On Thu, 08 Nov 2012 14:52:41 -0500, raven1
<
quotht...@nevermore.com> wrote:
>On Thu, 08 Nov 2012 11:16:25 -0800, Gunner <
gunne...@gmail.com>
>wrote:
>
>>On Thu, 08 Nov 2012 11:44:13 -0500, raven1
>><
quotht...@nevermore.com> wrote:
>>
>>>On Thu, 8 Nov 2012 02:24:16 -0500 (EST), "Steve Fox"
>>><
nob...@slug.sluggish.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>>You bitches know it's coming. Why did you do such a stupid
>>>>thing?
>>>
>>>LOL! Really sucks to be you.
>>
>><VBG>
>>
>>With luck..someone will ask you how much it sucks, just before they
>>kick the lawn chair out from under you.
>
>*Yawn*. Bring it on, Sparky. We don't have much use for lawn chairs in
>NYC, and the NYPD is not going to support a ragtag bunch of armed
>yahoos against their fellow New Yorkers, no matter what your psychotic
>delusions may be.
Speaking of Ragtag armed yahoos..hows the murder rate in NYC these
days? Better or worse than Chicagos?
Doesnt seem as though the cops can protect anyone in those two
cities..does it?
Say...look at this!!
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/02/chicago-murder-rate-surges-as-new-york-s-drops-to-record-low.html
Oh oh...theres trouble......
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eli-b-silverman/low-crime-rates-nypd-eli-b-silverman-john-a-eterno_b_1772489.html
Manufacturing Low Crime Rates at the NYPD: Reputation Versus Safety
Under Bloomberg and Kelly
Posted: 08/13/2012 10:16 am
The practice of manufacturing artificially low crime rates increased
substantially after 2002 under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his police
commissioner Raymond Kelly. New research based on interviews with
2,000 retired police officers from the NYPD reveals pervasive,
system-wide corruption of criminal records and police practices. This
research suggests that concern with the department's reputation for
reducing crime, much more than with public safety, drives police
policy.
Mountains of scientific evidence supporting this are explored in The
Crime Numbers Game. The bulk of the book's evidence came from a survey
of 500 retired police officers ranked captain and above, as well as
from in depth interviews with over 40 retired and active officers.
A new survey of former NYPD officers includes 10 police chiefs, 36
inspectors, 63 captains, 262 lieutenants, 382 sergeants, and 1,154
patrol officers and detectives. The survey asked officers if they had
witnessed words being changed in crime reports or observed other
unethical efforts to downgrade serious crimes to lesser offenses.
Using the officers who retired before 1995 as a baseline, the survey
found that 25 percent of those officers had personally observed
unethical crime reporting. Only 28 percent of those who retired
between 1995 and 2001 had observed these activities.
However, in the Kelly/Bloomberg era (2002 and after) over half the
officers -- 51 percent -- had observed the intentional
misclassification of serious crimes as petty offenses and other
unethical practices, typically multiple times. Officers also reported
that since 2002 they had experienced unusually strong pressures from
supervisors to downgrade crimes and keep crime numbers low.
The consequences of downgrading or not reporting crimes can be severe.
For example, in 2010 recently retired Detective Harold Hernandez
revealed to Village Voice reporter Graham Rayman that a series of
sexual assault-robberies in Washington Heights had been downgraded
from serious felonies to misdemeanors. As a result, the NYPD missed
the crime pattern and allowed a sexual predator to remain at large for
at least two months and to commit six more rapes.
More evidence came from numerous NYPD whistleblowers. Since 2010
officers Adrian Schoolcraft, Craig Matthews, Frank Polestro, Adyl
Polanco, and Vanessa Hicks have talked openly to reporters and TV
cameras about the routine downgrading of crimes and the use of illegal
arrest quotas by the NYPD. Not surprisingly, they have been punished
by the department for doing so. Other officers have discussed
confidentially the pressure to keep numbers low with reporters and
researchers (including the authors).
It is important to understand that the official crime rate is a
powerful indicator of crime in New York and a broader gauge of how the
city is doing. The mayor and other officials, the real estate and
tourist industries, and the top brass at the NYPD all have a strong
interest in keeping the crime numbers low.
This research also indicates that the corruption of crime reports is a
consequence of the misuse of Compstat (the NYPD's computerized crime
reporting and mapping system introduced in 1995). Ironically, this
innovative management accountability system, which was designed to
reduce crime, has become twisted. Compstat now serves as a powerful
mechanism to ensure that downgrading permeates the whole department.
At weekly Compstat crime strategy meetings, commanders are held
accountable for crime in their precincts. When used in a
community-oriented and problem-solving fashion, this makes great
sense. But when the upper echelon's ability to keep tabs on the crime
rate and closely monitor officers and precincts is coupled with
pressure to keep crime numbers low, the Compstat system is turned on
its head.
There is now a clear message emanating from the top commanders at
police headquarters: make many stop and frisks, write many summonses,
make many arrests for petty offenses, and downgrade serious crimes. In
other words, the NYPD seeks to keep the serious crime numbers low
while showing lots of officer activity. The NYPD's 50,000 marijuana
arrests, 600,000 summonses, and nearly 700,000 stop and frisks do
little or nothing to make the city safer. Indeed, this unnecessary
activity alienates communities and hurts the NYPD's ability to fight
serious and violent crimes.
This strategy does not involve intelligence gathering, surveillance,
or community involvement -- nor does it make good use of Compstat.
This is a policy created to maintain appearances, not to catch
dangerous criminals. When the NYPD protects and serves its reputation
for reducing crime, it does not protect and serve the people of New
York; these are conflicting priorities.
In the next year New Yorkers have an opportunity to effect change. The
mayoral race is heating up as opposition to the NYPD's racially-biased
stop and frisks, marijuana arrests, and other practices intensifies.
As the New York Times and others have suggested, this is an excellent
time to install a federal monitor or inspector general with powers to
investigate and supervise the NYPD's practices.
_____________
Eli B. Silverman is coauthor of The Crime Numbers Game: Management by
Manipulation and professor emeritus John Jay College of Criminal
Justice.
John A. Eterno is coauthor of The Crime Numbers Game: Management by
Manipulation and professor and associate dean of criminal justice at
Molloy College in Rockville Centre, New York.
Jesse P. Levine is a researcher for the Marijuana Arrest Research
Project and a student at City University of New York School of Law.