Study: Blacks and Latinos Make up about 80% Stopped and Questioned by NYPD

Once again, New York’s Finest, the NYPD is in the news. The NYPD is on pace to have stopped and frisked 500,000 people — 80% of them black or Latino. The Center for Constitutional Rights, citing NYPD data obtained in a suit, said the vast majority of those stopped and questioned in 2005 through June 2008 weren’t charged with any crime.

In 2007, for instance, the last complete year of data, cops arrested only 5.8% of the 472,096 people they stopped (27,632). “The New York City Police Department continues to prey on African-American and Latino communities in New York City,” Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said. The center obtained half of the 2008 data but projected that 543,982 people will be stopped in the entire year if the NYPD maintained its pace. Cops made fewer than 400,000 stops in 2005.
“The problem actually is getting worse,” CCR lawyer Darius Charney said. Commissioner Paul Browne, the NYPD’s chief spokesman, said the number of minorities who were singled out under the policy is consistent with overall descriptions by race provided by victims and surviving witnesses of crime.

He pointed to a RAND Corp. study that found no racial profiling in its examination, “and warned against the kind of simplistic comparisons made by the center.” “Their assertions do not constitute a study of the data, but a restatement of accusations in its lawsuit,” he added. Source: NY Daily News

The statistics are pretty damning and go beyond the notion of happenstance. It seems that the NYPD has a penchant for picking on blacks and Latinos, for no other reason, but the automatic assumption that they are up to no good. Commissioner Paul Browne points to another study, but if you ask many black and Latinos males in New York City, they will tell you they were pulled over or stopped by a NYPD officer, for no other than profiling. Let me end by saying that this disturbing pattern of racial profiling is not representative of every police officer in the NYPD or across this country. There are many decent, hardworking police officers who do not engage in racial profiling or racist behavior.

Filed under: NYPD, Racial profiling, RAND Study

New York Police Francis Cole Murders Wife, Elana Cole, Daughter Tried to Intervene, Was Struck in the Face

New York’s Finest is in the news again. NYPD Lt. Francis Cole gunned down his wife, Elana, and then killed himself on Monday at their Long Island home. According to the NY Daily News, Cole, 48, who worked out of Brooklyn’s 68th Precinct, stabbed his wife in the chest with a kitchen knife before shooting her in the head at their home in Centereach. He then shot himself in the head.

Detective Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick said that Cole’s 18-year-old daughter tried to intervene before her parents’ fight turned deadly, but was struck in the face. The daughter called 911 at 12:35 p.m. to report her father had shot her mother, Fitzpatrick said. They had been going through a divorce.

Cole and his wife were found in the upstairs bedroom of their two-story house. He was still alive when cops found him and rushed him to the hospital, where he later died. Besides the couple’s teenage daughter, Elana Coles’s 81-year-old mother was in the house at the time, Fitzpatrick said. The couple is also survived by three sons, all in their 20s.

This cop is no stranger to controversy. According to the NY Daily News, in 2005, he was named in a racial discrimination suit filed by a black female officer in the 68th Precinct. The officer accused Cole of running an “old-boys club” within the NYPD that prevented her from being promoted. He was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode. I hope his daughter will get counselling for witnessing her father shooting her mother. There is always something in the news about New York City’s Finest and it seems that they have a penchant for breaking the same law they are supposed to uphold. It is shameful that more psychological counseling isn’t being done. They need more sensitivity training, without a doubt.

Filed under: Elana Cole, Lt. Francis Cole, Murder-Suicide, NY's Finest, NYPD, police brutality, Racial Discrimination

Barbara Sheehan Shoots Cross-Dressing Husband Retired NYPD Sgt. Raymond Sheehan to Death

New York’s Finest just can’t stay out of the news. Barbara Sheehan shot her husband, retired NYPD Sgt. Raymond Sheehan and her lawyer said that he was a “self-loathing” sexual deviant who liked transvestite hookers and wearing lingerie. According to the NY Daily News, Barbara Sheehan, admitted pumping him full of bullets from his guns in their Howard Beach, Queens, home Feb. 18, was a “very sick man.”

“Here was a person engaged in self-loathing, remorse and an Irish sense of guilt,” Michael Dowd, her lawyer said of the 49-year-old cop’s alleged dalliances with “shemales.””There’s no question that his violence preceded any of his out-of-the-mainstream sexual activities. But these activities seem to have exacerbated to some degree what was going on. They seemed to increase and send him into a rage.”

Dowd said he has “significant evidence” of Sheehan’s dark side – including the skimpy lingerie set he forced his wife to watch him wear and the address of a transvestite brothel near Albany that was found in the GPS in his car. A private investigator found the transvestite whom Sheehan visited upstate, shortly after pushing his wife out of the car and disappearing from a football game they were supposed to attend, Dowd said. Dowd said he also knows of e-mails between the 20-year-veteran police officer – who retired in 2002 – and his transvestite consorts. Source: NY Daily News

Okay. So the man is a scumbag, but what gave her the right to shoot him to death? Barbara Sheehan, 46, faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted. The school secretary and mother of two used her husband’s guns – a Glock and a .35-caliber pistol – to pump 11 rounds at his back. I don’t know what was her breaking point, but there is no justification for shooting him to death.

Filed under: Barbara Sheehan, Cross-Dressing, NYPD, Raymond Sheehan, Transvestite

NY Giants Plaxico Burress Turns Himself in Over Charges Stemming from Shooting Himself Accidentally with Illegal Weapon

Why these young “ballers” love guns is beyond me. The problem is that being wealthy is no guarantee of happiness. We have seen repeatedly many young people who become rich almost overnight, struggle emotionally as well as wrestle with the responsibility that comes with such new found wealth and fame. You have to leave your old lifestyle behind, especially if it was a troubled one. Well, according to the NY Daily News, troubled Giants star Plaxico Burress turned himself into a Manhattan precinct Monday morning where he is expected to be charged after accidentally shooting himself in the right thigh while drinking at a Midtown nightclub.

