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January 25, 2013 Andy Cush

From the people who brought you that feature-length supercut of NYC destruction comes Police Mortality, a feature-length supercut of police violence and brutality. Check out the trailer above. “It’s about an existential crisis in the NYPD that results in terrorism, communism, OWS and total freedom,” the film’s creators told ANIMAL via email. “It stars Will Smith, Bruce […]

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Andy Cush

There’s an old axiom that says warm weather tends to drive more violent crime. It makes sense–people are out of their houses and interacting with each other more often, and it only follows that some of those interactions are going to be violent. This week in New York City, with its sub-20-degree temperatures, may have […]

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January 24, 2013 Julia Dawidowicz

Just when we thought it was safe to assume that the NYPD’s decidedly unconstitutional Stop-and-Frisk policy might be on its way out, Commissioner Ray Kelly announced a major development yesterday: New York City, meet Scan-and-Frisk. A new scanning device– which detects terahertz, a heat energy naturally emitted by humans– is to be deployed by our […]

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January 18, 2013 Andy Cush

It’s hard to say why, but police commissioner Ray Kelly is pretty popular around these parts. So popular, in fact, that despite being the head and public face of a department that’s faced tremendous controversy over stop-and-frisk, seen several cases of police brutality and excessive force, and is considering the use of surveillance drones in […]

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January 15, 2013 Andy Cush

In an effort to curb New York’s out-of-control prescription drug market, Ray Kelly and the NYPD are considering a radical new plan: embedding “bait bottles” with GPS tracking devices, then hiding them among regular stock at pharmacies. If a pill thief lifts the bait bottle, the thinking goes, cops will be able to track it […]

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Andy Cush

For the past five months, an anonymous group called “Racism Still Exists” has been posting powerful billboards in bus shelters around Bed-Stuy, with the stated aim of “[illuminating] some of the ways in which racism operates in this country.” Their latest, spotted by photographer Stephanie Keith, is a poster that takes refreshingly direct aim at the […]

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January 11, 2013 Andy Cush

The recent legal blows to the NYPD’s controversial stop-and-frisk tactics may have department brass fearful for the policy’s future, as Police Commissioner Ray Kelly gave a fire-and-brimstone sermon on the dangers of ending the practice at a press conference yesterday. “The things that we’re doing here are working and I would hate to see them […]

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January 10, 2013 Andy Cush

Infighting between several groups doing hurricane relief work in Red Hook–including Occupy Sandy and Occupy Red Hook–has caused several workers to abandon the cause in protest. The dispute appears to involve the surprising level of cooperation Occupy groups in the area have had with the NYPD, NYCHA, and the offices of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and […]

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January 8, 2013 Andy Cush

A major victory in the fight against the the NYPD’s discriminatory stop-and-frisk tactics was won today, as a judge ordered the department to halt a practice that allowed officers to patrol and make arrests in certain privately-owned Bronx apartment buildings. The practice, known as Operation Clean Halls, has led to several trespassing stops for residents […]

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January 7, 2013 Andy Cush

In the wake of the deadly school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, a proposal put forth to Staten Island’s Community Education Council would have the city hire hundreds of retired police officers to work as armed security guards in New York City schools, rotating around the city’s 1,1750 schools. It’s unclear whether the guards would be […]

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