| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
NYPD Officer Breaks Blue Wall of Silence: Why So many Black (and White) Americans Fear the Police
“People need to get it straight: People are not protesting against police… People are protesting against bad policies that have been in this country for many, many, many years.”…”For 12 years under Kelly…we [cops]” were forced to “harass people who did not deserve to be harassed” -NYPD police officer interviewed below
“We are joined by Adhyl Polanco, an NYPD officer who says those police officers who shunned Mayor de Blasio do not represent the feelings held by many police officers. Polanco previously blew the whistle on superiors who told officers to meet a quota .. or face punishment [the police ofifcers would b epunished if they, the police, did not meet a 'quota' of how many citizens were harrassed with any actual concrete probabole cause..read below!]
Want to oppose “quotas”? Then oppose THIS quota that targets law abiding citizens by higher ups demanding the police officers meet some artificial and growing “quota” of arrests, tickets, stop and firsks, etc.
Wikipedia: “The blue wall of silence,[1] also blue code[2] and blue shield,[3] are terms used in the United States to denote the idea of an unwritten rule that exists among police officers not to report on a colleague’s errors, misconducts, or crimes. If questioned about an incident of misconduct involving another officer (e.g. during the course of an official inquiry), while following the code, the officer being questioned would [falsely] claim ignorance of another officer’s wrongdoing.” see also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_wall_of_silence#Police_culture
Adhyl Polanco, officer with the New York City Police Department since 2005. In 2009, he became critical of the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy when his superiors told officers to meet a quota of stops, or face punishment. He made audio recordings of the quotas being described during meetings in his precinct and brought his concerns to authorities, but he said he was ignored. He then took his audio tapes to the media. [So was he rewarded and THANKED for being the eyes and ears of the public and exposing this? No, he was PUNISHED for being a courageous whistleblower] For several years, he was suspended with pay. He has returned to work on the police force, where he has been put on modified assignment. Polanco was recently featured in a video produced by the group Communities United for Police Reform.
Some 20,000 people, including a sea of uniformed officers, gathered in New York City on Saturday for the funeral of NYPD Officer Rafael Ramos, one of the two killed in a targeted ambush one week before. It was said to be one of the largest police funerals in New York City history. Controversy erupted as hundreds of police turned their backs on Mayor Bill de Blasio as he delivered a eulogy inside the church, protesting his earlier comments on police brutality and racial profiling. It was the second time officers have turned their backs on de Blasio since the two officers were killed. We are joined by Adhyl Polanco, an NYPD officer who says those who shunned de Blasio do not represent the feelings held by many police officers. Polanco previously blew the whistle on superiors who told officers to meet a quota under “stop and frisk,” or face punishment — a move that led to his suspension without pay and later modified assignment.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We turn to new developments since two New York police officers were gunned down in the line of duty at the same time the nation has begun a dialogue over the police killing and targeting of unarmed African Americans. On Saturday, some 20,000 police officers from around the country attended the funeral for Officer Rafael Ramos, who was ambushed in his patrol car along with Officer Wenjian Liu just over a week ago. Their killer, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, had a history of mental health issues and multiple arrests. Officer Ramos’s funeral may be the largest in the history of the New York City Police Department. A series of officials addressed the grieving city at a church in Queens, beginning with Vice President Joe Biden.
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: This is a city of courage and character, having faced and overcome the toughest challenges. And I’m absolutely confident, as you are, that spirit is still alive and well in this city. And I’m absolutely confident it will guide you in the days and weeks ahead. I believe that this great police force and this incredibly diverse city can and will show the nation how to bridge any divide.
AMY GOODMAN: Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu are the first New York City police officers to die in the line of duty since 2011. Among Saturday’s most anticipated speakers was New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. While those attending the funeral inside the church quietly applauded him, video shows hundreds of officers outside the church turning their backs to the video monitor as the mayor spoke, in protest of his earlier comments on police brutality and racial profiling. It was the second time officers have turned their backs on de Blasio since the two officers were killed. Before the killings, the head of New York City’s largest police union called on officers to request that the mayor not attend their funerals if they were to die in the line of duty. This is an excerpt of Mayor de Blasio’s remarks at the funeral of Officer Rafael Ramos.
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO: The threats against New York’s police are an insult to the law-abiding New Yorkers, and they will not be tolerated. They will be investigated, and they will be prosecuted.
AMY GOODMAN: That was actually Governor Andrew Cuomo. This is Mayor de Blasio.
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO: He was so committed to the NYPD. It meant so much to him to be a member of the finest police force in this country. He always wanted to join the NYPD. It wasn’t his first career. He started out as a school safety officer, protecting our kids, and he was much loved in that role. He had a dream that he would one day be a police officer, and he worked for that dream, and he lived it, and became it. He couldn’t wait to take that test. He couldn’t wait to put on that uniform. He believed in protecting others. And those who are called to protect others are a special breed, those who stare down danger, those who sacrifice for all of us.
AMY GOODMAN: All of this comes as New York City’s police commissioner, Bill Bratton, said Sunday it was wrong for police officers to turn their backs as Mayor de Blasio spoke at the funeral of Officer Ramos. Bratton called for less rhetoric and a lot more dialogue to defuse the tension between police and the people they’re meant to serve and protect. A funeral service for the other slain officer, Wenjian Liu, will be held Sunday.
Well, today we hear directly from a New York City police officer, a member of the largest police department in the country. Adhyl Polanco joins us. He’s been with the New York Police Department since 2005. When I interviewed him last year, he described how in 2009 he became critical of the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy when his superiors told officers to meet a quota of stops, or face punishment. He made audio recordings of the quotas being described during meetings in his precinct, and brought his concerns to authorities, but he said he was ignored. He then took his audio tapes to the media, including The Village Voice, where reporter Graham Rayman wrote a series called “The NYPD Tapes.” For several years, Officer Polanco was suspended with pay, but he’s since returned to work on the police force.
You went to the wake of Officer Ramos. Can you talk about the reaction of the police to the mayor?
ADHYL POLANCO: Good morning. First of all, I’ve got to start by saying I’m not here on behalf of the police department. I’m here on my own, as a citizen, as a concerned citizen of New York. I’m not speaking on their behalf. If you can please repeat your question?
AMY GOODMAN: First, your reaction to the killing of these two officers?
ADHYL POLANCO: It’s an act of a barbaric coward. This is not acceptable. This is not something that anybody can say we’re happy for this. We have lost a brother. We have lost a citizen. I went to the wake and to see the family, the way they’re speaking, to see the church. And the people who are supposed to be angry—his family, his wife, the ones that—the people that are affected the most—they are calling for unity, they are calling for peace. How come we [and the head of the police union we might add -ED] cannot honor what they are calling for?
AMY GOODMAN: Your reaction to your fellow officers turning their back on Mayor de Blasio, not in the church, but outside, because there were so many, they couldn’t all fit in the church?
ADHYL POLANCO: Absolutely wrong, absolutely wrong. Mayor de Blasio came to the police department, that had a lot of issues with before he got to this police department. Mayor de Blasio came with the attitude that “I can fix this police department.” But this police department has a culture that is going to make whoever tried to change that culture and life impossible, including the mayor. It’s absolutely wrong to turn their back on the mayor. It absolutely don’t show—this is not what we’re made of. This is—I was not taught—you know, this does not represent the police department. This does not represent how, when a family calls for peace and unity, you’re going to have a hundred officers doing the absolute opposite.
AMY GOODMAN: Do other officers feel as you do?
ADHYL POLANCO: There’s many. There’s many officers that feel like I do. There’s many officers that—
AMY GOODMAN: Last week, the president of the largest police union, your union in New York City, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, said the mayor’s office should be held accountable for the deaths of Officers Ramos and Liu. This is Patrick Lynch.
PATRICK LYNCH: There’s blood on many hands tonight: those that incited violence on the street under the guise of protest, that tried to tear down what New York City police officers did every day. We tried to warn it must not go on, it cannot be tolerated. That blood on the hands starts on the steps of City Hall—in the office of the mayor.
AMY GOODMAN: On Friday morning, the day after Christmas, many New Yorkers saw a plane flying a banner above the Hudson River that read: “De Blasio, our backs have turned to you.” Former NYPD Officer John Cardillo wrote on his blog the officers behind the act felt that “Mayor de Blasio’s dangerous and irresponsible comments about his and his wife’s concern for their son’s safety at the hands of the NYPD fueled the flames that led to civil unrest, and potentially to the deaths of [PO] Wenjian Liu and [PO] Rafael Ramos, as well as the continued threats against NYPD personnel,” unquote. Let’s turn to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s remarks, which were made earlier this month amidst protests over lack of police accountability in the Eric Garner case, Eric Garner who died of a police chokehold. He said that he and his wife, Chirlane, who is African-American, fear for the safety of their teenage son Dante.
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO: Chirlane and I have had to talk to Dante for years about the dangers he may face. Good young man, law-abiding young man, who never would think to do anything wrong, and yet, because of a history that still hangs over us, the dangers he may face, we’ve had to literally train him, as families have all over this city for decades, in how to take special care in any encounter he has with the police officers who are there to protect him. And that painful sense of contradiction that our young people see first, that our police are here to protect us and we honor that, and the same time, there’s a history we have to overcome because for so many of our young people there’s a fear, and for so many of our families there’s a fear.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Mayor de Blasio speaking amidst the protests around Eric Garner. Adhyl Polanco?
ADHYL POLANCO: How can a parent—how can a parent who has a black child, how can a parent that have seen millions of kids being stopped by stop-and-frisk—and you know the statistics of that—how can the parents of kids and see black kids get killed by police over and over, how can parents that see kids being summonsed illegally, being arrested in their own building for trespassing, and being the treatment that they deserve from—they get from the police department—not from all officers, because not all officers are the same—how can you not responsibly to have that conversation with your son? You have to.
AMY GOODMAN: You brought your son today to the studio.
ADHYL POLANCO: Of course. Of course.
AMY GOODMAN: Have you had that conversation with him?
ADHYL POLANCO: Absolutely. I have to have that conversation.
AMY GOODMAN: You’re a police officer.
ADHYL POLANCO: And I’m a police officer. And I’ve been thrown against the wall off-duty, because they all [inaudible] the mentality that Patrick Lynch and many other officers don’t want to hear about. They don’t have to speak to their kids. They don’t have—if my kids and Patrick Lynch’s son walk the street right now, chances are that, you know, the conversation that I have to have with my son, he won’t have to have. As an officer, I’ve been thrown against the wall. As an officer, I’ve been shown no respect.
AMY GOODMAN: Thrown against the wall by who?
ADHYL POLANCO: By fellow officers, stop-and-frisk, walking to the neighborhood of where my mother lives. Absolutely no need.
AMY GOODMAN: When you were out of uniform.
ADHYL POLANCO: I was out of uniform. And this is—the other thing that they mention is that 50 percent, 60 percent of the population of the police department is Hispanic, because it’s a diverse society. But we are out there. And when we take the uniform, us versus them, we become them. The second I take my uniform off, I’m them. I’m back to the civilian, that, unfortunately—not by this administration, because we cannot say this administration is doing it, but by the 12 years of dictatorship that we had by Bloomberg and Kelly, we had to harass people that did not deserve to be harassed.
AMY GOODMAN: Do you feel the policy is changing under Mayor de Blasio—
ADHYL POLANCO: Absolutely.
AMY GOODMAN: —and police officer—and Police Chief Bratton?
ADHYL POLANCO: Absolutely, absolutely. Got—welcome Commissioner Bratton. I mean, de Blasio made a mistake. I think that the way he responded to the incident that happened over the bridge, it was not accurate. I don’t think it was appropriate.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain.
ADHYL POLANCO: Over the “alleged,” that when the two lieutenants got assaulted, he said that was an alleged.
AMY GOODMAN: During a police protest.
ADHYL POLANCO: Yes. I think that was a mistake. I think—and he’s human. But I think that was provoked. This union has been fighting this mayor since before he became a mayor. And this mayor made his whole campaign around fixing the police department, bringing changes to the police department. And people heard him. And I think it was the one thing that separated him from Quinn and Lhota, it was his approach on how he needed to change and reform the police department. And voters came out [and overwhelmingly voted FOR the mayor][but corrupt officials including heads of police unions may be 'offended' if they want to defend the Status Quo of IMPUNITY]
AMY GOODMAN: What do you feel about the police protests that have been taking place? I mean the protests against police brutality and police violence.
ADHYL POLANCO: Yeah, people need to get it straight: People are not protesting against police. People are not protesting like angels, like Officer Ramos, and people who go out there and do their job every day. They’re not saying these officers shouldn’t be in the street. People are protesting against bad policies that have been in this country for many, many, many years. [but corrupt officials including heads of police unions may be 'offended' if they want to defend the Status Quo of IMPUNITY]
AMY GOODMAN: Do think these protests dishonor the slain officers?
ADHYL POLANCO: No, no, not at all. I think these protests were there before the officers. I think the issues that we have to resolve, we cannot deny that they’ve been there before the officers were dead. I think they should have held the protests until after the wake, maybe show a little more respect. But there is still an issue, and that issue cannot be ignored. That issue, you cannot tell people they don’t have the right to protest.
I want to ask everybody—and I see Mayor Giuliani and many others of people stepping up now, I don’t know for what reason, and they want to say that everything was mishandled, that everything was mischaracterized, that the mayor did a terrible mistake. But take a picture of Ferguson, Missouri, when the decision of Michael Brown came over. Take a picture of the gas station on fire. Take a picture of the police cars on fire. And then take a picture of New York when the Eric Garner decision came out. Which one you rather have, as a mayor, as a president, as a government? Which one you would rather have? So you’ve got to give this mayor some credit, if not all, for the way they handled it.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you very much for being with us. That ends our show. Also wanted to point out that Emerald Garner, the daughter of Eric Garner, laid a wreath at the officer’s memorial. Adhyl Polanco is a 10-year veteran of the New York Police Department.
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/12/29/nypd_officer_speaks_out_on_fellow
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/12/29/nypd_officer_speaks_out_on_fellow
★★★
BeforeItsNew.com contributor’s note:
Please forward widely! If you found this article useful please
consider taking two seconds to “recommend” Contributor (and also to
recommend this Story) at
the top, thanks!
★★★
Just featured it for you in editor’s picks…excellent story! Thanks so much for contributing! Peace to You and Everyone!
I DO NOT AGREE! This only is trying to make all the police AS THE VICTIMS IN ALL OF THIS! They have to ability to not go with the program, which they go and support, and place the blame on the system, when IT IS THE INDIVIDUAL COPS WHO DO THE MURDERING OF CITIZENS! TOTAL BS!
LWinner: He definitely is NOT saying the cops are the victims!! I agree witht he comments who said he should probably go a step further and just permanently quit…but he did the public a HUGE SERVICE but secretly RECORDING the “quotas” for arrests/harrassments that the polite bureaucracy and higher ups were up to…that’s a HUGE service to the public. And he is NOT saying police are “victims” but it’s just a FACT that sometimes cops are put under pressure to do bad things and are THREATENED with being punished if they don’t. Does this excuse killing by cops? Of course not. But does the public need to know about cops being pressured to reach a “quota” of how many citizens are harassed? DEFINITELY. Again he is not saying cops are “victims” and he is talking about how the system is CORRUPT more than he is talking about the cops who murder – I’m sure he is against cops killing people with impunity but he is focusing on exposing how utterly CORRUPT the system is and we need people LIKE him…or at least it’s good he recorded it…he should probably now quit his job, after he is done whistle-blowing on the corruption, maybe some honest small business owner will hire this courageous man. It DOES have HUGE courage to break the blue code of silence and to EXPOSE secret recordings of police corruption, like he did! Peace.
To me, this is a bogus story; trying to deflect it from the cops to the system. Well if all the cops stood together, they could change the system, but they don’t, so this story is just blowing smoke out of someones butt.
All cops are criminal – period, end of story. If they weren’t, don’t you think they wouldn’t do what they were told? It doesn’t change one opinion to a free nation, nor provide a single effort. This only wants to deflect from reality the cops actions, and place blame somewhere else. IF YOUR A COP, THEN DO NOT COMPLY, but you don’t and go along with the abuse… You are all swine.
ok…what I am about to say is going to make a lot of people angry….on several different sides. And then there will be a side that doesn’t believe….because they have never dealt with a hostile Union.
Unions can be great….my dad was a union member when he was injured badly on a job. I was only ten. The union members cared for every facet of my familys needs for the nearly one full year it took for my father to recover. Including fire wood to heat the house….delivered…in one day…..enough for two years.
Money was delivered every week to pay bills (all bills including medical).
We went without nothing. Not even Birthdays. If home repairs need tended…they were made before we females ever realized they needed to be made.
We were WELL cared for. WELL cared for. Let me say it one more time. W.E.L.L. C.A.R.E.D. F.O.R.
There is another side to Unions…..you don’t cross them. The Police Officers union is the same way.
Haven’t you ever wondered about the HUNDrEDS of officers that turn out at the funerals of fallen officers?
UNION Represenitives. Hundreds of them…..I’m sure a few buddies on the force go with them……but their all UNION.
Now…..This man in the video…..he crossed the Union when he talked. He will never be trusted again. Ever. He is a scab. A traitor. The enemy.
I’ve given you enough information here…..you can research the rest for yourself.
But the word Union….and the phrase ‘cross the line’ should tell you everything.
I hear you but you know, it’s easy to say “if all cops stood up then the corrupt system would be fixed”….try saying “if all Americans stood up then the U.S. political system would be fixed” but guess what? It’s super hard to get ENOGH Americans to stand up..does that mean it’s “blowing smoke” to talk about corrupt LEADERS? No, it’s not, it’s not “all the fault of individual American citizens” and it’s also not “all” the fault of individual cops…it’s ALSO the corrupt system..He definitely is NOT saying the cops are the victims! I agree witht he comments who said he should probably go a step further and just permanently quit…but he did the public a HUGE SERVICE but secretly RECORDING the “quotas” for arrests/harrassments that the polite bureaucracy and higher ups were up to…that’s a HUGE service to the public. And he is NOT saying police are “victims” but it’s just a FACT that sometimes cops are put under pressure to do bad things and are THREATENED with being punished if they don’t. Does this excuse killing by cops? Of course not. But does the public need to know about cops being pressured to reach a “quota” of how many citizens are harassed? DEFINITELY. Again he is not saying cops are “victims” and he is talking about how the system is CORRUPT more than he is talking about the cops who murder – I’m sure he is against cops killing people with impunity but he is focusing on exposing how utterly CORRUPT the system is and we need people LIKE him…or at least it’s good he recorded it…he should probably now quit his job, after he is done whistle-blowing on the corruption, maybe some honest small business owner will hire this courageous man. It DOES have HUGE courage to break the blue code of silence and to EXPOSE secret recordings of police corruption, like he did! Peace.
This cop is spineless and BSing! If you feel so much, why did you stop? So do you really think it takes a rocket scientist to be a cop and you couldn’t find a job somewhere else? Why not be a rent a cop at the mall because local city police are only one step above any RENTAL COP! Think! Above them are county sherriffs, the state sherrifs, then fed, then the alphabet agents, so you see, LOCAL PIGS are the bottom of the barrell, and one level above a MALL COP!
This story is nothing but a plant by a shill. Don’t believe it because as you read, I never once heard any one of these criminals talking about the cops actions, nor apologitic in any way for all the crimes cops commit.
My friend, you just said you have “never ever once heard” any of “these criminals” talking crtiically about cops actions..but here is one cop who not only SPOKE OUT but also ACTED against cop corruption…he took ACTION while risking his OWN career…I agree he should have taken it a step further, but you have admit that was a courageous thing to do. It’s one thing to say “he should have done more” (ok, that’s ok to say) but it’s NOT ok to pretend he did NOTHING. He risked his own CAREER to secretly RECORD the corrupt police higher ups demanding a “quota” of how many citizens are harrassed/arrested and those higher ups threatened to punish cops who didn’t do that. Do I agree with you that cops should ignore such pressure? Of course I want them to ignore it but the fact remains, the public needed to KNOW about this corruption, and this is the man who secretly recorded to let the public know it!
. Again he is not saying cops are “victims” and he is talking about how the system is CORRUPT more than he is talking about the cops who murder – I’m sure he is against cops killing people with impunity but he is focusing on exposing how utterly CORRUPT the system is and we need people LIKE him…or at least it’s good he recorded it…he should probably now quit his job, after he is done whistle-blowing on the corruption, maybe some honest small business owner will hire this courageous man. It DOES have HUGE courage to break the blue code of silence and to EXPOSE secret recordings of police corruption, like he did! Peace.
“he took ACTION while risking his OWN career…”
He did more than that….he did what heroes are supposed to do…..What real officers are supposed to do……investigate……get proof……and put your life on the line to make sure the truth is exposed.
And now he will forever be a target because of it……..
To clarify……he will be a target of abuse from angry union members.
yes he should have done more but, no this story is not a “plant”….the story about recording is DEFINITELY NOT fake…there was a full program on the radio about it where they PLAYED PARTS OF THE SECRET RECORDINGS…there is even a recording of the police higher ups arresting THIS courageous man…they bust his recorder but they didn’t know his apartment had a second recording device…so these corrupt cops were BUSTED on tape…but will the public react and force change? That’s up to us…this man did a courageous thing risking his career like that and secretly recording the “quotas” that made police arrest/harass some minimum “quota” of citizens or risk getting into trouble with their bosses…here is the program, which as I say they actually play some of his secret recordings:
http://www.npr.org/2013/03/21/174941454/at-stop-and-frisk-trial-cops-describe-quota-driven-nypd
click and listen
What more could he have done? You want him to open a vein?
I like the end where Eric Garners daughter laid a wreath at the officers memorial. WELL, WHY THEN DID NOT ONE COP EVER IN THE HISTORY OF POLICE EVER LAY ONE DOWN FOR A SINGLE MURDER VICTIM BY ANY COP? You see, citizens lives are worthless by any cop, and god forbid if one would lay a wreath down for one of their vicitims. Shows you how spineless these scumbags are…
So where can we hear this so called tape this so called cop recorded? Their is none, and this story is nothing but fake.
Police are the Murderers. The police are the very ones that pull the trigger against each citizen so they are the problem. Yes it is the system, but the police are the ones that do the straight out murdering of innocent lives. Remember too, he is only talking about the NYC police; not the rest of the country. So then, explain why the police are murdering all over the country? When then will not one police officer let say someone who was speeding get away? Instead they feel they have a full legal right to stop them and by taking their life at any costs; instead of just letting them get away with a minor offense? I hope and pray to god that these police officers family and children get the same treatment and crimes placed upon each of them. These police need to feel what these actions do to families, and the only way is to have these types of incidents happen to their very loved ones.
Then the police are very #1 traitors to our nation who openly wipe this butt with the Bill Of Rights, Constitution, and the American Flag. They need to pay for their criminal actions because they are happily and willingingly supporting the very criminals above them; at all costs; including straight out murder.
This cop is trying to say they are the victims and not the citizens they shoot to death. Since when then does the system his so called cop say forced them to murder someone? These pigs have no morals nor values and blame anyone they can but themselves.
