Apparently, NYPD cops needed to be reminded that there’s a difference between Native Americans and South Asians, as a recent memo from the department clarified that people from India are Asian-American. The mixups happen when cops are filing police reports involving people of Indian descent and accidentally check the box marked “American Indian.” “Like any […]
It turns out the NYPD’s unwarranted surveillance of New York muslims was worse than anyone initially thought. After 9/11, the department began using a police tool known as a “terrorism enterprise investigation” (TEI) to target entire mosques as potential terrorist groups, allowing the surveillance of any person who attends. According to the AP, TEIs were often […]
“Weed World vans around NYC are selling phony marijuana pops that don’t contain pot,” reads the New York Post headline, and below it, a banner screaming “EXCLUSIVE.” That paper’s intrepid reporter Susan Edelman has discovered the unthinkable, the candy peddled by the folks in NYC’s near-ubiquitous weed vans isn’t actually going to get you high. She even […]
Until recently, if you were stopped and frisked, arrested or issued a summons, then had all charges against you dropped, your name and address would go into a big database the NYPD could use against you in future investigations. Now, thanks to a lawsuit from the New York Civil Liberties Union, that’s no longer the […]
Next month, artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer will turn the Park Avenue Tunnel into an interactive multimedia installation that celebrates free speech. Pedestrians (!) will record messages into an intercom, which will then be broadcast through the tunnel along with lights and other sounds. I can’t wait to try it. The NYPD, never content not to rain […]
Attention, all ye who dare question the wisdom of New York’s boys in blue: the NYPD officers union has a new tool that’s sure to squash any and all supporters of the anti-stop-and-frisk Community Safety Act. One glance at these totally badass promotional pens, to be handed out at a union meeting this evening, is […]
According to the New York Times, Paul Browne announced that he’s leaving the force. He was appointed Deputy Commissioner of Public Information in 2004 and has been spinning stories ever since. In many ways, Browne acted more like a spokesperson for the police union than a public servant who is supposed to be providing factual […]
“Where’s the party at?” That’s how a cop addressed 19-year-old beauty queen Kristy Abreu and her mother after pulling them over last May in Harlem. A supposed computer glitch led cops they were driving a stolen car. What happened next was “the worst night of her life.” Current reigning Miss Westchester Kristy Abreu told The Daily News that she and her mother […]
At least two cops were caught displaying staggeringly low levels of self-awareness this month, when they were spotted by Tyler Sargent blasting Star Wars’ “Imperial March,” aka Darth Vader’s theme, while driving near Prospect Park. Sargent heard the ominous tune blaring “at a volume that surely must have drowned out any emergencies being dispatched from […]
As long as you stay off the highway, you’re more likely to get a ticket for riding your bike on the sidewalk in New York than you are for speeding in a car. That’s despite the fact that speeding is the most common cause of traffic-related deaths in NYC, with 81 fatal crashes in 2012, […]
