bad boys bad boys

Over the past few years, it’s been interesting to discover a little something about the state of affairs in police departments nationwide. We live in New York. Which equates a general sort of provincial-ness. We don’t care a lot about what’s going on elsewhere, except maybe in Washington, and when we talk about Washington, it’s not about the horrifically screwed up city outside the pearly gates of government buildings.

So naturally, the shit storm in which the New York Police Department manages to keep itself perennially embroiled, well – the world’s coming to an end. We’ve got the worst police department on the planet, right? Nothing doing. Just read the papers. That might entail reading an out-of-town rag once in a while, but if that seems too far-fetched, might I suggest starting with today’s New York Times.

Coming in August: Coffee bars, wilderness hikes plus the news from the new Hong Kong.

Think Diallo, Louima and the Hammer Man are special?

I don’t – in Chicago, the cops had an unfortunate year 1998, in which a bunch of people died by police bullet – not too much was made of it, and these days, it’s a constant back and forth, accusations of random stops for driving while black, and a puppet commissioner named Terry that does his level best to be community friendly, but somehow, the actions of the department never seem to be quite honest enough for my tastes, especially living in New York, where very little actually stays secret anymore.

My theory? If there is a blue wall, post Diallo, post Louima, it’s pretty well crumbling. The amount of hoo-hah in the city after all this, well, let’s just say the cops are pretty much embattled. That’s the good thing about this town – people like to raise a ruckus, and good for all of them, keeps the place honest. Like Rudy says, I think our department is one of the best.

Need proof? Check out the New York Times, which today reports that the Miami PD is under “intense scrutiny” from both the city’s IAB and the feds, reviewing a “string of police shootings in recent years.”

G’day?

When we have one, it’s a media hailstorm for the next year, and beyond until some sort of justice happens. The kid in the Bronx that got shot walking across a bridge last year, I think it was – the case was followed through to the end, even though the cop didn’t get slapped with anything.

In Miami, apparently, nobody cares, so it takes a ‘string of shootings’ for anything to get accomplished.

See what I’m talking about? Miami is not the only city. Los Angeles is the second most famous for it’s problems, with the Rampart scandal exceeding anything New Yorkers have seen in decades. I’m not here to fill you in on that – if you aren’t familiar, then you’ve been under a rock for the past two years. Type “Rampart Scandal” into any search engine, and watch the fur fly.

So in Miami, cops have been indicted on obstruction-of-justice charges in a shooting of a 76 year-old man who died as a result of being sprayed with over 100 bullets.

In 1997 apparently, cops planted a stolen gun on a homeless man they killed. The US Attorney is looking into a boatload of accusations of use of excessive force, planting evidence and conspiracies to conceal officers’ actions.

In 1995, two young men were shot in the back as they fled a crime scene. In 1999, a man holding a toy gun was shot, and a young wheelchair-bound individual had the joy of being sprayed by cop bullets. Finally, there were a few protests.

Dateline Detroit. Last year. A retired automotive soldier, shot on his porch. Neighbors protested, saying the cops never gave him a chance to surrender.

Not too long before that, a deaf/mute was shot, the report stated that police “were being menaced by a man wielding a garden rake.”

Sorry, but if someone wielded a garden rake at me, I’d take them down by hand, but then again, why bother when you can just shoot?

Have you heard about either of these cases? Probably not, because when it doesn’t happen in New York or Los Angeles, nobody cares, apparently.

St. Louis is a whole ‘nother hotbed of excitement – ask anyone who’s spent more than ten minutes within spitting distance of the Gateway Arch, and they’ll launch into a long and surprising tirade against corruption at all levels of government, wide-spread racism, possibly some of the worst city-sanctioned prejudice left in the United States, and overall disatisfaction with the behaviors of the metropolitan police.

Best of all, you won’t read much about it in the Pest-Dispatch, the comatose local paper that used to count for something – the most likely place to catch a glimpse of the anger in the community is the Letters page, which features lots of local residents sniping at each other, in that “why can’t THOSE people just get over it” sort of vein that is so not cute when you actually still hear it being spewed in the year 2001.

Still confused? Think Cincinnati, last spring. With the mayor stumbling around, all bewildered, mumbling that something, somewhere had somehow gone wrong, and would the Feds please come in and have a look.

When the mayor doesn’t even know (or acts like he doesn’t know) why his city is burning, well hell, what more proof do you need that the majority of Americans don’t give a rats ass about police conduct, because most of them aren’t affected by it?

I, for one, am glad to live in a town where people give a shit. And if New Yorkers can’t figure it all out, maybe they ought to do a stint in St. Louis.

Come to think of it, perhaps a few big-mouthed New Yorkers would be just the thing.

postscript - NIMBY

I love it when privileged children move from elsewhere to New York, and because they’ve heard about how fantastic the city has become of late, they’re shocked, shocked to find violence going on here.

Once again, I must credit the New York Times, which I hate doing – this time, dateline Williamsburg, where young ladies from places not around here are, yes, shocked, shocked – how could anywhere so hip be so dangerous?

Well, m’dears, there was once a time not so very long ago when no hipsters rode the L Train, when twentysomething poseurs had never even heard of a Bedford Avenue stop.

So the Times notes, in an article about a series of attacks in Greenpoint and Williamsburg, in which one Carlos J. Ramos was recently fingered:

“Miranda Hardy, a 28-year-old theatrical lighting designer who moved from California into a Williamsburg apartment last Wednesday, said yesterday that she took precautions walking home from the subway. ‘I take a different route at night,’ she said, adding that she avoids walking on side streets and remains on a more heavily traveled commercial strip.”

Good girl.

“To think things like this happen in your own backyard is very disturbing.”

There there, sweetheart, I know. That’s how it works in New York. Unlike in California, we all tend to live around each other. We were never much for the whole gated-community, secure-parking model.

Dem’s da breaks. Deal wit’ it.