the NYPD, America's largest rogue domestic surveillance unit

The department clashed with civil rights groups most publicly after Cohen's undercover officers infiltrated anti-war groups before the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York. A lawsuit over that program continues today.

During the convention, when protesters were arrested, police asked a list of questions which, according to court documents, included: "What are your political affiliations?" "Do you do any kind of political work?" and "Do you hate George W. Bush?"

...For years, detectives used informants known as mosque crawlers to monitor weekly sermons and report what was said, several current and former officials directly involved in the informant program said. If FBI agents were to do that, they would be in violation of the Privacy Act, which prohibits the federal government from collecting intelligence on purely First Amendment activities.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=139901419

new york pricks & dicks

some of those convention questions are real stumpers

lol

this is so gross

NY Muslims and "so-called civil liberties groups" strangely upset:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/24/new.york.muslims.nypd/

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/09/the_nypd_knows_when_youve_plac.html

this is nuts

just update your files

http://www.salon.com/2012/02/28/the_nypd_spying_controversy_a_microcosm_for_the_911_era/singleton/

Michael Greenberg in the NYRB on NYPD Intel vs protest:

What has been most disturbing, however, is strong evidence that Occupy organizers have been infiltrated, spied upon, and aggressively harassed by the counterterrorism unit of the department’s Intelligence Division. Protesters, in effect, have been treated as part of a terrorist continuum that includes violent jihadists and sympathizers with al-Qaeda, though police well know that Occupy activists are not terrorists in any sense of the word....

The surveillance by Intel stretches beyond the five boroughs of New York. In April 2008, Intel sent an undercover officer to New Orleans to monitor a gathering of liberal groups known as the People’s Summit. The summit included environmental groups, gay activists, and advocates of the rights of immigrants. Their main concern was to repeal NAFTA. Participants were flagged in a memo addressed to Intel’s chief, David Cohen. Among those whose names were put on file was a labor organizer for nannies.

It is impossible to know the extent of Intel’s database or how it is being used. The Intelligence Division is so covert that, according to a police source, “even its organizational chart is too sensitive to publish.”...

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/oct/11/new-york-police-and-protesters/?pagination=false

There are some scary people out there - environmentalists even - but generally they don't join "environmental groups" or "labor groups". I think this "spying on groups" thing is so old, like Vietnam era drama. Plus there are lots of political weirdos out there who don't "do" traditional left-wing groups.

Mass arrests at 2004 RNC were unconstitutional -- sue, sue, sue.

http://www.salon.com/2012/10/02/nypd_tactics_at_2004_rnc_ruled_illegal/

why sure, Mr Murdoch

http://www.salon.com/2013/05/30/rupert_murdoch_begs_top_cop_to_run_for_nyc_mayor/

C.I.A. Report Finds Concerns With Ties to New York Police

(One) officer believed there were “no limitations” on his activities, the report said, because he was on an unpaid leave of absence, and thus exempt from the prohibition against domestic spying by members of the C.I.A.

Another embedded C.I.A. analyst — who was on its payroll — said he was given “unfiltered” police reports that included information unrelated to foreign intelligence, the C.I.A. report said.

The once-classified review, completed by the C.I.A. inspector general in December 2011, found that the four agency analysts — more than had previously been known — were assigned at various times to “provide direct assistance” to the local police. The report also raised a series of concerns about the relationship between the two organizations.