Walking with no sign of a limp from the bullet wound, Burress stepped out of a black Cadillac Escalade in front of the NYPD’s 17th Precinct just after 8 a.m. Wearing dark jeans, a white collared shirt and a black jacket, he stared straight ahead as he walked and ignored shouts from an assembled group of reporters and fans. His lawyer said the wide receiver would be arraigned at 1 p.m. at Central Booking and would plead not guilty to charges of criminal possession of a weapon.

“He’s standing tall,” said attorney Benjamin Brafman. “He’s a mature adult handling this very well, I think, under the circumstances.””He…has been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from people who I think understand that he’s a fundamentally decent man in a difficult situation,” Brafman said. Standing tall, really? He has no choice but to turn himself in for this stupid little sideshow. He had an illegal weapon which was loaded. That’s a crime in New York state punishable from a one-year sentence to a mandatory minimum 3 1/2-year sentence. To think that young kids look up to these athletes is amazing. Call Tiger Woods what you want, you have never heard of this young man mixed up with the wrong crowd or exhibiting criminal behavior.

Burress, 31, was partying at the Latin Quarter nightclub with teammates after midnight Saturday when he fumbled with the gun tucked in his waistband, accidentally firing a single round that ripped through his right thigh.

Burress, who signed a $35-million contract extension in the wake of the Super Bowl win, has been a season-long distraction to the Giants and his Big Blue bosses hinted before yesterday’s game that the receiver’s tenure in the Meadowlands may be coming to an end.

I don’t blame the management of the NY Giants to make an example out of him. You can’t expect to get away with bad behavior repeatedly. Does Michael Vick ring a bell? I am pretty sure when he has been released from prison, the Falcons will reinstate him as their quarterback.

Burress armed himself because he was afraid that he would get held up for the flashy bling he wore, he told employees at the Latin Quarter nightclub. After the shooting, he initially refused to let his pals call 911 after the shooting, but relented two hours later, and went with his wife, Tiffany, and a friend to New York Presbyterian-Hospital Weill Cornell at 2a.m., sources said. He was released hours later.

Teammate, Antonio Pierce, 30, who was with Burress, initially stashed the gun for his pal, police sources said, but it is believed he later gave it to Burress’ wife. The gun was handed over the NYPD late Sunday.

This reminds me of the show the “Three Stooges.” To think this guy considers himself a role model for kids. People need to stop putting these athletes on a pedestal. He’s no better than the person in the street running around and doing the wrong thing. Money doesn’t suddenly change one into a paragon of virtue. One has to make that choice and live up the those ideals. You have to change your lifestyle and surround yourself with the right people who want to uplift you, not tear you down.Burress joins a long list of athletes who have engaged in bad behavior: Mike Tyson, Ron Artest, Jose Canseco, Jayson Williams, Todd Bertuzzi, Brett Myers, Darryl Strawberry, Rae Carruth, Pete Rose, Michael Vick, Maurice Clarett, Tank Johnson, Mark Gastineau and with the most famous of them all, O.J. Simpson, among others. Plaxico Burress, come to your senses, that is not the club you want to be a member of.

Filed under: Antonio Pierce, Latin Quarter Night Club, Michael Vick, NYPD, Plaxico Burress, Shooting, Three Stooges

NY Cop Maurice Harrington Placed on Modified Desk Duty After Beating Incident of Michael Cephus Disclosed

It seems that the New York Police Department has been in the news a lot lately. Well, the latest involves the beating of Michael Cephus. The NYPD has temporarily taken away the badge and gun of the baton-wielding officer, Maurice Harrington and placed him on desk duty as investigators review his repeated strikes July 4th against Cephus who was allegedly resisting arrest.

A passerby had filmed part of the confrontation between Cephus of Brooklyn and officers on Delancey Street about 8:25 p.m. Police maintain that Cephus had been drinking, had swung at police officers with an umbrella, hit two cops with his fists and had refused to be handcuffed. His attorney counters that Cephus was not intoxicated, did not strike the officers and should not have been arrested.”I would never strike an officer,” said Cephus, a former truck driver. “Why should I get beat up? Why should anybody get beat up?

“The officer has been modified until further notice,” said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne. Union Leader Patrick Lynch, head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association defended Harrington, saying he used the proper amount of force to subdue a suspect who was clearly resisting arrest and at one point trying to grab an officer’s baton.
“Partial video never tells the whole story,” said Lynch. “That person was not only not complying but gripping in a death grip that baton. That’s a danger to the police officer.”

Background?

According to WNBC, Harrington, 31, a four-year veteran assigned to the 52nd Precinct in the Bronx, had been working a special Fourth of July police detail in Lower Manhattan when the confrontation with Cephus happened. Cephus had been trying to reach a park along the East River to watch the fireworks and police had accused him of illegally trying to carry liquor inside. His lawyer, Steven Orlow, denied that his client was carrying liquor that evening, noting that he was not subsequently arrested on that charge. Police did charge Cephus with assault on a police officer, criminal possession of a weapon (the umbrella), menacing and resisting arrest.

Final thoughts…

I am not accusing the cops of anything, just wondering out loud if they have forgotten that we live in the You Tube age where a lot of things show up in the Internet and beyond….

Filed under: Maurice Harrington, Michael Cephus, NYPD, Patrick Pogan