NYPD Punished For Facebook Comments

Well, isn't this interesting. The policeman who walked over to New York State Supreme Court Judge Thomas Raffaele and hit him on his throat, and the sargeant who refused to write down a complaint against this policeman, both walk. The District Attorney says there is nothing criminal going on.

Yet, if you can document something these same members of the NYPD said on Facebook that may not be proper, then you may have something to use against them. See the article below. This makes no sense.

Police Workers Punished for Racist Web Posts on West Indian Parade

By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN

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Nearly 20 employees of the New York Police Department have faced discipline in connection with the posting of racist or derogatory comments on a Facebook page about revelers at the 2011 West Indian American Day Parade, a heavily policed annual celebration in Brooklyn on Labor Day weekend, a spokesman for the department said Wednesday.

The comments referred to “savages” and “animals,” and one poster wrote, “Let them kill each other.” The Facebook page, titled “No More West Indian Day Detail,” elicited comments from more than 150 people, many of whose names matched those of police officers.

After an article appeared in December in The New York Times about the online remarks, the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, vowed to conduct an internal affairs investigation, saying that 20 offensive comments “were associated with names that match those of police officers.”

On Wednesday, the department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said 17 people had since been disciplined; four of those are officers facing pending departmental trials on charges of “conduct prejudicial to the good order of the Police Department,” he said.

Mr. Browne said that seven had received the department’s lowest level of punishment, the equivalent of a reprimand. Six others received what is known as a command discipline — a punishment that sometimes entails a loss of up to 10 vacation days, although Mr. Browne said he was unaware what penalties were issued in these particular cases.

Mr. Browne said he did not know which Facebook comments in particular corresponded to each punishment.

The parade has been marred by violence. In 2011, the police tied three shootings to the parade, and seized 14 guns during the celebration the night before the parade, which is known as J’Ouvert.

Some of the comments on the Facebook page suggested that some police officers felt the event had turned too dangerous.

“Why is everyone calling this a parade,” one wrote. “It’s a scheduled riot.”

A Brooklyn city councilman, Jumaane D. Williams, who is of West Indian descent, said the punishments indicated that the Police Department had taken the comments seriously. But Mr. Williams, who was himself handcuffed during the parade last year as he walked in an area that the police had closed to the public, said he was concerned that the racist comments reflected the attitudes of a department that he said used discriminatory policing practices.

The associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, Christopher Dunn, said it was difficult to evaluate the punishments without knowing which Facebook comments in particular had prompted them.

“Like all public employees, police officers have a First Amendment right to speak freely in their personal lives, even if that speech is offensive,” Mr. Dunn said. “What they do not get to do is be racists in their work lives, and the Police Department can and should discipline officers who are guilty of that.

NYPD disciplines 17 cops who posted racist Facebook comments about West Indian Day Parade 

About 150 comments were posted, referring to parade revelers as "savages" and "animals."

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NYPD brass has disciplined 17 cops who posted racist or offensive comments on a Facebook  page devoted to last year's West Indian Day Parade, officials said Thursday.

News of the disciplinary action, first reported by the New York Times, comes almost one year after the Labor Day weekend celebration.

About 150 comments were posted on the page, referring to parade revelers as "savages" and "animals."

Investigators found that about 20 of the people who posted comments matched the names of NYPD police officers.

Paul Browne, top spokesman for the NYPD, said four cops still face departmental trials on misconduct charges.

Six cops were slapped with command disciplines and seven received lower levels of punishment.

The annual parade has become one of the city's largest events.

It is heavily policed and has been linked to violence. Last year, three shootings were tied to the parade.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nypd-disciplines-17-cops-posted-racist-facebook-comments-west-indian-day-parade-article-1.1142642#ixzz24P2a0ew9

 

Police Brutality Against NYS Supreme Court Judge Rafaele Dismissed By Queens D.A.

 We often hear about police not protecting the public and becoming a problem
as cops brutalize people for no reason. In the case of New York State Supreme Court Judge
Thomas D. Rafaele (Queens), who was hit in the neck by an officer as he watched a scuffle
with a homeless man. D.A. Richard Brown saw that "the facts do not warrant the filing of
criminal charges".

We are all in danger. 

Betsy Combier

 No Charges for Officer Accused by Judge

By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM, NY TIMES

NY State Supreme Court Judge Thomas D. Raffaele

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After a three-month investigation, the Queens district attorney has decided not to bring criminal charges against a police officer who was accused of assaulting a State Supreme Court justice on the street in what the judge contended was an unprovoked attack, officials said Wednesday.

The episode, which occurred just after midnight on June 1 as a crowd watching two officers subdue an unruly homeless man became increasingly restive, was the subject of what District Attorney Richard A. Brown called “an extensive and thorough investigation.”

In a statement, Mr. Brown said his office “has concluded that the facts do not warrant the filing of criminal charges” because “there is insufficient evidence of criminality to support a charge that the police officer acted with the intent to injure or that physical injury (as defined by statute and case law) occurred.”

The judge, Thomas D. Raffaele, 69, who hears matrimonial cases and has been on the bench since 2006, said that he was “very shocked” and “very disappointed” by the decision. He criticized the investigation by the district attorney’s office.

Mr. Brown said in the statement that his office had also decided not to charge the officers for their conduct in subduing the homeless man, who had been chasing people with a metal pipe, concluding that necessary force was used. He also said his office found no criminality in the actions of a sergeant, who Justice Raffaele said had refused to take a complaint against the officer who struck him.

The matter, Mr. Brown said, was being referred to the Civilian Complaint Review Board and the Police Department to determine whether Police Department rules or procedures had been violated.

The officers’ names were not disclosed.

Justice Raffaele has said that during the episode, which occurred in the Jackson Heights section, he saw the crowd becoming unruly, called 911 and reported that the officers needed help.

But within minutes, he said, one of the officers subduing the man became enraged and charged toward him. He said the officer screamed and cursed at the onlookers, some of whom were complaining about what they said was the violent treatment of the man, and then he focused on Justice Raffaele, who was wearing a T-shirt and jeans. The judge has said the officer rushed forward and delivered a sharp blow to his throat, using the upper edge of his hand, a move similar to one he had learned when he was trained in hand-to-hand combat in the Army.

Mr. Brown said in his statement that the confrontation had occurred inside a perimeter the police had established around the man, to separate him from the crowd.

The judge, who was notified of the decision Wednesday morning, later said that the outcome sent a bad message to the public and the police.

“To be in a situation where somebody smashes you in the neck and just walks away from it because they are a police officer — when I did nothing to provoke this attack — I feel it’s dangerous, not just for me but for any other citizen, because officers end up feeling that they can do anything and that there will be no consequences,” Justice Raffaele said. “I think it has a bad effect on the police force because they feel there are no consequences.”

He said he believes most officers are “very honest and are out there trying to protect us, but a crazy guy like this who is out of control should not be walking around out there with a gun and a badge.”

He said of the prosecutor’s office, “I feel that from the beginning they did not make a serious effort to investigate this,” citing what he said was their failure to initially interview witnesses whose names he provided. Mr. Brown disputed Justice Raffaele’s account.