NYPD Cops Outta Control

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 8/3/14 at 10:00pm

This is just getting ridiculous.
New York Daily News Article about NYPD acting like stormtroopers

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 8/4/14 at 7:34am

She and her daughter were beating a 12 year old with a belt in the face. Cops heard the screams, beat on the door and she refused them entry. I don't have a lot of sympathy for people who beat children, topless and asthmatic or not.

[ArtMan]

Posted: 8/4/14 at 8:14am

If she allowed entry and obeyed the law, those events wouldn't have occurred. That mentality is "not what I do, but what I'm caught at". I have no sympathy for her either.

[Islander_fan]

Posted: 8/4/14 at 11:42am

@Artman,

The thing is, she didn't have to allow the entry as per the fourth amendment. The cops, plain and simple, didn't like that and so they used excessive force to get her out of the way. And, while I do think that hitting a child is a deplorable act, the cops got lucky because if they didn't find that, then they would have walked away with egg on their face.

There is a race problem when it comes to cops in NYC, they prey on the fact that many black people who live in low income areas aren't educated enough to know thing one about the law and take advantage of that time after time again. I honestly feel that if this were, let's say a white family on the upper west side in the same situation, this wouldn't have happened the way did, and the cops would have gone through proper channels.

[Jane2]

Posted: 8/4/14 at 11:48am

All I can say is "who ya gonna call?"

[ArtMan]

Posted: 8/4/14 at 5:34pm

islander_fan, I don't live in NYC so I cannot comment on the motives of the entire NYC Police Department. Any police officer I have ever encountered in NYC, when visiting,has been polite and helpful. Of course, I was polite and respectable to each of them in our encounters. I believe a child screaming is enough probable cause for the officers to enter. Any reasonable person, who is not trying to hide something, would open a door and cooperate.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 8/4/14 at 5:34pm

In the case of an active assault, police don't need permission or a warrant, as it would take too long and the person could be injured or killed. In this case, they received a domestic disturbance complaint and could hear the child screaming from the hall. They were within their rights.

[javero]

Posted: 8/4/14 at 6:35pm

"In this case, they received a domestic disturbance complaint and could hear the child screaming from the hall. They were within their rights."

Is corporal punishment by a parent or guardian of a ward illegal in either NYC or the state?

I don't aim to discount the domestic violence at issue in this particular case.

[Islander_fan]

Posted: 8/4/14 at 8:22pm

@ artman,

Check your PMs. There's something that I wanted to say in response to you, but feel like it will go on too long and drag attention away from the topic at hand.

Anyways, the article read to me that they didn't know which apartment they had to go to and that the dispatch they got was vague about that, and that they didn't notice the abuse until after they forcefully entered the apartment. Yes, it would have been a different thing if the cops knew exactly where to go etc. To me, it seems that they took a chance and got lucky. However, they still violated fourth amendment rights in the process.

@Javero. I was looking it up online, apparently it is okay up to a point. However, it's kinda of vague as to what that point is for it to be too much force. Personally, I think that any is too much, but that's just me.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 8/5/14 at 12:03am

Javero,

Hitting a kid in the face with a belt (if that is in fact what happened) is hardly the same thing as giving a kid a couple of smacks on the butt.

[javero]

Posted: 8/5/14 at 12:32am

"Hitting a kid in the face with a belt (if that is in fact what happened) is hardly the same thing as giving a kid a couple of smacks on the butt."

I agree but there are foreign nationals residing in the US who believe that even honor killings are sometimes warranted. I was hoping that someone could confirm whether or not parents and guardians of wards in NYC can still lawfully resort to corporal punishment as a form of discipline.

In this case, what happens if the adults involved claim that the parent was disciplining an unruly minor child or staging a drug intervention? According to the police, this "child" later kicked out a window in a squad car causing bodily injury to a law enforcement officer.

Updated On: 8/5/14 at 12:32 AM

[broadwayguy2]

Posted: 8/5/14 at 1:47am

I won't comment on this one specific incident, but I WILL comment on general NYPD reaction... I am a law abiding citizen. I know I should have nothing to fear from my Police Department, but I will flat out say that they do not make me feel safe. They make me nervous. They make me uneasy. When I see a herd of Police, whether in full assault hear - which we often see - or not, they do mot make me feel safe. I actually generally feel safer when I do not see a member of the NYPD.

[Jane2]

Posted: 8/5/14 at 8:35am

" When I see a herd of Police, whether in full assault hear - which we often see - or not, they do mot make me feel safe."

