June 18, 2010

MIND-BLOWING CORRUPTION

I was bored on a plane and looking through the Village Voice. Even though I'm not interested in mob anything, I was bored enough to read an article on the Frazese family complete with robbing with guns to the head, wiretapping relatives, bank robberies, etc.

I turned the page and there was an even more outrageous arti...cle. This one was about a gang of thugs who repeatedly attacked a guy, took him by force to a hospital and had him admitted against his will to the psych ward. He was fired from his job and hit with a several thousand dollar fee for 6 days in the mental hospital. But the guys who put him there weren't mobsters. They were cops--THE GUYS WHOSE JOB IS ENFORCING THE LAW.

The victim was also a cop--who dared to record his boss's physical and professional bullying. Now I'm an anti-establish freak from childhood. This guy is a republican from Texas who was honorably discharged from the navy and became a cop to appease his mom's dying wishes after 9/11 horrified her. BECAUSE OF THE HONOR OF THE JOB. Hardly someone likely to make waves. But his bosses insisted on bullying him to ticket and arrest people to meet quotas.

I know there are great cops and they make a lot of sacrifices to keep us safe. But this is not about that kind of law enforcer. This is deeply disturbing and I urge you all to read it. I applaud this guy's courage for speaking out. And the Voice for covering this in a series. I even forgive them for their extremely stupid cover article which is a pathetic photo spread of chefs and their tattoos.

FROM VILLAGE VOICE:

NYPD Tapes 4: The WhistleBlower, Adrian Schoolcraft

He wanted his bosses to know about NYPD misconduct. So they put him in a mental ward

By Graham Rayman

Last Halloween, three weeks after he made allegations of misconduct in Brooklyn's 81st Precinct, Adrian Schoolcraft's career in the New York City Police Department ended in rather spectacular fashion.

On October 7, Schoolcraft had sat for three hours with an inspector, a lieutenant, and three sergeants with the Quality Assistance Division—the NYPD unit that monitors the accuracy of police reports—as they questioned him about his allegations that precinct bosses had refused to take criminal complaints and had downgraded crimes. They told him they would launch a substantial investigation.

After the meeting, Schoolcraft went about his normal work as a member of the 81st Precinct. Then, on the afternoon of October 31, he felt sick and went home about an hour early. Precinct supervisors appeared at his door hours later, claiming he had violated policy and demanding that he return to work.

One of his visitors was a deputy chief, who upbraided him while sitting on the edge of his bed. On orders from that deputy chief, Schoolcraft was then thrown to the floor, handcuffed, dragged from his Queens apartment, and taken against his will to a psychiatric ward at Jamaica Hospital. His forced hospitalization lasted six days. Police officers also removed papers from his home that documented his concerns about NYPD operations. Jamaica Hospital officials charged him $7,000 for his stay—and another $86 to obtain his own medical records.

Schoolcraft has been introduced to Voice readers as the Bed-Stuy cop who secretly taped 117 roll calls at the precinct, as well as many other conversations with his fellow cops. In our series, "The NYPD Tapes," the Voice has been making these recordings public, and they show a pattern of police downgrading crimes, intimidating crime victims, and enforcing quotas for writing tickets and performing "stop-and-frisks."

Schoolcraft also had his digital recorder rolling as his superior officers threw him to the ground and hauled him off to the mental ward. Those recordings reveal that he was rational throughout the encounter, and refused medical assistance that was then forced on him.

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