It really is us versus them:
A three-year investigation into the police’s habit of fixing traffic and parking tickets in the Bronx ended in the unsealing of indictments on Friday and a stunning display of vitriol by hundreds of off-duty officers, who converged on the courthouse to applaud their accused colleagues and denounce their prosecution.
As 16 police officers were arraigned at State Supreme Court in the Bronx, incensed colleagues organized by their union cursed and taunted prosecutors and investigators, chanting “Down with the D.A.” and “Ray Kelly, hypocrite.”
As the defendants emerged from their morning court appearance, a swarm of officers formed a cordon in the hallway and clapped as they picked their way to the elevators. Members of the news media were prevented by court officers from walking down the hallway where more than 100 off-duty police officers had gathered outside the courtroom.
The assembled police officers blocked cameras from filming their colleagues, in one instance grabbing lenses and shoving television camera operators backward.
The unsealed indictments contained more than 1,600 criminal counts, the bulk of them misdemeanors having to do with making tickets disappear as favors for friends, relatives and others with clout. But they also outlined more serious crimes, related both to ticket-fixing and drugs, grand larceny and unrelated corruption. Four of the officers were charged with helping a man get away with assault.
So hundreds of cops come together in an unruly mob to cheer dirty cops. Meanwhile, the same city’s cops are busy pepper spraying, beating down, and attacking peaceful protestors.
The way God intended things to be.
gocart mozart
I am pro ticket fixing unless the benefit accrues to someone else and they shouldn’t be pepper sprayed except for the defenseless women.
Martin
And we wonder why public employee unions are under attack.
Shit like this will always overshadow 1000 good deeds, simply because of how deliberate it is.
Suffern ACE
Hmmm. For what it’s worth, though, I AM interested in why the cheer “Ray Kelly – Hypocrite” was overheard. Could understand “traitor” or something else, for not protesting the cops, but hypocrite kind of implies that the union thinks Kelly might not be on the up and up when it comes to the things the officers are being charged with. Any good reporter bother to ask them?
SectarianSofa
Wow. W-T-F.
Cliff in NH
The stories a NY cop told me about what he did while I was drywalling his house made even his wife yell at him when she overheard.
“chained that crackhead Ni%%#r to a tombstone and left him overnight” (to get him to talk more) was among the things he confessed too since the statute of limitations had expired on his crimes.
I hope he burns in the hell he believes in (judging from the house decorations)
He was the union rep.
the service revolver left in the back of the car, claimed stolen, well… @#$% him for saying don’t let the whore steal your gun(from in the back seat?!) (what was the cop he was talkin ’bout doin back there….)
They sure were pigs in the 70’s
Paper license, cop eats it, tell it to the judge who will he believe? etc etc..
MacKenna
Serpico, where are you now? Seems nothing has changed in NYC.
Chris
@Martin:
I rarely hear people bitch about police unions, no matter how egregious their behavior (which doesn’t mean politicians don’t still go after them). Teachers, usually, and any other union representing those lazy public servants who, since they’re not in uniform, carrying a gun or cracking skulls, must be deadweight useless to society.
Cliff in NH
@Chris:
skull crackers don’t get bitched at cause they crack skulls, ya know?
Darkrose
I especially liked this bit in the NYT article, given how much crap OWS has gotten–unfairly–for making a mess:
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Chris: There’s a really charming measure on my home town’s ballot in November that, if it was happening in a Red state, would probably fall under the overall “union stripping” banner. It’s removing the last real tool the police and fire unions have as leverage in negotiations with the city over contracts. I suspect it was put on the ballot as retaliation against the fire fighters’ union for a bit of overreach they engaged in last year with their own ballot measure.
Martin
@Suffern ACE:
Nah, it’s just how intimidation works in law enforcement. Insulting someone is just an insult. Accusing them, though, that’s a whole other thing.
It’s quite a change from when I lived there though. No way would there be anything like this for ticket fixing – shit, that happened constantly and it really wasn’t considered to be a problem within the force – police have discretion on when to issue a citation, and police took on discretion to un-issue them. But that was also part of the problem the public had with the police and why they weren’t trusted – there were different rules for everyone, and the broken window theory applied. If cops were open to fixing tickets, to looking the other way, then what else were they open to? And the NYPD is fucking HUGE. 30K cops – 5% of all law enforcement in the US at all levels.
