Archive » July – December 2014

Archive

July – December 2014

December 29, 2014
The Great Divider
Even if you view cops’ turning their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio as rude, disrespectful and unprofessional, the mayor has only himself to blame.

December 22, 2014
Can It Get Any Worse for the City?
“The mayors [sic] hands are literally dripping with our blood because of his words, actions and policies and we have, for the first time in a number of years, become a ‘wartime’ police department. ...”

December 15, 2014
De Blasio and the Cops: Where Do We Go From Here?
Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch’s warning to Mayor Bill de Blasio to avoid future police funerals underscores the deteriorating relationship between the mayor and the police — one that may already be too strained to heal.

December 8, 2014
Don't Count on the Feds
Some politicians, journalists and general loudmouths have called for federal intervention in the “chokehold” death of Eric Garner now that a Staten Island grand jury failed to bring an indictment against police officer Daniel Pantaleo.

December 1, 2014
The Ferguson Fallout
The key to the criminal justice system, says a top New York City prosecutor, is trust. There isn’t much of that in the fallout over the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

November 24, 2014
The Stairwell Shooting: It's Complicated
The probationary officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man in the pitch-black stairwell of a Brooklyn housing project had no reason to have his gun drawn and less reason to have his finger near or on the trigger — other than fear, says a former top police official.

November 17, 2014
Bratton and De Blasio: Can This Marriage Be Saved?
Forget Al Sharpton, seated at Mayor Bill de Blasio’s left at City Hall, following the “chokehold” death of Eric Garner, lecturing the mayor and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton.

November 3, 2014
The Banks Mess
Whether he quit out of pique or principle, the reaction to the abrupt retirement of Chief of Department Phil Banks, the NYPD’s highest-ranking black officer, underscores the role of race within the department and across the city today.

October 27, 2014
The Battle for Breezy
The water was rising in the clubhouse, the highest piece of land in the Breezy Point peninsula. Eighteen volunteer firefighters had taken refuge there with 41 civilians they rescued from super-storm Sandy throughout the day.

October 20, 2014
What We Now Know About Ferguson, MO
So it wasn’t merely a white cop shooting and killing an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri as the nation has been led to believe.

October 13, 2014
No Q-and-A For Chirlane McCray
Here was the Public Schedule for First Lady Chirlane McCray, for Friday, October 10, 2014, as released by City Hall.

October 6, 2014
What's the Deal with Rachel?
At least in theory, Mayor Bill de Blasio is correct: Rachel Noerdlinger should not be judged by the words or deeds of others, beginning with her live-in boyfriend.

September 29, 2014
Maple on Rachel: How Scrumptious
Perhaps it reflected a new era of good feeling, ushered in by Commissioner Bill Bratton’s collaborative-policing approach. Or perhaps it was just a bunch of law enforcement guys getting older and becoming mellow.

September 22, 2014
Bratton: I’m In Charge Here
If there is a lesson to be drawn from the sudden departure of First Deputy Commissioner Rafael Pineiro, the NYPD’s highest-ranking Hispanic officer, it is that Bill Bratton — not Al Sharpton — runs the police department.

September 15, 2014
The Deputy Inspector: Big Man, Big Mouth
Is former NYPD Deputy Inspector Corey Pegues the department’s Ray Rice?

September 8, 2014
The Mayor's Mouth and His Money
The city’s gratuitous explanation for settling the controversial Central Park Jogger case reveals, yet again, that the words of Mayor Bill de Blasio and his subordinates belie their actions.

September 1, 2014
Undermining Bratton
People have attributed the decline in the public’s approval of Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and of the NYPD to the “chokehold” death of Eric Garner as police arrested him in July.

August 25, 2014
No Due Process for Some
All the racial rhetoric over Eric Garner and Michael Brown ignores the presumption of innocence of the two cops involved in their deaths.

August 18, 2014
Race: Still America’s Struggle
Whether in Ferguson, Missouri or New York City, no institution in this country is as racially polarized as our criminal justice system. It's a zero sum game, with no winners.

August 11, 2014
The Rev, The Rev, The Rev
Overlooked in the controversy surrounding Mayor Bill de Blasio’s ill-fated roundtable discussion over Eric Garner’s death is the role of Rachel Noerdlinger, the Rev. Al Sharpton’s former spokeswoman.

August 4, 2014
Eric Garner: What's With the Toxicology?
While the medical examiner ruled that an NYPD-banned chokehold was in part responsible for the death of Eric Garner, the office refuses to release the results of its toxicology tests.

July 28, 2014
Eric Garner: Race and Race Baiting
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton says race wasn’t a factor in the death of Eric Garner, a six-foot-three-inch, 350-pound black man who died, possibly from a department-banned chokehold, as officers arrested him for selling “loose” cigarettes in Staten Island.

July 21, 2014
Eric Garner Death: A Manageable Police Crisis?
That Mayor de Blasio delayed his trip to Italy by just a day suggests he believes the first crisis of his mayoralty is manageable — at least in the short run.

July 14, 2014
To Fight Terrorism: Collaborate — Up To a Point
Shortly after his appointment as Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism, John Miller addressed the Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes over 100 detectives and nearly 170 FBI agents who are based at a secret, off-site location on Manhattan's West Side.

July 7, 2014
Selling Crime or Newspapers?
Is crime up across the city? Does the eight per cent increase in shootings over the past six months presage a trend to more violence, as suggested by recent headlines?