NYC Council Angers Mayor Bloomberg By Passing Two Bills Aimed At Curtailing The NYPD's 'Stop And Frisk' Program

from the a-despot-and-his-enforcers dept

Mon, Jul 1st 2013 5:38am — Tim Cushing

It appears the New York City council would like to see some changes in the NYPD. Two bills were passed recently (known together as the "Community Safety Act") that have put Mayor Bloomberg and Chief of Police Ray Kelly on the defensive.

The first seeks to install independent oversight of the NYPD, something the Dept. of Justice itself recommends. (The DOJ's recommendation is contingent on a judicial decision finding the department's "Stop and Frisk" program unconstitutional.) This, of course, has enraged Mayor Bloomberg, who's definitely not interested in anyone policing his "personal army." (Just in case anyone feels the previous sentence is hyperbolic, here's the mayor's quote, which he delivered during a speech at MIT in 2011.)

“I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world. I have my own State Department, much to Foggy Bottom’s annoyance. We have the United Nations in New York, and so we have an entree into the diplomatic world that Washington does not have,” Mayor Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg's reaction to the DOJ's recommendation echoed his previous audacious statement.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed papers Wednesday saying that if a federal judge ruled the NYPD's practices unconstitutional, then the DOJ would strongly endorse the use of a monitor to oversee changes at the department.

The mayor, however, said that the police department needs a clear line of authority. "No military organization or paramilitary runs where you have confusion in the command structure. You just cannot have that. Lives are on the line," he said in a question-and-answer session with reporters.

Part of the NYPD's problem is Mayor Bloomberg himself. The fact that he regards the police department as both "his" and a "military organization" is indicative of his mindset. Bloomberg wants a military force policing his city and has done everything in his power to bring his own brand of martial law to NYC. For its own good, of course.

With this bill passing with enough votes to override his veto, Bloomberg has gone on the attack (along with Chief Kelly), throwing around statements that give the impression New York City is only a single militarized policeman away from a crippling crimewave. The balance is apparently so delicate that any change will destroy the balance and put millions of New Yorker's in jeopardy.

In separate appearances, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, sought to portray the bills — one aimed at increasing oversight of the Police Department and the other at expanding the ability to sue over racial profiling by officers — as a divisive tool that would undermine the police’s efforts to get guns off the streets and continue to lower the murder rate.

The problem is neither of these statements are true. Stop and frisk doesn't get guns off the street or lower the murder rate. The NYCLU's report on stop and frisk showed the total number of weapons recovered in 2012 increased by a total of 96 guns compared with 2003 (pre-stop and frisk), an increase of 0.02%. And as the NYCLU's Donna Lieberman pointed out, homicide numbers were dropping before the stop and frisk program was introduced and homicide rates have decreased more dramatically in other large cities.

The first threat to Bloomberg's "personal army" doesn't take effect until Jan. 1st, 2014, meaning this decision would be passed on to the next mayor of New York City. Bloomberg can veto this bill (and will) but it has the support needed to override his veto (it passed 40-11; the override threshold is 34 votes).

The second bill takes aim at the "racial profiling" aspects of the stop and frisk program. As has been noted, 87% of those stopped and frisked over the last decade have been black or Latino. This percentage would be enough to indicate profiling, but even more damning evidence came to light during the still-ongoing lawsuit. A secret recording caught a commanding officer stating explicitly the targets of stop and frisk: "I told you at roll call, and I have no problem telling you this, male blacks 14 to 20, 21."

By expanding the definition of "profiling" to include "age, gender, housing status and sexual orientation" and allowing individuals to sue police in state court for "policies that disproportionately affect people in any protected categories without serving a significant law enforcement goal," the city council hopes to make the first moves towards killing off the stop and frisk program.

As was stated earlier, Bloomberg feels this sort of "interference" would be "harmful" to his "military." His efforts to kill this legislation will include attempts to "turn" a councilperson in order to eliminate the 34th vote needed to override his veto. Even in this, the Mayor took the time to evoke the "victims" of independent oversight and additional NYPD culpability.

He declined to say how he might persuade one council member to switch positions, saying only: “This is a fight to defend your life and your kids’ lives. You can rest assured that I will not give up for one minute.”

If the NYPD resists these reforms as much as their "personal leader" does, it could actually mean a jump in crime numbers. The NYPD may decide to simply do less enforcement or deterrence in order to prove that the meddling bills did indeed "undermine police efforts." And it wouldn't take much to persuade many of these cops to "do less." Like many personal armies, the NYPD is home to plenty of low-level corruption and laziness.

Ten percent of them were malcontents who worked as little as possible. Unless they are being paid overtime, officers seem to avoid writing summonses. Indeed, some police officers need to be weaned of the idea that they are paid to drive around in their patrol cars, eating doughnuts.

And those sentiments came not from critics of the department, but from police commanders and city lawyers.

If the perfect storm comes together, the NYPD could be facing independent oversight and a major disruption in the "stop and frisk" process, if not an actual judicial decision declaring the whole thing unconstitutional. Judging from what we've seen so far, we can expect future reactions from Bloomberg and the NYPD to range from "ugly" to "uglier."

