Police

Cop’s gun “accidentally” fires

The Daily Newsreports that a cop’s gun “accidentally” fired. No it di’int!If there’s one thing I learned as a cop, it’s that guns don’t fire by themselves. You gotta pull the trigger. Now there is a chance, if your finger is on the trigger, that you could get hit by something and accidentally squeeze the trigger. But if you did,…

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Police

More on NYPD vs. bicyclists

If you need more proof that something ain’t right in how the NYPD handles Manhattan’s Critical Mass bike ride, you should watch this video on the blog, The Agitator. There’s an anti-police tone I don’t like. And overproduction. And half-assed legal knowledge (there is no Constitutional right you “wave” when you identify yourself to police. Ask Dudley Hiibel. And if…

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Police

Officer assaults bicyclist (3): stupidy breaks out in groups

Leave it to Bike Snob NYC to give a beyond-the-obvious take on the take-down. Here is an edited version: By this point most people have seen the footage of critical mass cyclist Christopher Long getting tackled by NYPD officer Patrick Pogan. This is a classic example of the eternal conflict between the younger, more progressive generation and the older, more…

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So wrong?

There’s another video of excessive NYPD use of force. This has nothing to do about bicyclists. But it is the NYPD. And brutality. And it probably won’t turn out well for the officer. At least neither of the cases directly involve race. The bike case was white on white. This is black on black (and yes, there would be a…

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Police

Officer assaults bicyclist (2): Let Them Ride

Ray Kelley, the commissioner, just came on the radio and said he “couldn’t fathom” why the officer, Pogan, did that. That means the officer is officially being fed to the dogs… hung out to dry… you might even say thrown under a bus. And since the officer is still on probation… well, it’s time to dust off the resume. You…

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Police

NYPD pay raise

It’s still all too low, but finally, just a few years too late, starting NYPD officers are getting a raise from a criminally low $25,100 to the embarrassingly low salary of $35,881. The top base pay is $65,382. The Daily Newshas this story.

Police

Meanwhile, in the NYPD

The brass is throwing the book at the officers involved in the Sean Bell shooting. What’s so unsatisfying about this, is that such discipline makes cops paranoid, and for good reason. What’s the moral? For police, it’s that if the department wants to get you (if Al Sharpton shouts loud enough), they will. Obviously the order had been given that…

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Police

Marijuana Arrest Crusade

I haven’t digested all this yet, but there’s an interesting little brouhaha about a recent study released by the NYCLU by Queens College Professor Harry Levine and Deborah Small. The paper is called, “Marijuana Arrest Crusade: Racial Bias and Police Policy in New York City, 1997-2007.” The report claims that 35,000 people a year are arrested in New York City…

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Police

Pay NYPD More (II)

A police officer was arrested in Pennsylvania for bank robbery. I don’t like to compare common criminals with mistakes people make because they’re poor–like the NYPD officer who discharged his gun (shooting an 18-month-old boy in the apartment below) while cleaning it… in the dark… because he couldn’t pay his electric bill. But what all this has in common is…

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