This morning, it was extensively reported that the two American flags which typically sit atop the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge were replaced with white ones. According to a construction worker, they appeared to be bleached versions of the stars and stripes—think Jasper Johns. No one knows who put them there or why, but feel […]
Four men from upstate New York are currently serving 25-year sentences in federal prison, convicted in 2009 for plotting to bomb synagogues in the Bronx and other acts of terrorism. The Newburgh Sting documentary, which airs on HBO tonight, “builds a credible circumstantial case” that the men “were the fall guys in an elaborate, cinematic performance orchestrated by the F.B.I.” As […]
A second video has emerged that documented what happened moments after a 43-year-old Staten Island man was put in a chokehold by a plainclothes officer and went limp during a botched arrest. Police say that Garner was selling loosie cigarettes, but witnesses say he had just broken up a fight. In the footage posted to […]
Civil liberties lawyer Normal Siegel has filed a landmark lawsuit in Federal District Court in Manhattan earlier this week on behalf of Debra Goodman, who was arrested “without reason or probably cause” for videotaping officers and emergency medical technicians on the Upper West Side. “This lawsuit seeks to establish First Amendment rights to record police activity,” Siegel tells ANIMAL. […]
The Post reports that more than 67 stolen Citi Bikes have turned up in the city’s “worst neighborhoods.” The NYPD speculated that thieves find “improperly docked” Citi Bikes in Manhattan and then ride them one way to Brooklyn, where they’re dumped. The police have no room for them. To solve the problem, they’ve started stashing […]
We’ve been following the story of the NYPD’s crackdown on “showtime” subway dancers over the last few months. According to the new police commissioner, the performances represent “small crimes that have a big impact, a negative impact on the general public.” This morning, Capital New York published a list of the locations where one third […]
Unlike his predecessor Ray Kelly, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton is way more open to allowing other police officers face time in front of the media, reports NY1. “[I]t’s no longer a one-image approach that may have existed previously,” said retired NYPD Deputy Chief Kevin Clark. In the past six months since Bratton took over, a […]
Mayor Bill de Blasio has accomplished one of the central goals of his campaign by signing legislature which will offer municipal IDs to all New York residents, regardless of their immigration status. New York City Identity Cards will help previously disadvantaged groups such as the homeless, the elderly and members of the transgender community, to […]
Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson is taking steps to reel in the pointless War on Drugs in New York. Many of those charged and arrested in Brooklyn for pot possession will have their cases dropped without even going to court. “Given that these cases are ultimately — and predictably — dismissed, the burdens that they pose on the […]
A New York’s City councilman has drafted a bill to create a licensing system and background checks for the people who wander Times Square in costumes posing with tourists, to the dismay of brands like Viacom and Sanrio reports the Wall Street Journal. There are currently over 70 mascots — many of them immigrants — […]
