|
On this site: See also Patrick Dorismond | George
Bush: Bad Business | Robert
Lederman standing up for NYC artists and vendors | LAPD
| Saskatoon Police stories
| Toronto Police stories | Off
site: Amadou
Diallo shooting by American cartoonists | Full
coverage of the trial on court tv | coverage
on disinformation.com | The
1997 torture killing of Abner Louima |
Serpico's blog
|
Frank Serpico
As Rudy
Giuliani is being lionized for his role as mayor after 911,
we might do well to look at the real heroes who have pushed democracy
forward without personally profitting . . .
WHY SAFIR MUST RESIGN
by FRANK SERPICO
Village Voice Published
March 22 - 28, 2000
Rudolph Giuliani's reign of
terror must come to an end. It should begin with the resignation
of his police commissioner, Howard Safir, who has demonstrated
from the beginning of his tenure an utter disregard for the rules
of behavior that he set forth for his own men.
Safir issued a list of establishments
that were off-limits to his hardworking, honest, dedicated police
officers, and yet he is found patronizing such establishments
himself.
According to the Commish, Rudy
can go to Katz's Deli for a knish and pose for the media, but
a cop can't take his kid there for a hot dog, and yet filling
an innocent, unarmed man with lead is OK. Since Safir was appointed
by Giuliani in 1996, the city has continued to be racked by abhorrent
scandals of police misconduct and violations of citizens' civil
liberties at the hands of the very police meant to protect and
serve them.
The most recent, of course,
is the Amadou Diallo verdict, where an unarmed, innocent black
man was shot at 41 times and killed by four police officers in
the Bronx in front of his own apartment door. A tragedy by any
account, but made all the more tragic by the sequence of events
that followed, in which the victim was made to seem the perpetrator
and the perpetrators the victims. Not long before that was the
assault on Abner Louima, brutalized at the hands of police officers
in a precinct bathroom. Dante Johnson, Anthony Baez, Antoine
Reid, Gidone Busch-the list goes on. . . . All well-known confrontations,
but what of the incidents we never hear about because the victims
have no voice?
There's plenty we have heard
about: the unanimous vote of no confidence in Safir by 400 Patrolmen's
Benevolent Association delegates, Amnesty International's report
on police brutality in New York City, police violence at the
Million Youth March, the lawsuit by the Latino Officers' Association
alleging discrimination, a failed Civilian Complaint Review Board,
and news accounts showing that citizens attempting to file complaints
with the NYPD regarding police abuse will often receive misinformation
or suffer intimidation.
What gives? Any CEO running
a corporation with these continuing problems would have received
his golden parachute a long time ago. Giuliani wants someone
who will not steal the spotlight from him and who will take second
seat in the NYPD, and he has found his man in Howard Safir.
Lest someone misconstrue my
statements as an endorsement of Hillary Clinton: Quite the contrary;
the Clintons don't fare any better when it comes to issues of
police misconduct. The Mollen Commission scandal with the Dirty
Thirty and patrolman Michael Dowd's revelations of cocaine trafficking
by the police prompted me to write Mr. Clinton a letter to urge
police reform and offer recommendations for improving the reputation
of police in general and of the NYPD in particular, and particularly
to get some recognition for Sergeant Joseph Trimboli, the forgotten,
unsung hero of the Dowd corruption investigation. Clinton decided
to pass on my recommendations. Understandably so-his new drug
czar at the time was none other than Lee Brown, former New York
City police commissioner, whose rogue cops were selling drugs,
guns, and police shields for profit, putting the lives of honest
cops at risk.
New York needs a governor,
mayor, and police commissioner with vision, compassion, and an
understanding of the communities that they are supposed to serve.
Now we apparently have another innocent victim of the war on
drugs, Patrick Dorismond, coming off a day's work to be harassed
by undercover police officers looking to buy some pot-not looking
for crack, heroin, guns, or information on crimes of violence,
but to buy some marijuana. For this a human being has to forfeit
his life and a family is deprived of another loved one and the
community of another hardworking citizen at the hands of Safir
and Giuliani's quality-of-life gestapo.
It is time for Safir to put
in his papers and pursue a career in private security at Revlon
or other concern where the lives of citizens will not be at stake.
There it will not matter what Oscar parties he attends or what
freebies he accepts. It's also time for the people to join together
peacefully to demand an independent federal prosecutor to look
into the mayor's policies of policing and harassment of citizens
for his own ends. An example of this harassment is the arrest
not once but more than 40 times of street artist Robert Lederman,
merely for expressing his First Amendment rights. Giuliani did
not like the artist's caricature of him as Adolf Hitler. All
charges against the artist were subsequently dismissed. Thank
God for judges who still believe in our constitutional rights.
