Stop & Frisk - Clearing NYPD Cops

[coots]

NY Post

Clearing The Cops

4/15/13 - Surprise: The big lawsuit against the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk program, which enters its fifth week today, is actually doing the city a service by proving, with each passing day of the trial, that critics have no valid legal claim against it.

Indeed, New Yorkers can take some comfort in how rapidly the case is falling apart.

Consider:

* Of some 4.6 million documented stops between 2004 and 2012, the strongest “victims” that could be produced include one who admitted having lied about his stop and another who is black but concedes he has “no idea” if cops detained him based on race — a key charge leveled by plaintiffs.

Plus, a review panel cleared the police in many of the stops in question.

* An NYPD inspector who allegedly instructed a cop to target minorities turns out to have told him to do just the opposite.

Far from being racist, the inspector seems to be a staunch defender of minorities: On tape, he stresses to his underling that “99 percent of the people in this community are great, hard-working people who deserve to walk to the train stop, walk to their car” without fear of being shot.

* An “expert” who was supposed to prove the stops are unjustified was able to show cops failing to cite good reasons for them only 6 percent of the time.

* The plaintiffs’ lawyers resorted to having state Sen. Eric Adams testify that Commissioner Ray Kelly once said he sought to “target” minorities in order to “instill fear in them” that they could be stopped whenever they stepped outdoors.


Eric Adams

Please. Adams has made a career of calling the NYPD racist. And, to no surprise, no one else who heard Kelly’s comments was able to back up Adams’ claim.

If this is the best the plaintiffs can do, the city can sure feel good about its cops.

No, the trial’s not over. Nor does the weakness of the case guarantee it’ll end with stop-and-frisk exonerated: Judge Shira Scheindlin has made clear that she believed the NYPD guilty long before the first witness even took the stand.

Still, as cops use stop-and-frisk every day to keep New Yorkers safe, it’s nice to see the allegations against the program so publicly discredited in court

[redstone14]

Adams is a race huckster. He better have some good running shoes if the people he claims to represent see their neighborhoods revert to hell holes.

[overthecap]

Poor Eric ;D

Memo shows Shirley Huntley taped six fellow state senators
Originally published: May 8, 2013 2:16 PM
Updated: May 8, 2013 3:29 PM
By JOHN RILEY [e-mail]


Photo credit: Howard Schnapp | State Sen. Shirley Huntley (D-Jamaica) was indicted in August on charges that she took part in a scheme to funnel public money into a phony not-for-profit organization that she created. She has pleaded not guilty to charges of fifth-degree conspiracy, tampering with evidence and falsifying business records.

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LI corruption scandals, 50 years and counting Former Queens state Sen. Shirley Huntley taped six fellow senators last year at the behest of the FBI, according to a sentencing memo from her lawyer that was unsealed Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn.

According to the filing, the FBI recorded and photographed Sens. John Sampson, Velmanette Montgomery, Ruth Hassell-Thompson, Malcolm Smith, Eric Adams and Jose Peralta. She also recorded meetings with New York City Councilman Rubin Wills; Curtis Taylor, a former press adviser to Smith; and Melvin Lowe, identified as a former political consultant and associate of Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

All of the state senators named are Democrats, as is Schneiderman, a former senator. A spokesman for the Senate's Democratic Conference, Mike Murphy, said, "This is an extremely trying time in Albany. If any charges are brought the conference will take appropriate action."

Prosecutors have said that eight of the nine are the subjects of ongoing criminal investigations, but have not said which one is not under investigation.

The filing, amid a blizzard of public corruption cases filed during the last month in federal courts in Manhattan and Brooklyn, said, "Mrs. Huntley met with attorneys for the government and FBI agents regularly over a six-month period. During her interviews with the government, she advised them that she had knowledge of what she believed to be corruption involving public officials."

It added, "She was asked by the government's attorneys and FBI agents to invite certain individuals into her home and record conversations on behest of the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

While eight of the nine are the subjects of ongoing investigations, prosecutors have said that only three made incriminating remarks during their meetings with Huntley, while the other six did not produce information useful to law enforcement. The government has not identified which of the individuals fit into each category.

