AP Journalists: The NYPD 'Less Transparent' Than CIA, FBI And NSA When It Comes To FOI Requests

from the ray-kelly-states-info-needs-to-be-pried-from-his-cold,-live-fingers dept

Fri, Sep 13th 2013 3:36am — Tim Cushing

According to the investigative journalists Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman, the entity most reluctant to part ways with information isn't any of the expected national intelligence agencies. No, the entity least likely to kick loose a response to a FOI request is none other than the NYPD.

“For the most part, they don’t respond,” Apuzzo, 34, said in an interview with The Huffington Post. “I don’t think people are well-served by that. Even the NSA responds.”

“Even the CIA responds,” Goldman, 42, jumped in. “Even the FBI responds.”

Incredibly, this is an improvement over the Giuliani years.

Bob Liff, a former reporter and Democratic political consultant, said the public’s right to know may not be perfectly served under Bloomberg, but it has vastly improved from his predecessor’s time.

“I don’t doubt that there’s always a battle over controversial information,” Liff said. “But under Rudy, the battle was over basic information. That’s a significant distinction.”

Thanks to the oft-thwarted efforts of Apuzzo and Goldman, we now have an answer as to why New York is referred to as the "city that never sleeps." It's because it's up all night crafting narratives.

The "public is not well-served by a police department that doesn’t allow you access to 911 calls or public records, police reports" and then "produces their own summaries of cases for you to look at, but doesn’t let you get access to the underlying documents,” Apuzzo added later.

“The NYPD is deciding what’s news,” Goldman said.

Apuzzo and Goldman have had plenty of experience with the NYPD, having exposed the department's highly questionable surveillance tactics deployed after the 9/11 attacks, along with breaking the news that a former high-ranking CIA officer was running the so-called Demographics Unit. This unit has designated entire mosques as "terrorist operations" and operates under a loophole in the laws governing police investigations -- a generous loophole manufactured by the former CIA agent himself.

The powers granted to this unit are so audacious that national intelligence agencies are unable to utilize the information collected without breaking national civil liberties laws.

The NYPD's protection of its own info seems almost antagonistic. As we've covered earlier, the NYPD has rejected FOI requests for everything from weapons discharge reports to Ray Kelly's official calendar. The city of New York isn't much better, as Mike Masnick can personally attest.

There's an insularity to New York that outsiders have trouble permeating. The city is unlike any other in the US, and the residents and ingrained institutions know it. Most people don't have what it takes to get past its callous exterior and those who try are often rebuffed simply on principle. The mayor's office and police department have had each other's back throughout Bloomberg's tenure, which isn't too surprising considering the NYPD has been very instrumental in the mayor's micromanagement of the city and its inhabitants.

But this "we protect our own" attitude extends into the journalistic ranks as well, which is extremely problematic when the police department is already doing everything it can to prevent the release of unflattering information. Apuzzo and Goldman's investigative work was greeted with reactions ranging from harsh criticism to complete indifference by New York papers.

The city’s top tabloid newspapers, the New York Post and Daily News, editorialized against the AP's NYPD series in 2011, and The New York Times did little follow-up reporting on the revelations and newly published documents.

"It was extremely surprising to us that putting a former CIA officer in charge of the NYPD intelligence division and creating what’s been created generated so little attention at the time," Apuzzo said.

That should have been a big deal and New York journalist should have been the ones informing their local readers about the abuses occurring in the name of "security" -- and at the behest of a former CIA officer. But they didn't, instead entertaining the mayor's assertions that everything the department did was legal, above board and not a violation of anyone's rights.

Bloomberg, like President Obama, promised greater transparency. And like the president, he's failed to follow through. Worse, this isn't simply a case of neglect -- both have taken great strides in the direction of opacity. And as for those New York journalists who criticized the pair's work, they need to take a good, long look at their own complicity in the NYPD's overreach.

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Filed Under: adam goldman, foia, matt apuzzo, nypd, transparency

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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 13 Sep 2013 @ 4:03am

I guess after all of this hard work selling the narrative, the Shield law only covering those who work for papers that report what the powers that be allow to be reported on makes so much sense.
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Alison, 13 Sep 2013 @ 4:44am

Canada's Access to Information Commissioner reported last month that some time in the last year the RCMP stopped responding to access to information requests.

http://globalnews.ca/news/785556/rcmp-stopped-responding-to-information-requests-inform ation-commissioner/
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Sep 2013 @ 5:31am

Breaking News !
NYC to secede and become Bloombergistan
No film at eleven because it's not allowed
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Sep 2013 @ 8:31am

Re:
To be fair, the Mounties are far too busy to be dealing with information. They require:

Riding training
Mountain Rescue
Dancing with a naked St. Bernard.

That's a lot of things to do before information request processing, let me tell ya!
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Sep 2013 @ 1:42pm

i suppose that is what is wanted, but the FOIA might just as well be flushed down the toilet along with all the other rights of the people! what is the point of having any laws at all that are supposed to protect and serve the people, when those doing the protecting and serving continuously break the law by ignoring those peoples rights? the courts are just as bad! one idiot judge has just said that there is no need to prove ownership when issuing a cease and desist or take down notice. that means that anyone can claim anything and demand it removed etc. by the time the truth is out, someone's life could be ruined, let alone their business! the only way a law can be enacted is for every judge to do the same thing with it under all circumstances that the particular law is coming into play. there is no way it should go back to Congress for further explanation, then the sentence be handed down!
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geral, 14 Sep 2013 @ 12:31pm

fbi surveillance & much more:
Summary :
http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2013/09/18374.php

24/7 surveillance for two decades:

http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/non-consensual.html

Assaults by street thugs/fbi operatives and police:

http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/part19b-updatefo.html

Fraudulent police "BOLO":

http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/part19c-updatefo.html

Assaults by high tech weaponry 24/7 and by bio-chem agents:

http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/hightechassau.html

http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/part16-updatefor.html

http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/tooth14.html

Home invasions & psychological assaults:

http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/updatemystory.html

Strange , or assaultive behavior by many doctors, et. al., toward me:

http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/mystory.html

http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/TSBMEandTSBDE/tsbmeandtsbde.html

http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/lettertosenator2.html

Invasion of my body with chemicals and tracking devices:

http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/tracking.html

http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/alert.html

fbi operative 'paint me doubtful' proclaims to the world that I am a possible "mass murderer":

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2013/02/422103.shtml?discuss

fbi operative tells me: "kill yourself":

http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/hatemailpartsix.html
Torture:

http://www.boell.org/downl oads/Lingis_on_torture.pdf

Secret harassment program:
http://austin.indymedia.org/article/2013/08/25/usa-evil-empire

fbi stages a crime, plants my name at the scene, & causes police to pay me a visit:

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2013/05/423148.shtml

Why 911! a few causes & failures:

www.sosbeevfbi.com/911caneasilyrevi.html

www.sosbeevfbi.com/thelawoftheunite.html

www.sosbeevfbi.com/part4-worldinabo.html

For twenty five years I have been surveilled 24/7 and for ten years I have been tortured by DEW by the fbi assassins in their efforts to imprison or kill me.
http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/hightechassau.html

http://barcelona.indymedia.org/newswire/display/472272/index.php

My affidavit:
http://www.sosbeevfbi.com/affidavit2007.html

http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/436163 -geral-sosbee/1929821-public-notice-attributed-to-and-owned-by-the-fbi

The Age of Madness:

http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/story/age-madness-critical-review-fbicia-operations/9375

Congress corruption & fear of fbi:

http://sosbeevfbi.ning.com/profiles/blogs/this-congress-of-the-usa-will
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