When I see that I feel nervous also because it means there's something major going on. Thanks god for the cops.

p.s. I guess you mean "gear"

[Islander_fan]

Posted: 8/5/14 at 11:24am

My lawyer brother was talking to me about how he hates dealing with cases where the cops do something wrong, and basically get a slap on the wrist because they are cops. Whereas if it were a civilian it would be the total opposite.

I feel that cops are like dogs hanging round the dinner table. If you give a dog some meat off your plate, he is going to hang around to see if he will get more. When he realizes that he won't he goes onto to do something else. NYPD cops treat people in similar fashion. They will mess around with people when they are bored, and then when the fun goes away for them, they simply stop doing so and either go about their business or find someone else to have fun with.

[Jane2]

Posted: 8/5/14 at 11:25am

I wonder how you'd do as a cop for one day.^

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 8/5/14 at 11:29am

In certain neighborhoods people have reason to fear the NYPD.
The Changing Face of Police Brutality: Bratton's Broken Windows and the Death of Eric Garner

[Islander_fan]

Posted: 8/5/14 at 11:56am

@ Jane2

Believe it or not, I have been a victim (not sure that that's the right terminology here, but whatever) of the cops messing around with me just for the sake of their own enjoyment.

@ ErikJ972. I found (and created another thread about it) an article in today's NY Times, talking about how while the office cause of death from the M.E. was homicide, and that the the Staten Island DA is looking into it, he's not sure what to do. Staten Island is where a lot of cops have their homes. The rest of the NYPD are backing the cop who preformed the chokehold and the DA is not sure that he can try them for what they did. Since Staten Island is a cop heavy community, a majority of the people there either know or are related to a cop. The DA is concerned about a trial because in no way would the case be fair and impartial if the entire jury is related to or knows a cop personally.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 8/5/14 at 12:01pm

"Fire Bratton. End Broken Windows. Federal investigation into the NYPD's pattern of brutality."
This is what needs to happen.

[Jane2]

Posted: 8/5/14 at 12:05pm

"Believe it or not, I have been a victim (not sure that that's the right terminology here, but whatever) of the cops messing around with me just for the sake of their own enjoyment."

Really? what happened?

Believe it or not, my life was in imminent danger, and the cops saved me.

[ErikJ972]

Posted: 8/5/14 at 12:07pm

"Believe it or not, my life was in imminent danger, and the cops saved me."
I believe it. I've had good and bad interactions with police officers.
But that doesn't mean we should look away from systematic abuse just because police officers also do good.

[Jane2]

Posted: 8/5/14 at 12:14pm

To each his own. Meantime, I have utmost respect for cops. We don't hear of all the good they do from day to day,we only focus on the errors.

[tazber]

Posted: 8/5/14 at 12:21pm

Cops are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

I have to side with Jane here in my support for the NYPD.

[Jane2]

Posted: 8/5/14 at 12:24pm

"Cops are damned if they do and damned if they don't. "

Wellstated, Taz.

[Broadway Joe]

Posted: 8/5/14 at 1:27pm

In my experience with police officers if you show them respect they will show you respect. That's part of the problem, there are too many people who show no respect at all to these men and women and then they complain when they aren't treated with respect. It's a two way street.


Updated On: 8/5/14 at 01:27 PM

[Addison D.]

Posted: 8/5/14 at 2:14pm

I've had only two first-hand, up-close-and-personal interactions with the NYPD.

When we lived at 20th & Fifth Ave., my partner and I were being regularly, verbally harassed (using anti-gay slurs) by someone who worked in a retail establishment on our block. We decided to file a bias complaint.

I had assumed our local precinct was the 10th--2 blocks away and--steps off of 8th Ave.--I anticipated it being a "gay-friendly" precinct-house. Turned out we were in the 13th--at 21st & 3rd. I confess I lost some of my enthusiasm, and anticipated a hostile reception. We met with the AVP prior to filing the complaint and they had told us to expect resistance from the NYPD because of the pressure on precincts to minimize their Bias-Crime statistics.

From the officer at the front desk, to the detective with whom we dealt to the various admin staffers who handled the documents, we were treated with nothing but courtesy and respect. The detective followed up with us for several months subsequently, checking in on the status of the situation.

Several years later, I was, briefly, a suspect in a homicide (truly). While the courtesy levels were noticeably reduced, I nonetheless found the behavior of the officers and detectives to be entirely appropriate and unobjectionable.

These men and women risk their lives (literally) on a daily basis to maintain order in the city; I'm grateful to them.