When will the madness stop and the accountability begin in Westchester County?
August 19, 2008
- The Westchester Chapter of the National Black Police Association (NBPA) and the Yonkers Chapter of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) have been monitoring the issue of police criminality in Westchester’s communities.
A consistently alarming rate of cases of police criminality in Westchester County, especially regarding people of color and in the disadvantaged communities has been reported. The case of Mr. Rui Florim prompts us to ask the question, when will the madness stop? When will our elected officials and upper level leaders within law enforcement say enough is enough and the accountability actually begin?
Recommendations and reports have not stemmed the tide (or most would agree, the wave) of alleged civil rights abuses against our mothers, fathers, sisters, sons and daughters by those few that assume they are judge, jury, and executioner. Since October, 2006, Mayor Amicone and Commissioner Edmund Hartnett have become co-conspirators to the madness that has plagued the citizens of Yonkers and created a cancer for the rest of the Westchester law enforcement community. We are demanding that Yonkers Police Commissioner Edmund Harnett tighten up his belt and make Yonkers Internal Affairs a reliable source of accountability for his rank and file.
Law enforcement professionals are an asset to the community. Not holding the rogue officers who cross the line accountable for what would be crimes if they were ordinary citizens, tarnishes the good work and dedication of the many law enforcement professionals that have done good deeds for the community at large.
We are demanding that Westchester County District Attorney, Janet DiFiore and her team commence a full investigation of these rogue police officers for their criminal conduct. To pursue and prosecute Mr. Florim using an assault charge against him and accusing him of assaulting an officer’s knuckles is simply ludicrous. Mr. Florim received 72 staples to the head, stitches, and bruises to his entire body. The DAs office has not only made a mockery of the court and the justice system, they have eroded the trust in the process of true justice to the citizens of Westchester that DA Janet DiFiore claims to represent. She has once again proved her office is incapable of handling cases that involves police criminality. This is yet another reason for the need for a permanent State-Level Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute cases that involve alleged police brutality and police misconduct.
The Westchester Chapter of the National Black Police Association fully supports every family of every race, creed or color that has been victimized by police criminality. We all feel the same pain regardless of ethnicity or economic status.
Barron ‘Disappointed’ With NY’s First Black Gov
August 15, 2008
Elizabeth Benjamin, New York Daily News
- Councilman Charles Barron teed off today on Gov. David Paterson’s proposed budget cuts, particularly to Medicaid and CUNY, which would disproportionately affect low-income New Yorkers, saying he “expected more understanding and sensitivity to the black community” from the state’s first black governor.
In his usual controversial way, Barron told me (off camera, but on the record) that he doesn’t believe Paterson will ever be elected to a full four-year term because white voters don’t like to “see an African American in an executive position.”
Suit Seeks Police Data on Race of People Shot by NYPD Officers
August 5, 2008
AL BAKER, New York Times
- The New York Police Department recently released 11 years of statistics on every bullet fired by its officers, including the reason for each shooting, the number of shots fired and how many bullets hit their target. But the reports stopped mentioning the race of the people shot after 1997 without saying why.
Testimony by a former police chief now offers an explanation. The former chief, Louis R. Anemone, said that while the data on people killed by officers were being compiled in 1998, the police commissioner, Howard Safir, ordered the department not to include the race of those killed by officers.
The testimony by Mr. Anemone, a former chief of department, did not say why Mr. Safir made his decision, but the shift appeared to have occurred during a public furor over race and the police’s use of deadly force in the shooting of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant, in February 1999. Mr. Diallo was killed in a barrage of 41 police bullets in the Bronx.
Report: Giuliani to start fund-raising committee
July 19, 2008
Newsday
- A report says Rudy Giuliani is about to announce the creation of a committee to raise money for Republican candidates in New York.
The move would position Giuliani for a possible run for governor in 2010.
The former mayor has kept a low profile since his campaign for the GOP nomination for president fizzled. He dropped out of the race in January.
The New York Post says Giuliani is expected to announce his fund-raising committee as early as Monday. The same day, he’ll hold a small fund-raiser at the Grand Havana Room on Fifth Avenue for his political action committee, Solutions America.
NY Gov. Paterson raises $3.2 million for 2010 run
July 13, 2008
Associated Press
- Gov. David Paterson’s campaign committee says it has raised more than $3.2 million in just over two months.
Paterson’s gubernatorial campaign committee was formed on April 14 — less than a month after he was sworn in as governor — and started fundraising on May 5. The Harlem Democrat rose from the lieutenant governor’s office on March 17 after Eliot Spitzer resigned amid allegations that he was a client of a high-priced prostitution ring.
Paterson campaign spokesman Jonathan Rosen says most of the money was raised at small events over the past several weeks.
The campaign did not release details about the fundraising, saying a full accounting will be available from the state Board of Elections on Tuesday.
Recent Comments