Recently, in Louisville, Kentucky,
Mayor David Armstrong fired police chief Eugene Sherrard when
two of his men shot and killed an unarmed black motorist (suspected
of car theft). The police came to the support of the chief. Some
of the police brass quit in protest. The mayor didn't care; he
said that he wants police who are more interested in protecting
their city than protecting their chief. The mayor in Louisville
wants to change the culture of the department so that all people
are treated equally. Contrast this to NYC's police killings of
innocent citizens.
One death is too many. The
NYPD's track record is an outrage! Police reform is long overdue.
We need an honest independent prosecutor who is free from political
pressure and an investigation of the crimes of obedience that
have taken place against innocent, unarmed victims at the hands
of the present administration. It is unlikely that Giuliani will
fire Safir; after all, he is only doing His Honor's bidding.
How many more citizens have
to die before these abuses are dealt with in a serious manner?
Tell us what you think. editor@villagevoice.com
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed
a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only.
|
 Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
Truth suppress'd, whether
by courts or crooks, will find an avenue to be told. Sheila Steele, injusticebusters.com
If you hold the mouth
of Truth, It will burst out its rib-cage. Somali proverb
Publisher : Sheila
Steele
Got something
to say about this or any other stories on this site? Go to injusticebustersblog Participate!
- injusticebusters
court advice :
- How
to walk yourself through the justice system
-
- Why
you should dump your preliminary hearing (written July 1998 and still valid)
-
- Sermonette:
The
Naked Truth -- (You
will find links to many more sermonettes in the sidebar on this
page
Another target
of Dueck's malice: : Wilf Hathway
Our activism
contributed greatly to the good vibes which happened around the
civil trial.
Index
to the stories on this website
This is not
regularly updated so if you are looking for a particular story
and you have a name or keyword, please use the site search engine(at
the bottom of the page) which IS regularly updated
Index to Saskatoon Police stories
This is a pretty good scrapbook
for the 1998-2002 period.
Inquiry into the malicious prosecution of David
Milgaard untanling 36 years of Saskatchewan police and Crown
misconduct: : Opening day 1 | 2
| 3 | 4
| 5 | 6
| 7 |
- Stephen Williams:
Canadian writer subject to Stasi-like treatment by Canadian police
- Terry
Arnold: : Snitch a
suicide?
- RCMP
scenario stings: Brian
Hutchinson starts digging
- Gary
wells: Faulty eye-witness
testimony
- Tulia,
Texas
- Gilmer,
Texas
- Willie
Upshaw
- Wrongfully
convicted in Canada
- Foster
Parent false accusations
- Martensville
- Don
Smith obscenity trial: an obscene conviction
- James
Lockyer
- Hurricane
Carter
- Johnny Cochran speaks up for
Bill Sampson
- Vopnis
- Abdulai
Mohamed
The Terrible Story behind the Atif Rafay and
Sebastian Burns convictions
Trial
set for June 15
We
know part of this disclosure is a forged statement and perjured
affidavit from a Winnipeg cop
-
-
-
-
The
Crown is still fighting Fred Poirier -- and they are losing.
Secret Commissions Case from Northern B.C.
-
-
- 2005: In
the United States the proven wrongful convictions just keep coming
at us!
-
- Brandon Morin:
- Convicted in Oregon
- of rapes which did not happen
- This website has good information
about Measure 11 -- Oregon's Mandatory Sentencing requirements
which have been in place since 1994. In this case we see how
the combination of a flawed grand jury system and prosecutors
who seek not justice but convictions is a recipe for wrongful
convictions.
-
Canadians who
have been wrongfully convicted because of improper investigations
combined with zealous Crown
A round-up of wrongful convictions in Canada
- Robert
Baltovich
- Michael
Burns
- Sebastian Burns
- Rodney
Cain
- Wilbert
Coffin
(hanged, 1953)
- Jason Dix
- Jim
Driskell
- Jody
Druken
- Randy
Druken
- Hugues
Duguay
- Michel
Dumont
- Peter
Frumusa
- Walter
Gillespie and Robert Mailman
- Clayton
Johnson
- Yvonne
Johnson
- Herman
Kaglik
- Darren
Koehn
- Kulaveeringsam
"Kulam" Karthiresu
- Stephen
Leadbeater
- Donald
Marshall
- Chris
McCullough
- Michael
McTaggart
- Felix
Michaud
- David
Milgaard
- Guy Paul
Morin
- Shannon
Murrin
- Jamie
Nelson
- Greg
Parsons
- Benoit
Proulx
- Atif Rafay
- Louise
Reynolds
- Thomas
Sophonow
- Gary
Staples
- Billy
Taillefer
- Steven
Truscott
- Joe
Warren
- Leon
Walchuk
-
- AIDWYC
- Innocence Project (Canada)
- Innocence Project (U.S.)
- Northwest Law Center on Wrongful Convictions
-
- Kirstin
Lobato
- