If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Veronica Devine opened Veronica's Bar a dozen years ago. The place's history is as blurry as a drunk's double vision.
While we are all grateful to the NYPD for its work in protecting the city, that doesn't mean the Intelligence Division should operate without oversight and ride roughshod.
How much money might taxpayers have been saved with a referral to a mental health agency for Jose Pimentel? I can think of half a dozen other things the NYPD could be doing in Hamilton Heights on any given night than smoking dope with a self-circumciser.
All hell broke loose in New York last week when Occupy Wall Street protestors took to the streets to demand their piece of the pie. Rage, conflict and...
If that is enough authority for the FBI to collect massive amounts of data on religious, ethnic and national-origin characteristics of countless individuals throughout the country, why was that not enough to join and support the NYPD in its investigation of Pimentel?
Because the NYPD has decided NYC requires an intelligence-gathering division on par with federal intelligence agencies, the City also needs a framework for appropriate oversight that is on par with the federal level.
In the two months since the Occupy movement began 25 journalists have been arrested covering events across the country. More than half of these arrests have occurred in New York City, including 13 journalist arrests in the last week.
Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD acted with cowardice by trying to use the cloak of night, while people slept, as a shield from the highly questionable tactics they engaged in during their raid on Zuccotti Park.
The Mayor has made a mistake, but it's up to the rest of us to show him -- and the world -- that democracy is stronger than the tin soldiers of the NYPD. My livestream has gone dead. The movement hasn't.
The NYPD seems to have taken payback to a new level. The department appears to have retaliated against the brother of a deputy chief who earlier this year embarrassed a high-profile civilian deputy commissioner.
The bizarre and unexplained arrangement of the NYPD Counter-Terrorism Foundation has yet again left the public in the dark about the department's actions and its motives.
Perhaps the attention paid to Occupy Wall Street will inspire Americans to say "a pox on all their houses" as they head to the ballot box next year. But that's about the best I now expect from this movement.
Other than Ray Kelly, what police commissioner on God's green earth could keep his job after the avalanche of police scandals in New York City last week?
I believe that the people in power should be protecting my rights and creating a safer environment for everyone, not advising me on my wardrobe.
As one examines the allegations of the widespread pattern of the ticket-fixing conspiracy, the conduct most assuredly is not "professional courtesy" -- it is a flagrant misuse of power by law enforcement.
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