[Peace-discuss] Chilling, Disgusting: Describing Investigations Into NYPD Corruption

[David Johnson via Peace-discuss]

Chilling, Disgusting: Describing Investigations Into NYPD Corruption

Description: Image: Twitter OWS


By Justin Gardner,
<http://thefreethoughtproject.com/alarming-chilling-disgusting-ways-describe
-investigations-nypd-corruption/#xmjbYSb0MgPWk5c8.99>
www.thefreethoughtproject.com
December 30th, 2014

Grass eaters, meat eaters, pads, bagmen, scores, and doing doors. These are
a few of the nicknames cops in the New York City Police Department use for
their colleagues engaged in the business of committing crime. It’s no wonder
these words have become part of the NYPD lexicon, considering its long
history of corruption.

Patrick Lynch, the head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, is
attempting to use the senseless murder of two NYPD officers as the basis for
irrational rants and calls to
<http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cops-threaten-blue-coup-york-city/> impose
“wartime” measures on the citizens. But the more rational among us know that
<http://thefreethoughtproject.com/celebrating-death-enacting-violence-stop-p
olice-brutality-worse/> unprovoked murder is absolutely wrong and is
rejected by those protesting police brutality.

Awareness of police brutality and corruption is growing exponentially, and,
as you will see below, excessive force has risen dramatically in the NYPD
since 1993. It should come as no surprise to authorities that people are
showing their frustration through peaceful yet powerful protests.

It might make Mr. Lynch uncomfortable to know that the NYPD practically
wrote the book on police corruption.

There have been
<http://guides.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/content.php?pid=172692&sid=2264585> five
commissions investigating NYPD corruption, the first one occurring in 1894.
Each of these provided a vivid exposé of cops and superiors engaging in
criminal activity, from individuals taking protection money from brothels
and gambling dens, to networks of uniformed and plainclothes officers
dealing in drug and cash extortion. The 1992 Mollen Commission
<http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/Corruption#sthash.WG45tQIq.dpbs> found:

“
disturbing patterns of police corruption and brutality, including stealing
from drug dealers, engaging in unlawful searches, seizures, and car stops,
dealing and using drugs, lying in order to justify unlawful searches and
arrests and to forestall complaints of abuse, and indiscriminate beating of
innocent and guilty alike.”

In 1993 a permanent Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB) was set up to ferret out
corruption. Known as the “rat squad” by NYPD cops, it relies heavily on cops
snitching on other cops.

The IAB is normally shrouded in secrecy, but the New York Civil Liberties
Union (NYCLU)
<http://www.nyclu.org/news/nyclu-releases-16-years-of-nypd-corruption-report
s> managed to acquire 16 years of IAB reports through the Freedom of
Information Law. Although the NYCLU study was performed in 2010, it is
perhaps the best data we have of recent NYPD corruption.

The most striking fact is that the use of excessive force rose dramatically
during those 16 years.

“In 1993, this type of case accounted for less than 1 percent of all IAB
serious misconduct investigations. By 2007, nearly 20 percent of all IAB
serious misconduct investigations were over use of excessive force.”

There is no reason to believe this statistic has reversed its trend. The
Free Thought Project
<http://thefreethoughtproject.com/?s=NYPD+excessive+force> documents badge
abuse on a regular basis.

But even the IAB reports are not reliable. Statistics and corruption
categories disappear from year to year, and the reports have become less
informative. Lots of data are simply no longer provided, including
“...information about the outcome of investigations, the rank of officers
being investigated, the number of investigations in each precinct, the
number of police officers arrested as a result of the investigations, and
the number of drug and integrity tests conducted each year.”

To top it off, the reports released to the NYCLU were missing 47 pages,
purportedly to protect current or future investigations.

Here’s another troubling finding from the study.

“Between 1994 and 2006, tips received by IAB about suspected police
corruption and misconduct more than tripled, rising from 14,789 to 44,994.
However, during the same period, the number of serious misconduct IAB
investigations dropped from 2,258 to 1,057. While the IAB was investigating
about 15 percent of tips in 1994, that figure fell to just 2.3 percent by
2006.”

All of this points to a declining interest in confronting the culture of
corruption that has persisted in the NYPD for more than a century. The
Mollen Commission may have provided some temporary motivation, but that
rapidly deflated as the years went by.

Instead of blaming protesters for the senseless actions of a deranged man,
Mr. Lynch and associates should devote their energies to confronting the
brutality and corruption plaguing their own men in blue.

 

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