PAckersGO: He definitely is NOT saying the cops are the victims!! I agree witht he comments who said he should probably go a step further and just permanently quit…but he did the public a HUGE SERVICE but secretly RECORDING the “quotas” for arrests/harrassments that the polite bureaucracy and higher ups were up to…that’s a HUGE service to the public. And he is NOT saying police are “victims” but it’s just a FACT that sometimes cops are put under pressure to do bad things and are THREATENED with being punished if they don’t. Does this excuse killing by cops? Of course not. But does the public need to know about cops being pressured to reach a “quota” of how many citizens are harassed? DEFINITELY. Again he is not saying cops are “victims” and he is talking about how the system is CORRUPT more than he is talking about the cops who murder – I’m sure he is against cops killing people with impunity but he is focusing on exposing how utterly CORRUPT the system is and we need people LIKE him…or at least it’s good he recorded it…he should probably now quit his job, after he is done whistle-blowing on the corruption, maybe some honest small business owner will hire this courageous man. It DOES have HUGE courage to break the blue code of silence and to EXPOSE secret recordings of police corruption, like he did! Peace.
But the story about recording is DEFINITELY NOT fake…there was a full program on the radio about it where they PLAYED PARTS OF THE SECRET RECORDINGS…there is even a recording of the police higher ups arresting THIS courageous man…they bust his recorder but they didn’t know his apartment had a second recording device…so these corrupt cops were BUSTED on tape…but will the public react and force change? That’s up to us…this man did a courageous thing risking his career like that and secretly recording the “quotas” that made police arrest/harass some minimum “quota” of citizens or risk getting into trouble with their bosses…here is the program, which as I say they actually play some of his secret recordings:
http://www.npr.org/2013/03/21/174941454/at-stop-and-frisk-trial-cops-describe-quota-driven-nypd
click and listen
“What more could he have done? You want him to open a vein?”
No I don’t want him to open a vein. I said his actions were admirable. I was defending him. Some people suggested he should not continue being a cop, and I am inclined to agree.
Why? Because I suspect that while “theoretically” he could be another whistleblower or “good guy on the inside” in fact he cannot do much good. Evidence: they have “re-assigned” him where they think he can not “harm” them (meaning, “expose corruption”) in them any more. Meanwhile his ability to speak out is (even for a courageous person like him) still to some extent limited. Certainly compared to being on the outside, it’s limited. I realize he has a family to support which is why I do not “expect” him to quit, but I did say it would be nice if someone offered him a good, (solid, decent paying etc) job. So that’s what I meant by “he could have done more”
Long story short: a ton of people were ATTACKING him and I was DEFENDING him. They claimed the story is bogus or that he is “calling cops the victims” (which he was NOT doing) etc etc. I was defending him. But to calm things down I opened with the one single thing one of his critics said that I could agree with. It’s nice to open with a part (even small part) you agree with since then people listen to you, or are more likely to. So I opened with, you know, I kinda agree he should have done more than just whistleblow…in a perfect world, or in a just better world, he would not have gone back to the police department where they have “defanged” and “declawed” him by “re-assigning him” But he has a family to feed I’m sure, so I do not hold it against him. But if he has an opportunity to leave the cop world and thus speak out even more, should be do that, and thus “do more”? In that case, yes, he should do more, by quitting, and maybe joining some citizens’s rights movement.
Who the heck is down-voting my posting a link with the audio recordings his guy secretly took anyway?
http://www.npr.org/2013/03/21/174941454/at-stop-and-frisk-trial-cops-describe-quota-driven-nypd
click and listen.
Also you said unions do good things sometimes, lots of times, I agree. and I agree they can be involved in corruption. We do not eliminate all of Congress and replace Congress by a dictator just because there is a ton of corruption in Congress, so surely by the same token, we do not “solve” the problem of union corrupt behavior by “eliminating all unions” either, hope you agree there too!
Yes he will be attacked by lots and lots of union memebers. But you know what? He’ll be attacked by some non-union memebers, too, because, “blue wall of silence” that’s why!
And you know what else? Not ALL union members will attack him. After all he’s most likely a member himself, so he proves that some courageous people willing to go “against the grain” exist everywhere, including in unions, and outside unions, including in rank and file and (rarely but sometimes) including higher ups.
“Exactly”
Right now…with upward of 34,000 cops on the NYPD and a great deal of pressure for all of them to be in the union……there is bound to be 34,000 different opinions on the current situation.
This means that emotions are running high, every one is afraid to disagree with the union for fear of retribution, and everyone is keeping their mouths shut.
That’s just the way it is……..