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Filed Under: doj, michael bloomberg, nyc, nypd, ray kelly, stop and frisk

22 Comments

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Ninja (profile), 1 Jul 2013 @ 4:44am

I propose some sort of "Turd Awards" where the "Golden Turd" goes for the politician that managed to say the most absurd things.

I'd like to add some contestants to the show:

Paulo Maluf - former S�o Paulo mayor - suggested quote: "Rape but don't kill." to a series of rape followed by murder in S�o Paulo

Marta Suplicy - former S�o Paulo mayor - suggested quote: "When rape is imminent relax and cum" same as above

Lu�s In�cio "Lula" da Silva - former Brazilian president - suggested quote: "My mother was born illiterate." in some speech about education investments

Barack Obama - current US president - suggested quote: "Yes, we can." while not as funny as the others when put into the actual context becomes rather funny
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 1 Jul 2013 @ 5:52am

Maybe he needs to work more on getting his little paramilitary group to behave better.
While its been a while since they sodomized anyone they have been violating the law here and there.
Cooking up recipes...
Violating the law across borders...
Violating those pesky civil rights and having to give officers paid vacations as punishment.

Maybe he needs to remember his job is to represent the people and not be Nero.
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RyanNerd (profile), 1 Jul 2013 @ 6:29am

SF But still a great quote
Commander William Adama: There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Jul 2013 @ 6:34am

i was of the opinion that a police dept was there to look after the people, not to be a 'personal army' to anyone. i was also of the opinion that a Mayor was in position to try to make life better and safer for the people. i didn't realise a Mayor was in that position to execute any of his personal wants or desires. perhaps he would be better having his own little piece of somewhere that he could govern in whatever way he wanted? he seems like a perfect example of the stuff that 'Hitlers' are made of!
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Jul 2013 @ 6:48am

How could NY voters misjudged him?
But he has real world business experience. And everyone knows we need politicians that succeed in the business world. Because the business world is all about turning out leaders that put customers/ people first. After all running a city is just like running a corporation with a rights trampling unaccountable police department.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Jul 2013 @ 7:43am

NY Rap sheet:
Victims: "Male blacks 14 to 20, 21"
Perpetrators: "Doughnut muncher with a 250"
Boss: "Foggy's bottom pincher, possibly worked at TSA"
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Transmitte, 1 Jul 2013 @ 8:16am

Just slightly off topic:

"No military organization or paramilitary runs where you have confusion in the command structure."

This right here really confirms what I have been saying for many years, the police are largely becoming para-militarized, and oddly enough, many people are not seeing what is in front of them. Police are police, they are not military nor should they ever be, act, or be treated as. But unfortunately, it's too late.

As for Bloomberg, cry me a fucking river why don't ya! It would be funny if a rookie beat cop pulled a stop and frisk on him(damned unlikely but still..)
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me, 1 Jul 2013 @ 8:19am

He shuld be impeached and arested for attempted usurping of a Federal role. Mayor doesn't equal King, and rule by fear is dictatorial.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Jul 2013 @ 9:10am

If Mayor Bloomberg honestly thinks he needs a MILITARY ORGANIZATION to keep the peace in his city, then he should ask the governor to call out the National Guard.

Until then, he should recognize that police and military are not the same thing, and that the NYPD is not his personal army.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Jul 2013 @ 9:35am

Wow. What a egotistical tool. I can't believe he actually said that in public.
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Rikuo (profile), 1 Jul 2013 @ 9:41am

Re:
Off-topic, but this is about the Dark Knight Rises. Why does Gordon send in every cop into the sewers to investigate and fight what he has learned is a rebel army bent on taking over the city? Why doesn't he call in the National Guard? Did Gordon have the same mindset here as Bloomberg, in that he viewed the cops as being a military organization?
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John Fenderson (profile), 1 Jul 2013 @ 9:44am

Re: Re:
If I remember correctly, a mayor cannot "call in the national guard." The governor of the state has to do that.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Jul 2013 @ 9:59am

Re: Re: Re:
And if a mayor can't, I wouldn't expect a police commissioner to be able to, either.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Jul 2013 @ 11:49am

Re:
Il Dookie!

Seriously he's been in that office way too long.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Jul 2013 @ 12:11pm

Re: Re:
With an atitude like that, 1 day is too long.
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AC, 1 Jul 2013 @ 12:53pm

fascist midget mayor
I hope the evil little bastard blows an artery.
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Anonymous Coward, 1 Jul 2013 @ 1:12pm

Nero or Hero??
"The fact that he regards the police department as both "his" and a "military organization" is indicative of his mindset."

Why did the people vote "little man complex" in 3 times and why is he Bette Midler's Hero?