The C.I.A. inspector general, David B. Buckley, found that the collaboration was fraught with “irregular personnel practices,” that it lacked “formal documentation in some important instances,” and that “there was inadequate direction and control” by agency supervisors.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/27/nyregion/cia-sees-concerns-on-ties-to-new-york-police.html

de Blasio picks Bratton to return as commish

2004 RNC protesters settle for $18 million

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/15/republican-national-convention-protesters-new-york-city-lawsuit-arrest_n_4603452.html

shuttin' it down

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/04/15/303425055/nypd-shuts-down-controversial-unit-that-spied-on-muslims

Here are the cop toys for fingerprinting you in a sidewalk stop-and-zap! this'll be FABULOUS.

http://gothamist.com/2014/10/23/cops_will_soon_have_email_addresses.php

FUCK DEBLASIO AND BRATTON

Murders reached a historic low in NYC for 2014; overall crime was down across the board by nearly 5%; hell, even the holiday slowdown didn't really lead to any additional crime. So clearly, now is the time when NYC really needs to implement a new anti-terrorism program which would empower a team of NYPD officers to roam around the city carrying machine guns. What could go wrong?

Police Commissioner Bratton made the announcement earlier today at an event hosted by the Police Foundation at the Mandarin Oriental. He said that the new 350 cop unit, called The Strategic Response Group, will be dedicated to "disorder control and counterterrorism protection capabilities" against attacks like the hostage situation in Sydney, which the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence John Miller said was an inevitability in NYC.

http://gothamist.com/2015/01/29/nypd_machine_guns.php

yeah, it's a sickness that's particularly contagious among politicians

the irony is that because he's a liberal who has decided he needs to bolster his "law and order" credentials, de blasio could do more harm than might otherwise occur

a Clintonite to the bone after all?

i don't think it's that simple. i think he's flailing.

This quote is absolutely stunning in its brazenness:

"It is designed for dealing with events like our recent protests, or incidents like Mumbai or what just happened in Paris," Bratton said, according to CBS.

I just can't even contemplate the size of the worms that would have to be in one's brain to cause him to speak that sentence out loud in front of press.

as soon as Bratton was appointed, I felt justified in having voted Green for mayor in the general election after a lesser-evil vote for deBlasio in the primary.

am, BdB managed Hillary Rodham's first senatorial campaign, and worked for Bubba at HUD.

i didn't realize that. that's disappointing. shows what i know.

"It is designed for dealing with events like our recent protests, or incidents like Mumbai or what just happened in Paris," Bratton said, according to CBS.

this is the kind of (unintentionally?) revealing comment that should get a policeman fired. but that wouldn't happen.

more and more i think that they should just fire the whole lot of them. although you'd have to be wilfully naive to think that american society w/o cops would somehow revert to something more just and fair.

CLARIFICATION

With Bratton out sick Friday, the new explanation of the unit’s role was left to Chief of Department James O’Neill, who spoke to reporters after an NYPD promotions ceremony.

“They will not be involved in handling protests and demonstrations,” O’Neill said of the Strategic Response Group, set to debut in six months. “They’ll have no role in protests. Their response is single-fold. They’ll be doing counterterror work. They’ll be assigned to different posts throughout the city.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/separate-nypd-unit-handle-large-scale-protests-article-1.2098051

here he goes again! i wonder if this will become a 'misspeak'

If the state legislators asked Bratton about this, it's possible that they're at least considering changing New York law to make it a felony to resist arrest. This could spell disaster for New Yorkers, for one big reason: resisting arrest charges are used mostly by a small share of cops, many of whom are among the most abusive.

Bratton told the State Senate (according to Buzzfeed) that "if you don't want us to enforce something, don't make it a law." But that's the opposite of how resisting-arrest cases actually work. Most cops don't bring in many, or any, people for resisting arrest. But a few cops bring in a lot.

http://www.vox.com/2015/2/4/7979351/bratton-resisting-arrest

Mayor de Blasio now safely in the cops' pocket, and hypersensitive about it like most worthless ex-radicals.

“When police give instruction, you follow the instruction,” Mr. de Blasio said at a City Hall press conference today. “We won’t tolerate illegality; we won’t tolerate disorder.”

...Mr. de Blasio said the overall strategy of the police in New York City had not changed—there was simply “flexibility” they took in certain situations, like when dozens of marchers poured into the streets around Union Square after being told not to enter the roadways....

