Last week, the New Scientist published an “emotional contagion study” conducted by researchers employed by Facebook, which proved that people can be influenced by the emotions of others online, just like “in real life.” The study’s unsettling methodology caught our attention: The experiment’s subjects were nearly 700,000 regular Facebook users whose feeds were manipulated to contain more […]
At least 20 people were shot in New York City over the weekend, with incidents in every borough. There were nine shooting victims in Brooklyn, five in Manhattan, four in the Bronx, one in Queens and one on Staten Island. Three have died. The total number of shootings so far in 2014 is lower than it […]
Though New York state decriminalized weed in the 70’s, it is topped only by Illinois in the number of pot arrests relative to users, according to a series of infographics published by Addiction-Treatment.com. A Vox article points out that Stop-and-Frisk plays a big role in upping New York’s numbers: As the Marijuana Policy Project explained, there is […]
As part of its ongoing quest to scrub NYC clean of fun things, the NYPD has arrested 96 subway dancers this year so far. Forty-six were arrested for reckless endangerment, and 50 got disorderly conduct charges. Last year, cops arrested two dancers. This, then, is the work of new commissioner Bill Bratton, pomiser of building […]
The only ex-cop with a bigger mouth than former NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly, it seems, is his brother. After current top cop Bill Bratton remarked that the department under Kelly had “awful morale” after excessive use of stop-and-frisk, Donald Kelly, 79, called the “Curtis & Kuby” show on WABC to air his grievances. “I’m mad […]
Dodging your fare may get more difficult soon, as the NYPD is beginning self-defense training for cab drivers. According to the Post, the regimen will include strategies for dealing with “violent passengers and farebeaters” as well as “handling high-stress situations that could lead to road rage and accidents.” Training will also include what a driver should do […]
Well, this is terrifying, if inevitable: the NYPD is testing Google Glass to see whether cops could use the wearable technology while on patrol. “We signed up, got a few pairs of the Google glasses, and we’re trying them out, seeing if they have any value in investigations, mostly for patrol purposes,” a police official […]
The NYPD’s latest big internal investigation was not sparked by some unwarranted stop-and-frisk, or the bloodying of an 84-year-old man, but a couple of empty beer cans found in a stationhouse. Alcohol is banned on police property under a rule instituted by former commissioner, so when a captain found four empty Budweisers in the dormitory […]
One month of its instatement, the NYPD’s blackout on local crime news is still in effect. In December, the department stopped allowing precincts to provide information about crime to reporters, instead funneling all requests through the office of the Deputy Commissioner for Public Information, effectively cutting off information about local crime. Brooklyn Daily and Gothamist dug into the […]
A new study by the Vera Institute of Justice confirms what may seem like an obvious truth: people who have been stopped and frisked and live in areas with a high police presence generally distrust the NYPD. According to the Daily News, the study found that “for every additional time someone was stopped, that person was 8% […]
