his bicycle in Times Square over the summer in a video that was distributed widely on YouTube has been indicted by a grand jury, according to lawyers involved in the case.

NYC's CCPC

New York City has what's called the Mayor's Commission to Combat Police Corruption (CCPC). It's intent is clear from its name, or at least it should be.

A former lawyer for the CPPC is saying that she was fired for asking questions, something you'd think would be a defining function of someone on an oversight commission. And what did she question? She questioned the NYPD's use of a taser on an already restrained teenage suspect:

A lawyer for the Mayor's Commission to Combat Police Corruption said she was fired when she asked too many questions about the NYPD's use of force.

Willa Bernstein, one of the commission's investigating lawyers, said she thought her job was to critique the NYPD's Internal Affairs cases.

"The real job description should have been: 'Just go along. Don't rock the boat,'" she said.

Bernstein said she was fired from her $75,000-a-year spot in October after the chief of NYPD Internal Affairs complained to her boss that she had an "anti-police" bias.

Bernstein said there was a target on her back after she questioned why police officers Tasered a violent teenage suspect after he was shackled and handcuffed in a police stationhouse. [What incident was this? I can't find it.]

In a September meeting about the incident, Bernstein compared the case to the notorious Abner Louima police brutality case in 1997.

"I said this case needed to be aggressively investigated because no one wanted another Abner Louima case," Bernstein said. "IAB and people in the room were horrified by the comparison."

Internal Affairs Chief Charles Campisi spoke to Bernstein's boss, Commission Executive Director Marnie Blit, according to documents obtained by the Daily News.

"It was after this incident that I started preparing to terminate Willa," Blit wrote in a Nov. 27 memo.

"She insulted IAB and destroyed any credibility she might have when criticizing their cases," Blit wrote. ...

"I was trying to bring a lawyer's perspective to cases, to improve and protect the department," said Bernstein, 41, who left another city job because she believed in the work. She said she even took a civilian course at the NYPD Police Academy to better understand the job.

Formed in 1995, the commission was designed to provide independent oversight of the NYPD. Its $444,914 annual budget covers legal staff, executive director, office manager and expenses. Its commissioners, who review IAB cases, are unpaid.

"The commission is not independent, and doesn't do much," she said. "Rather than pretend, the city should make it real or disband it and save the taxpayers' money."

I'd say Bernstein is right on with her comment at the end of that clip; the commission doesn't even have the power to subpoena NYPD for documents. Commissioner Kelly can deny its requests for information, and he indeed has.

In 2005, the head of the CCPC reported to City Council that disputes with the NYPD and a lack of subpoena power reduced the commission's effectiveness. That same head announced his resignation days after appearing before City Council. By the way, the article in that last link also pins the CCPC's lack of power on Rudy Giuliani:

The commission was formed in 1995 by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani after the Mollen Commission raised questions about the department's ability to police itself and recommended an independent panel with subpoena power. Mr. Giuliani fought the City Council's effort to form such a panel and won a lawsuit barring its creation.

Rudy sued to stop meaningful and independent police oversight!

So is the CCPC there to prevent police corruption, or is it there for appearances? It seems like that later doesn't it?

Tell me again what's going to keep the NYPD from using its 3000+ new tasers excessively (as has happened in so many other large cities where tasers are put in the field).

Morning Kermit

This is an uncredited photo I found on the web. Based on the scene, I can tell it was taken somewhere in Battery Park City, along the Hudson.

Things Democrats Don't Do

Every now and then you'll hear a NY'r say that Bloomberg is just a Democrat in a Republican's clothing. Democrats don't do things like this:

ALBANY— News that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg quietly provided $500,000 to state Republicans to help them retain control of the Senate triggered anger among Democrats in the Capitol on Monday, with some predicting that the mayor had badly damaged his legislative agenda.

Things To Know About NYC

This morning I stumbled across an amazing thread on things you should have been told before you moved to NYC. It has TONS of comments and I agree with many of them, something I wasn't expecting.

Also, my stint as a juror is ongoing. My weekday posting might be light for another week or so.

Duty

I have jury duty for the next few weeks, grand jury duty actually. We're the jury that decides whether a suspect is indicted on felony charges. This court is devoted to drug cases for all of NYC.

Of course, everything is secret; talking about specifics from the court room is against the law. Plus, talking about case where people haven't been charged yet would be a pretty ass thing to do. I wouldn't do that even if there weren't a law.

What I'll say is this: So far it's been a simultaneously interesting and dismaying experience. Now, more than ever, I'm convinced that relying on strong drug laws and powerful enforcement are like putting a band-aid on a patient in cardiac arrest.

Snow Beast Sighting, Feb 08

This morning we had a rare chance to enjoy some snow before I had to head out to school. Some pics from the snowy morning are below.

Lady looooves the snow:


She runs her head through the snow and gets as much on her as she can:


I finally got her to look at me:


Lady of the funky snow-lighting:


Hudson River Park is very pretty in the snow:


Finally, I had to head out. I passed by trinity church on the way to the subway:

Friday Misc

It's Friday. What a week. Some heavy rest and lots of reading are in order for the weekend.