Huntley pleaded guilty to embezzling money from a nonprofit in January, after her cooperation. She will be sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein, who ordered the names unsealed.

Smith was charged in a corruption case in federal court in Manhattan last month, and Sampson was charged in a case in Brooklyn federal court this week.

Sampson (D-Brooklyn) was indicted Monday on charges of embezzlement and obstruction of justice for allegedly taking $440,000 from an escrow fund he oversaw as a court-appointed referee for foreclosure sales in Brooklyn. A lawyer and former head of the Senate Judiciary and Ethics committees, he was stripped of his Senate minority leadership role.

Smith (D-Queens) was accused in April of bribing GOP leaders in Queens and the Bronx in exchange for entry into that party's primary for New York City mayor.

Adams (D-Brooklyn) was elected in 2006 after 22 years in the New York City Police Department. He represents Boro Park, Crown Heights, Flatbush, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Sunset Park, and Windsor Terrace neighborhoods.

Hassell-Thompson (D-Bronx/Westchester) was first elected in 2000 after serving on the Mount Vernon City Council, including as president and acting mayor.

Montgomery was elected in 1984 in Brooklyn. She is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Children and Families. She was a teacher and president of the city's Community School Board 13.

In a 2010 special election, Peralta (D-Queens) became the first Dominican-American elected to the Senate. She is the ranking Democrat on the Labor Committee and was state assemblyman from 2002 to 2010.

Wills, a city councilman, was formerly Huntley's chief of staff. He was elected to city council in a 2010 special election after the death of Thomas White Jr.

In a statement, Wills said, "My attorney has been in contact with federal law enforcement authorities, and he has been informed that I am not the target of any investigation arising from proceedings involving Shirley Huntley.... I look forward to continuing the work of the people of southeast Queens that elected me."

Taylor is a former press adviser for Smith. He is also a former Newsday reporter.

Lowe is a former political consultant for Schneiderman.

[googleyes]

Stop and frisk is a great tool for us but when the city started putting quota's on SQF's they went too far. I can understand numbers for summons but putting it on SQF is a dangerous game. They send rookies out that barely know how to put their gun belts on much less articulate why they stopped someone. If there is a questionable stop the job will throw those Cops under the bus and deny everything. I just hope this isn't the end of SQF because of their violating people for the sake of a number. SQF used to be used in the process of doing good police work not for a number. This Judge is one of the most anti Cop Judges in NY and I hope when she decides to torpedo SQF as we know it that it doesn't extend to Law Enforcement around the country. If we lose SQF it will cause more of us and the public to get hurt or worse. Any dumbsky can run around and violate people but they will never gain the experience to do it with skill and with an instinct that becomes second nature. If you do gain that experience or watch the guys with time on that have honed their skills over time it's like shooting fish in a barrel and its a beautiful thing to outsmart the mutts on a daily basis but you can't be so foolish to pretend you know everything no matter how good you are. When some guys start thinking like that they suddenly get a reality check and step on their d&&k hopefully it ends with a bruised ego and not someone getting hurt. Putting a bunch of rookies out on a foot post is good for Police presence but throwing them out there requiring a minimum number of stops in the age of the I-phone camera before they know how to explain it well enough that any video taken by some mutt is meaningless is a disservice to every Cop rookie or not. I hope they haven't ruined a tool that above anything else helps us to be safer on the job. Sorry for rambling on but it pissed me off when the city started sacrificing good Police work for stupid numbers possibly destroying one if our most important tools needed on the street. I'm very tired right now I just kept typing hope some of it makes sense because its 4am and I'm not reading it over. Be safe all!

[redstone14]

That's why summons quotas are illegal in NY. Not that a law has stopped politicians who rename them "Goals" and continue to force Cops to meet them.

Policing isn't assembly line work turning out monthly numbers of widgets. The daily lives of 'The People' are affected by the work of their Police. Look what happens in a Police State controlled by a tyrannical government.

[tim2188]

May 16, 2013 3:06:57 GMT -5 googleyes said:

I'm very tired right now I just kept typing hope some of it makes sense because its 4am and I'm not reading it over. Be safe all!

Put down the Taco Bell and step away from the keyboard.