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Bloomberg: Be Very Afraid Of Holding The NYPD Accountable
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Oct 9, 2012
Modified Oct 9, 2012
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Oct 9, 2012
Modified Oct 9, 2012
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Mayor Bloomberg, doing his best "Evil Public Servant #15 from Serpico," told reporters yesterday that forcing the NYPD to submit to oversight from an Inspector General would basically reduce the city to ruins. “I think if you want to bring crime back, let’s go politicize control of the Police Department," Bloomberg said. “The last thing we need is some politician or judge getting involved with setting policy, because you won’t be safe anymore. But today, you are. Think about that when you write your story." Indeed, think about being held at knifepoint in the dairy isle as your assailant high-fives the NYPD's Inspector General while he steals packs of candy straws and kicks a dog instead of the hundreds of millions of dollars the NYPD currently spends on "intelligence" without any oversight.
Bloomberg was asked about the possibility of an IG for the NYPD because tomorrow morning the City Council's Public Safety Committee is discussing four bills. Among them: Int. 881, which would establish an IG to review the police department's "policies, practices, programs and operations." According to Bloomberg, that's bureaucrat-speak for "unlock all of the jail cells in the city and distribute switchblades at subway stations."
The Post spoke with Councilman Brad Lander, one of Int. 881's sponsors. “Inspectors general don’t make policy and they don’t politicize departments,” he said.
"Quite simply, inspectors general help agencies to know and tell the truth...The only agency that would have something to fear from an inspector general would be one that was violating the law, undermining civil rights or feared telling the truth."
Currently the NYPD isn't afraid of telling the truth, because it manufactures its own, whether it concerns spying on innocent people across the country (sorry: world), indoctrinating its officers to believe all Muslims are terrorists, perpetuating a quota-based arrest system that shuns the tenets of community policing, ignoring crime when it makes their numbers uglier, chilling free speech, planting drugs on suspects, and [Insert atrocity committed in the name of public safety to be revealed in 2015].
The Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have Inspectors General, but why should the NYPD?
Tagged
bullshit
inspector general
mayor bloomberg
nypd
Ray Kelly
stop and frisk
war on terror
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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