The South Carolina primary for Democrats is tomorrow. MSNBC will start their coverage at 7:30am. I hope to still be in bed.

There's a bunch of interesting science stuff at Nature and Science this week. Some highlights:

Human embryos are cloned from male skin and female egg cells.

Researchers have synthesized an entire genome, paving the way for the first artificial life.

Obstruction of pancreatic ducts results in regeneration of insulin producing beta-cells.

Also, I've been working on a list of NYC tidbits. I'll eventually write an entire piece, complete with hyperlinks, but here's a glimpse of what's coming:

• Don't wear flip-flops or sandals in NYC. It's gross. Really it is, for you and for me.
• NYC has the largest underground mass transit system in the country. That doesn't mean it's the greatest. Expect long delays, a lack of displayed and audibly announced information, and to fly unexpectedly by your stop when the local you're on spontaneously converts to an express. The transit authority never gets a good rating from riders.
• Courtesy, professionalism, and respect (CPR) is on the sides of a huge number of NYPD vehicles. You can definitely expect that kind of treatment if you're a straight, white, and affluent Manhattanite.
• If you're over 20, please give up the push-scooter or skateboard, and for Christ-sake get off the sidewalk.
• Pick up after your dog. I pick up after mine and I will yell at you if I see you leaving poop in your wake.
• Do not, I repeat, do not walk in a zig-zag pattern on a busy sidewalk. Keep to one side and try walking as if you hadn't had a breakfast of tic-tacs and wine.
  
• Don't expect to eat good food here. Yes, yes capital of the world and all, but if you're not shelling out at least $50/plate, you're likely to get some bad food without heavy research. Stay at home and eat. There are some exceptions to this, Southwest has a good chicken caeser for about $14. Pizza joints tend to be another cheap exception.
  
• If you are a tourist, please go to Times Square. Stay there for the duration of your visit. It's great there and you won't find anything more interesting if you stray to other parts of the city (where people live).
  
• If you are a tourist and find yourself outside of Times Square, don't be afraid to ask a resident for help. Most people living here will be happy to direct you. Just don't believe the flags that picture celebrities, such as NYC's beloved Bobby D, inviting you to "Ask me!" You won't get within four hip nightclub waiting line distances to any of NYC's beautiful people. We guard our treasured gaunt figures in finely kept Soho lofts.

I guess I'm a bit grouchy about NYC after a few consecutive days of horrible subway rides.

That's it for this Friday. :)

Rudy The Bully

I've finally read through this long, but interesting, NYTimes piece on Giuliani's revenge-based governance during his tenure as NYC's mayor. Some hightlights:

1. The mayor’s wartime style of governance reached an exhaustion point in the late 1990s. His poll numbers dipped, and the courts routinely ruled against the city, upholding the New York Civil Liberties Union in 23 of its 27 free-speech challenges during Mr. Giuliani’s mayoralty. After he left office, the city agreed to pay $327,000 to a black police officer who was fired because he had testified before the City Council about police brutality toward blacks. The city also agreed to rescind the firing of the caseworker who talked about a child’s death. ...

2. ... Mr. Giuliani’s war with the nonprofit group Housing Works was more operatic. Housing Works runs nationally respected programs for the homeless, the mentally ill and people who are infected with H.I.V. But it weds that service to a 1960s straight-from-the-rice-paddies guerrilla ethos.

The group’s members marched on City Hall, staged sit-ins, and delighted in singling out city officials for opprobrium. Mr. Giuliani, who considered doing away with the Division of AIDS Services, became their favorite mayor in effigy.

Mr. Giuliani responded in kind. His police commanders stationed snipers atop City Hall and sent helicopters whirling overhead when 100 or so unarmed Housing Works protesters marched nearby in 1998. A year earlier, his officials systematically killed $6 million worth of contracts with the group, saying it had mismanaged funds.

Housing Works sued the city and discovered that officials had rescored a federal evaluation form to ensure that the group lost a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Martin Oesterreich, the city’s homeless commissioner, denied wrongdoing but acknowledged that his job might have been forfeited if Housing Works had obtained that contract. ...

3. ... None of this left the mayor chastened. In March 2000, an undercover officer killed Patrick Dorismond, a security guard, during a fight when the police mistook him for a drug dealer. The outcry infuriated the mayor, who released Mr. Dorismond’s juvenile record, a document that legally was supposed to remain sealed.

The victim, Mr. Giuliani opined, was no “altar boy.” Actually, he was. (Mr. Giuliani later expressed regret without precisely apologizing.)

Thankfully, Rudy's chances of getting his party's nomination are slim and getting slimmer. Seriously, those embarrassing numbers must have Giuliani's campaign managers scratching their heads, wondering how the wonder boy of the pundit set fell from grace so rapidly.

Hit By A Taxi, I Find Relief

Today I was hit by a yellow cab as it backed into the intersection of Lexington Avenue and 45th Street in Manhattan. I was crossing the street on a walk sign. Luckily, I wasn't hurt, but I did see red.