Twitter: Hey @MikeBloomberg, Did you ever know that you�re my hero? @BetteMidler - June 01, 2013

I heard Bette is loosing her mind...
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Anonymous, 1 Jul 2013 @ 2:20pm

Yo, Bloomberg...
Jew mad, bro?
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special-interesting (profile), 1 Jul 2013 @ 8:45pm

The symptoms being emitted by the Mayor of New York City Michale Bloomberg seem to be historical echoes resembling the Balkanization, way down to the city state, of Europe during the Middle Ages. Each waring city-state/country had its own army, ruling class and monarchy although each had different names for each.

It is well known that the success of each city state was dependent on their economic success/structure. Each had assets to draw upon such as local mining withing their surrounding hamlets/territories or a deep harbor in the right location. Transportation was almost always the key for success.

Fair taxes and tariffs also played a large role in individual city profitableness/growth. (Considering how zoning, unions and Guilds are almost always used to quash new upstart rivals its a wonder they are even allowed to exist at all.) Fairness is of course a speculative and relative value.

Lets look at the value of NYC as a City State.

New York City was once a major shipping and immigration hub as its deep-water harbors were perfect during the booming maritime industry of the early US growth years. In later years the lucky cities like NY became railroad and manufacturing hubs which if leveraged correctly would lead to major Interstate Highways being built directly to them when cars and trucks became major transportation means.

Basically the major transport hub reasons that have founded many large cities like NYC have diapered. One might argue that the rising prices of gasoline have put a damper on that and they would be right. There are of course other sources of energy to use for transportation and the best these days for industrial/commercial fleets of cars is Natural Gas.

Because of the economic demands of building a business within a large city (taxes, tariffs, guild union and other licensing woes) (don't forget the bribes to corrupt city officers) many businesses have migrated out of the large cities and moved to the suburbs or farther. NYC is no exception as the character of its business has shifted from maritime shipping to manufacturing and railroad to currently service and office oriented enterprise.

Among the tangible business assets of NYC are Wall Street, media firms, sports and the United Nations which generate considerable business travel and spending. A generally robust and still successful city that has changed along with the economy.

No bets taken on whether if, or how soon, NYC will end up the same way as Detroit city in Michigan state. (Detroit used to be the automobile manufacturing center of the world but thats another union story.)

So where is NYC trending?

Current political trends in the United States have been toward an Orwellian Police State. Its likely arguable how far down the slippery slope, to totalitarianism, has been progressed. Its, also arguably, generally agreed that the citizens started to lose its grip on government with the start of the drug wars under former President Nixon. (Nixon the obviously certifiable psychological nut-case)

NYC being the location of the 9/11 attack is of course under tremendous pressure to both prevent a repeat and survive the public pressures from such a potentially oppressive enforcement. Much sympathy given for their suffering. However this has no bearing on the ultimate success of NYC. These pressures also tend toward more police state policies.

Its not surprising that Mayor Bloomberg has followed the general overall US totalitarianism trend adding to that the natural pressures resulting from the 9/11 disaster. (and a few others) Although understandable its not really forgivable in the Constitutional sense.

The TD article mentions several quotes form the NYC mayor including �,military organization or paramilitary, command structure.�, �I have my own army,� and possibly the most damning possessive �his/I�.

The next step would be to put up city walls and draw bridges across the natural mote the Hudson river makes. It would also need to annex its water supply source in the Adirondack mountains to the north from the State of New York...

So is Michale Bloomberg's going to succeed New York City from the US and possibly declare war on the state of New York? Who knows.

Of course, this is all just speculation.
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The Real Michael, 2 Jul 2013 @ 5:27am

"He declined to say how he might persuade one council member to switch positions, saying only: 'This is a fight to defend your life and your kids� lives. You can rest assured that I will not give up for one minute.'"

Yes, of course -- trot out the 'it's for the children' line.

Nobody's buying this nonsense.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Jul 2013 @ 1:34am

This fucking guy is getting scarier and scarier. First the nanny-state "no large sodas" thing, now this stop and frisk thing. I can't think of a more clearly unconstitutional policy than that. But he managed to get even crazier from there with these new statements. Holy shit.
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Joe Harper, 23 Jul 2013 @ 9:54am

New York City Cops Men and Women in blue continue to do your job as always, but do what the city council want you do. Don't stop and frisk, if you see a person what might be a weapon on them don't worry you will catch them later after he uses against some poor innocent person. This is what the city council wants. Don't stop anyone that people perceive as unjustice, let the criminals hang out on the corners with their guns and drugs. That what the city council wants.i can assure you those so call constitutes they protecting are listening and waiting to take back the streets once own by our law abiding citizens. When CCRB became an all civilian board the increase of complaints sky rocket against cops because the those who enjoy violating the law was waiting for that loop hole and jump all on it. The sad part CCRB had no knownledge what cops goes thru on the street.Well guess what same thing will happen when this new law is enacted and unnecessary civil suits will be file against cops. Thats what city council wants. So men and women in blue becareful go home to your families after the end of your shifts. Again, do your job to the best of your ability don't violate the new bills city council looking to make law. YES THERE WILL BE LESS GUNS OFF THE STREETS AND YES MORE CIVIL SUITS BUT THATS WHAT CITY COUNCIL WANTS!!!!!!
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