So, this is really only going to get better if this kinds of stuff keeps happening, everywhere, but what a culture shock it must be. I haven’t talked to my relatives about work in a while – I should. I’ve got 3 relatives there in law enforcement – two NYPD, one transit. Maybe they’ll have something to add.
Doesn’t excuse the behavior at the courthouse though, which if nothing else is just insanely tone-deaf.
Redshift
@Chris:
I saw a news article comment section recently where some Randian was railing against police and firefighters because “they don’t produce anything.” But that may well have been a parody troll.
Suffern ACE
@MacKenna: From the follow on item:
I mean, there’s that. Serpico’s police were a bit more corrupt than that. And no, I’m no fan of the city’s bravest. Tickets should be paid, even if your cousin cop can take care of it. And those disability parking permits are for, you know, people with diabilities. And don’t get me started about “commercial zone” parking downtown on Saturday’s and how none of the cars parked appears to be commercial and how the police get to take all the parking spaces within blocks surrounding their station, whether marked “police vehicles only” or not.
O.K. I’m actually quite annoyed by the little exemptions that the police get in New York and understand that there are those whose encounters with the police go beyond annoying and into the realm of gross injustice. But I’m not seeing “Serpico II – the Great Ticket Fix” as a big draw.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Suffern ACE:
Hey, that sounds like San Francisco!
hhex65
Us and Them
And after all we’re only ordinary men
Me and you
God only knows it’s not what we would choose to do
joeyess
This is completely off topic, but has anyone seen this lunacy?
I think Herman Cain is merely trolling the entire nation.
Roger Moore
@joeyess:
Especially the part where he talks about how Cain created jobs. IIRC, his main role at Godfather was downsizing and laying people off, which bears even less resemblance to job creation than what the Republicans in Congress have been doing since 2010.
[ETA: Roger +3]
Joel
If the supporters are blocking the photographers from filming the guilty, why not start documenting who these supporters are? Names, beats, pictures, so on.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Roger Moore: He’s a “job creator” in the same way as Mitt Romney, then.
Loviatar
This isn’t new for the NYPD. They used this tactic to get Guiliani elected Mayor.
Strong Words for a Police Riot
MacKenna
@Suffern ACE:
I was being a little facetious with the Serpico remark.
Amanda in the South Bay
Jesus Fucking Christ what a bunch of thugs.
John T
Just a few bad apples!!
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Loviatar: “police riot”, it’s an evocative phrase, isn’t it?
Loviatar
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
Particularly, when its a headline from The Grey Lady.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Loviatar: The first time I ever heard it was from my dad, who described a time he was in downtown San Jose, and saw the SJPD go berserk on a bunch of protestors. He got home, saw the local news story about it, and didn’t recognize the incident they were talking about. That was a few years before I was born, in the early 1960’s.
PeakVT
Amazing. Somebody should tell those guys that police forces aren’t street gangs.
ETA: The list of shit that needs to be fixed in this country is getting really long.
ant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DgdA7a8mf0
Odie Hugh Manatee
I’ve heard that NY has a gang problem and wow do they ever. Legal thugs, with the force of the law behind them. What thugs and scumbags. No wonder OWS has been being attacked by the law, it’s what the law does for a living.
Their union and leaders should be ashamed, as should every good cop across the nation. These entitled fucks are making them look like shit.
JGabriel
Wow. I just watched this Herman Cain ad, the one with Mark Block smoking. There’s been enough commentary about that bit of surrealism already, but, somehow, the music seems to have escaped everyone’s attention.
In political ads like these, it’s important to assume every choice has meaning.
Political ads are compact, complex, encoded appeals to id and zeitgeist. And the Herman Cain ad is nothing if not precise in it’s targeting, with closing music that subtly conveys the message, “Herman Cain: The Candidate For Those Who Think The Only Thing Loverboy Needed Back In 1981 To Ascend To True Greatness Was A Female Vocalist.”
.
Hypnos
The result of growing inequality in America means that huge disparities in status continue accumulating. People perceive them. And as recent psychological studies show, people with power but no status – like a low ranking police officer would be, but also think bouncers, for example – become what the British called “Little Hitlers”. They use their power to abuse other people to make themselves feel better about having no social status.
Bring this up when someone mentions that there is no problem in inequality.
Inequality has made the United States the most unhappy, unhealthy, resentful society in the Western World.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1006/chart.jpg
Hypnos
PS this is the list of indicators making up the index in the previous figure:
Image: Index of health and social factors – life expectancy; maths and literacy; infant mortality; homicides; imprisonment; teenage births; trust; obesity; mental illness, including drug and alcohol addiction; and social mobility – relative to income inequality.