While Mr. de Blasio insisted that New Yorkers protesting needed to obey the NYPD’s orders, he argued his own arrest during a 2013 protest of plans to close a Brooklyn hospital was an entirely different matter.

“I’m astounded at that question,” Mr. de Blasio told the Wall Street Journal’s Michael Howard Saul. “I would think you knew a little bit more about the history of nonviolent civil protests. The civil rights movement, maybe you’ve heard of it?”

http://observer.com/2015/04/an-aggravated-bill-de-blasio-tells-protesters-to-start-listening-to-cops/

holy christ the irony in that last quote.

wow that's ridiculous

“When police give instruction, you follow the instruction,”

http://media.al.com/news_impact/photo/selmapromojpg-1063aea5bd691766.jpg

i think this asshole captain deserves everything about to be thrown at him

"Every rape should be investigated. I wish we could do more," Captain Peter Rose, head of the 94th Precinct, told DNAinfo New York.

"It really becomes a balancing act for the investigators.

"Some of them were Tinder, some of them were hookup sites, some of theme were actually coworkers. It's not a trend that we're too worried about because out of 13 [sex attacks], only two were true stranger rapes.

"They're not total abomination rapes where strangers are being dragged off the streets," Rose later said at a Community Council meeting Wednesday night.

"If there's a true stranger rape, a random guy picks up a stranger off the street, those are the troubling ones. That person has, like, no moral standards."

His comments raised concerns with Jane Manning of the National Organization for Women.

"The idea that 'this isn't some guy who's dangerous to women,' that in itself is a major window into the mentality that we are up against," she said.

"If you have the commander of a precinct making comments like that, he’s setting a tone for all the officers of a unit about how seriously to take acquaintance rape cases.

"When I hear the phrase we didn't have a cooperating victim, my antenna always goes up. If you hear 'I can't get the victim to cooperate' in case after case, you should be asking yourself what are they failing to do?"

Nationally, only about 14 percent of rapes are stranger rapes, according to a 2012 report from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20170106/greenpoint/rapes-nypd-arrest

The NYPD’s police union is so mad Pantaleo was fired that they’re threatening to stop arresting thousands of people for minor offenses. Last time they did this NYC became measurably safer and “pro-active policing” was exposed as a huge waste of resources. https://t.co/5ysGPpg9KU https://t.co/kTzEvE1LVp

— Samuel Sinyangwe (@samswey) August 25, 2019

Mr Di Blasio if you were elected president would that entitle people to throw water on all the police in America.

— Charlie Daniels (@CharlieDaniels) September 8, 2019

"Gentlemen, let's get the thing straight, once and for all. The policeman isn't there to create disorder; the policeman is there to preserve disorder.”

— Former Chicago mayor Richard Daley https://t.co/TgTY0QYUgH

— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) May 30, 2020

The Mayor of New York City just lied to 8 million New Yorkers. pic.twitter.com/4tnJCWyZ51

— rafael shimunov (@rafaelshimunov) May 31, 2020

NEW: Never-released report shows number of people killed by police activity in New York City is more than double what was reported. https://t.co/bYFwMYWM0N

— Mara Gay (@MaraGay) June 19, 2020

NYPD are retiring in record numbers because the way retirement benefits are calculated means that the OT from protest duty is giving them a bonus for the rest of their lives. The same thing happened after 9/11. https://t.co/vh8pXco0H0

— John A McCloskey (@JohnAMcCloskey) June 27, 2020

fuck em btw

very cool of the pigs to pepper spray ppl at a pride rally for no reason while trying to roll through the crowd on their toddler bikes

oh, this

Pepper spray, including of a cop, another falls off a motorcycle, other cops pushing.... at splitter Pride march. pic.twitter.com/kauOXsAwbG

— Matthew Chayes (@chayesmatthew) June 28, 2020

NEW: @nytimes sought and verified videos of police use of force at protests in NYC.
Here is what we found.
See for yourself. https://t.co/t1sEgUocDN

— Cliff Levy (@cliffordlevy) July 15, 2020