After being hit I walked to the passenger's side of the cab. The driver rolled the window down halfway; he thought I was a potential fare. I told him that he had just hit me with his taxi. He said, "No, come on. No way. No way."

If Manhattan had a roof, I would have hit it. Hitting someone with your car is heinous enough. Running someone over and then telling them they were never hit by a car is just... well it's downright Republican.

I launched a few loud expletives trying to convince him that he did hit me. Then, I surprised myself and demanded an apology, "OK, that's it. Apologize or I'm getting the police!"

He mouthed "What?" obviously stunned at my demand. Hell, I was stunned at my demand. Where was this coming from? In an instant I went from wanting to wring the guy's neck to genuinely wanting, maybe even needing, to hear him admit fault.

I restated my demand, "say you're sorry or I'm going to get a f(expanded) cop! Apologize. Apologize, or I'm going to get a f(expanded) cop! Right now! Apologize!"

After a pause he said, "Ok, I'm sorry. Sorry."

I immediately felt better. My relief at hearing the driver admit fault was greater than my relief at not being hurt. Don't get me wrong, I was, and am, thrilled that I didn't suffer a broken leg, but there was something satisfy about having a guilty guy admit culpability. If he had been a wealthy white businessman, I might have orgasmed. It's something for me to ponder. NYC is an easy place to feel powerless.

My face must have softened after his apology. I could see he was realizing that the situation was ending and that I was going to let it go. And I did. I left it at, "you'd better drive more carefully and watch what the f(expanded) you're doing."

I looked up and the street sign was still a bright walk signal (That's how long the incident lasted). People weren't crossing though. They were watching our exchange. Whoever said that NY'ers don't stop to watch things on the street couldn't have spent much time here. Whether it's on the tracks, in a bar, or on the street, people the world over love a train wreck. NYC dwellers are no exception.

I crossed the street, made it to the subway, and waited an extra long time for a local 6-train that ended up running express, bypassing my stop.

Now it's time to walk my dog and watch the last of the sunset across the Hudson. Some of the most perfect things to do in Manhattan are still completely free.

If I don't post again this year, enjoy (safely) New Year's Eve!

Attacked For Saying, "Happy Hanukkah"

I saw this at Eschaton:

Four Jewish subway riders who wished other people Happy Hanukkah were pelted with anti-Semitic remarks before being beaten, New York police and prosecutors said. The incident was being investigated as a possible hate crime. The four were on a train in Manhattan on Friday night, during the eight-day Jewish Festival of Lights, when they were approached by a group of 10 people who offered holiday greetings. The victims responded, Happy Hanukkah and were assaulted by the larger group, police said Tuesday. Police caught up with the train in Brooklyn and arrested eight men and two women, ages 19 and 20. They were arraigned Saturday on charges of assault, menacing, riot, harassment and disorderly conduct, the Brooklyn district attorney's office said.

(original story here).

This is more evidence that NYC is far from a harmonious melting pot. This is gross. At least some of this is on the heads of people like Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly.

Ham For Hanukkah?

A store here in NYC was captured advertising "Boneless Spiral Ham" that's "Delicious for Chanukah." From the link (where there are pictures):

Instead of pointing out the mistake to management, Shapiro posted the snapshots on her blog to amuse others.

"I just thought it was funny," Shapiro, a self-described "unobservant Jew," told the newspaper. "I wasn't offended in any way. I just thought, here's somebody who knows nothing about what Jews eat."

On Tuesday, the first night of Hanukkah, the signs had apparently vanished.

A Balducci's official, who didn't want to speak on the record, told the Daily News that it was a mistake. The official pinned the blame on a stock clerk who normally doesn't work the meat department.

A stock clerk mistakenly made laminated product cards? Really? Shapiro has more pictures at her website.

Snow! Snow! Snow!

45 Antarctica snow and rock 2318, originally uploaded by arzzed.

It's snowing here in NYC! The dog and I took our morning walk in it along the freshly covered East River path. She loves the snow! Sadly, we're supposed to have up to an inch of rain later today.

90 West Evacuated

The building Stuart and I live in, 90 West Street, near the World Trade Center site (WTC), was evacuated on Monday (more info here, here, here, here, and here). Heavy rain and work at the WTC resulted in a broken sewer line and over fifteen feet of sewage filling the subbasement of the building.

Building water and electrical services have been shutoff. We likely won't be able to go home for two weeks. Last night, at a meeting for residents, The Port Authority has promised to cover all costs incurred by the incident and evacuation. People and news outlets were recording the Port Authority official repeatedly saying, "we'll pay for it." Questions about water and air safety remain unanswered.

A blog for residents, by residents, has been established. It's at 90weststreet.blogspot.com.

All in all, it could be much worse. No one was injured. Stuart, Lady, and I made it out aok and have living quarters.

I also want to add that the local news coverage has given the impression that the building is filled with nothing but affluent, spoiled Manhattanites. That's simply not the case. There are rent stabilized apartments in the building and, just like everywhere else in NYC, there are people living together in tight spaces. There are all kinds of tenants there.