Odie Hugh Manatee
From what I read these cops should be reprimanded for their actions while off duty since their rules state:
So this means that nothing will be done since these cops are above the law.
Oops, I meant that they ARE the law.
Mino
@Martin: Civil service, public unions and a living wage are what cleaned up the police. Anybody really want to go back to the good old days? And there’s a lot more opportunity for a good score nowadays.
Mino
Maybe they think since they are the servants of the corrupt MOTU, the rules shouldn’t apply to them either. They have a point.
Elmo
I’m sure they are. Both of them.
Nevgu
Still not a peep from Wrong Again Cole on one of the best stock market months on record. He’s too busy looking for gloom porn.
Stay gloomy Cup Half Empty Cole.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Nevgu:
Did it ever occur to you that Cole might be ignoring your stupid blather Timmeh? I know that I sure the fuck would.
Besides that, it would only piss you off more and that would be just fine.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
Stay tuned for much wailing about police brutality and disrespect for the press at THIS event.
Frank
Does anybody actually think these copsc will be convicted? Recall that a group of cops were found not guilty of brutally gunning down Amadou Diallo on his own doorstep. And this is in “liberal” New York. It’s now Real ‘Murkan to be a cop-sucking groveller.
Barry
@Suffern ACE: “For what it’s worth, though, I AM interested in why the cheer “Ray Kelly – Hypocrite” was overheard. ”
Because he was prosecuting police, and prosecutors aren’t supposed to do that?
Note – I’m not taking the ‘hypocrite’ charge at face value. If anything, it’s a case of Barry’s Iron Law of Right-Wing Projection (that the right can not and never accuse anybody else of doing something, unless they’re 10x as guilty themselves). In this case, a hundred police officers are doing the sort of things which get civilians beaten, gassed and arrested for.
debbie
Nevgu, can you explain why it matters that Wall Street is going so well, when the rest of the country is practically on its knees?
If anything, Wall Street is the #1 example of what’s wrong in this country. Investment has become a scam and a game of fuck your buddy. At the end of the day, success at any cost or at someone else’s expense isn’t success.
arguingwithsignposts
@Nevgu:
Yeah. Because August and September were so bad, and
gamb1erstraders gottagamb1etrade.Nancy Irving
“incensed colleagues organized by their union cursed and taunted prosecutors” –
This is a kind of union I think I could get used to busting.
El Cid
People should listen to the [recently rebroadcast] episode of This American Life where a newer New York cop began — at first because it was mostly a toy — digitally audiorecording what was going on around him.
This is one of the most dramatic audio pieces I’ve heard. You should check it out. Also, from Schoolcraft’s website:
Oh, if you like, when you go to Schoolcraft’s website, you can listen to his actual audiotape of when the thug mafia (“New York cops”) invade his house and kidnap him, which is what they did.
arguingwithsignposts
@El Cid: Reminded me of “Undercover Copper,” (stream at Documentary Heaven) a British doc from the Dispatches series about police misconduct.
Nevgu
@Odie Hugh Manatee: yea, thanks for….urrrum ignoring my posts by…uhhhh…replying to them. No better way to make your point how much you are ignoring my posts my little furry groupie. I see you really thought this one through.
Nevgu
@arguingwithsignposts: Way to keep that cup half empty. That way you can never be disappointed and help support the antidepressant making pharmaceutical companies at the same time. Enjoy your gloom porn. You have come to the right place.
RossInDetroit
Many police officers see everything in the context of Good People VS Bad People. Something you do against a Bad Person is good. Something you do for a Good Person is good. So planting evidence or lying to bust someone you ‘know’ is a criminal is OK because they’re a Bad Person. Fixing a buddy’s traffic ticket is OK because he’s a Good Person.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Nevgu:
Fail. I meant that I would ignore you if I were John, you dumb son of a bitch. I’m not John.
You are one stupid fuck Timmeh.
arguingwithsignposts
@Nevgu: Yep, back in the pie filter you go.
scav
Staring at the picture, who else was immediately reminded that the “just following orders” defense (implied by the signs being held up?) not only didn’t work so well the last time but builds an interesting mental association between groups of people in uniform. (I don’t think the mental association of “hoodies” works in the US as it does in the UK, otherwise there’d be a three way FAIL).
I didn’t necessarily have a high opinion of cops to begin with, but ahh, ouch. JFC, and multiple people in their union thought this would be a good thing to do, anytime, let alone in this environment. So, thuggish and stupid.
But. It was reported. It was reported with that image. Interesting.
ETA: at least two spelling errors removed so far, need more coffee.
Nevgu
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Needs more 4 letter words. It will make you seem more credible and intelligent and help emphasis your point.
wilfred
Yeah, but…
OWS can’t win against the cops. End of story. In a way, it’s good that the cops feel victimized by superiors, the system, the Establishment, or whatever else fits the bill. It’s when the armed guards of the rich – the cops here, the army elsewhere – realize that they are just as expendable and as easily exploited as everyone else that they cross the line to the other side.
It’s more wise to encourage the cops’ sense of unfairness than to resort to some us/them framing. Every successful internal revolution – Russia, Iran, Egypt, et al.,happens when the ones with the guns decide not to shoot.
Better to give the cops a reason to join the movement.
Nevgu
@arguingwithsignposts: Oh nosss the dreaded pie filter. Tell me again how I am on the pie filter. You sure showed me. Remind me again how I am on the pie filter my little groupie.
Btw, if I am “back on the pie filter” why was I taken off?? It would break my heart to think I was not annoying you enough. Maybe I am slipping.
D-Chance.
As 16 police officers were arraigned at State Supreme Court in the Bronx, incensed colleagues organized by their union…
Yes, well, there you go. Vote UNION!
Dustin
@Nevgu: Fuck beans, you really do seem to revel in your jackassery, don’t you? You do realize that Cole doesn’t read every comment thread in real time and that he’s fucking traveling right now, right?
Anyone know how to get the pie filter script to work in Chrome? Because I think I found the first idiot worthy of breaking my rule to just ignore the trolls and not hide them.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Whiny Little Bitch:
I need more four letter words to sound credible? It’s more like you want me to use more four letter words because you have the reading comprehension of a fourth grader.
It matches your mentality though, I’ll give you that.
Poopyman
Yes, well…. It may be that they were sent by the union, but still it’s a neatly-tucked-in phrase to paint the union in a bad way. And it may be that they weren’t sent by the union so much as organized by word of mouth. Who knows? Where’d the author get that bit of info?
Does it matter? Some say that there’s too much editorializing inside “news” articles these days.
Dustin
@Poopyman: Would you also like the author to detail how they got to work the day they wrote this article, in the name of full disclosure? Look, just because they didn’t spell out every step of their process doesn’t turn the question of “was this organized by their union” into an editorial slur against unions.
They either WERE organized by the local police union, in which case it’s just one more example of the thin blue line in action, or they weren’t. If they weren’t it’s STILL not editorializing, it’s lying. Not every shadow is hiding a monster, and not every word uttered by a journalist is conservative agitprop.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Poopyman:
There was no “may” to it. From the article:
That’s not editorializing. I’m a union supporter but that was fucking stupid of them.
Real fucking stupid.
Kola Noscopy
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Wow. Someone has serious free-floating anger/hostility issues. Yikes.
You see, Nevgu, as a brain-free Cole groupie, in a sad/desperate attempt to identify with and claim the notice of the object of his affection, ODM takes it upon itself to speak for our BJ blogmeiester. And in the process reveals its pitiful nature.
Sad, sad little ODM.
jake the snake
@hhex65:
Captain Bryant:”Stop right where you are! You know the score, pal. You’re not cop, you’re little people!”
Deckard: “No choice, huh?”
Bryant: [smiles] “No choice, pal.”
Rafer Janders
The assembled police officers blocked cameras from filming their colleagues, in one instance grabbing lenses and shoving television camera operators backward.
At which point they were arrested for assault and battery.
Right? Um, right?
No? Well, OK, then. Boys will be boys.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Rectal-Cranial Impaction:
Speaking of turds…
Anger? Hostility? LO-fucking-L! Nope, not a bit. :)
I’m the kind of guy that is more than happy to take a shot at some stupid fuck that has taped a “Kick Me” sign to their ass.
But only when I’m bored and I mean really bored. Right now I have stuff to do so you and your friend will have to be bored playing with yourselves. As usual.
At this point I would usually tell someone “Have a nice day!” but in your case I will make an exception.
Jay in Oregon
@RossInDetroit:
Clarification added.
Chris
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
In my cynical view, the entire purpose of government (and more specifically the security side of government) IS to be a gang, or more precisely a protection racket. It’s just that you bring the entire population under ONE protection racket, because that’s better than having a bunch of different protection rackets fighting each other with regular citizens caught in the crossfire (see also Afghanistan, much of Africa, or even any place in the West with gangs or Mafia families going at it). That’s what “monopoly on the use of violence” is all about.
Yeah, over the centuries we’ve civilized government, sort of, put up restrictions on what they can do, given them other things to do, etc. But at its origin, it remains a protection racket. And it’s not that hard to get cops to start behaving like any old gang.
Joel
It’s morning and this case is still pissing me off.
Renie
FYI Pepper-spraying copy, Anthony (Tony Baloney) Bologna was re-assigned to Staten Island as a Borough Commander. Same pay level but the transfer out of Manhattan pretty much shuts him down from being promoted to full Inspector as opposed to his present Deputy Inspector. This is a lateral move but less prestigious though he lives in Staten Island so his commute is at least shorter. He really should have been forced out IMO.
zonk3
Cops are the hottest gang in the country. Honestly. An entire generation has grown up worshiping thug life and they realized that the cops are the biggest gang around. The courts will always protect them and they’ll protect each other. It’s a license to kill. Literally.
Rafer Janders
@Renie:
He really should have been arrested, indicted and tried for assault in the second degree, in my opinion.
TG Chicago
I was pretty amazed at the signs the cops were holding up. “NYPD Culture”? Wow, you’re proud of that? Another sign seems to indicate that the problem has been going on for a long time. That’s a defense? Murder has been going on for a long time, too.
The best is “Just Following Orders”. Just amazing that they’d actually invoke the Nuremberg Trial defense… ostensibly to excuse their behavior. Do they realize how those Trials turned out? Or who they’re comparing themselves to?
PeakVT
@TG Chicago: If police forces were military organizations (which I think many believe) then “just following orders” would apply more. But they aren’t soldiers. They’re public employees charged with protecting the public.
genghisjon
A resort on Millacs lake in minn.had a police gathering one weekend.Ther were
fights,sex harrasment,destruction of privet property.It was so bad that they were kicked out.I’ve been to biker parties that would’nt hold a candle to them.
cpinva
the police had a right to be incensed. after all, they’ve been told, from their first day at the academy, that they are special, a law unto themselves, not ordinary folks. they have no reason to believe otherwise. prosecutors don’t want to prosecute them; judges unquestionably believe whatever they tell them, no matter how incredulous it may be; juries won’t convict, regardless of how egregious the behaviour. it is the very rare instance when a police officer is sacrificed, and that only because they’re disliked by their brother/sister officers.
police officers know they have a better chance of being hit by lightning/run over by a truck, simultaneously, then of ever being arrested (much less convicted) of pretty much any crime they might commit. being a police officer is the ultimate “never see the inside of a jail” card.
Chris
@cpinva:
Yeah, and every time I see threads about police abuse, I frankly start wondering how much worse it must be in the military. After all, they get intoxicated with the elite, band-of-brothers, sword-and-shield-of-the-nation crap to an even greater extent than cops. And unlike cops, when their abuses hurt people, those people aren’t American citizens, they’re foreigners in countries that we’ve been told are our enemies, which means there’s even less incentive to regulate their behavior.
Anyone know anything about all that? I know we’ve seen scandals like Abu Ghraib or Haditha, but frankly the sort of systematic corruption we see from cops is the sort of thing I’d expect to see magnified several orders of magnitude from the military. But it’s hard to find any articles about that, because nobody at home really cares.
Nutella
His fellow officers came out to the courthouse in support of the clown in Chicago who assaulted a bartender even though everyone in the world knew he was guilty since we all watched him on video committing the crime. They did have to charge him, though, since there was video. He got probation.
There were a few other customers in the bar who witnessed the assault and all said they did not try to help the victim because they knew it was a cop hitting her with a chair so they knew it would be dangerous for them to object.
mclaren
Cue the bully-worshiping lickspittles to rush forward and proclaim “It’s only a few bad cops!” and “Don’t condemn all the police for the actions of a handful!”
All cops are bad cops. These people are sociopathic, sadistic, brutal, they beat their wives and children at a rate far higher than the national average, and in childhood most future police officers are involved in a lot more cruelty to animals and bullying than ordinary citizens.
Basically, people who become cops are too sadistic and sociopathic to work in a normal profession, but not smart enough to become serial killers.
mclaren
@Chris:
A lot worse.
1/3 of women in U.S. military raped.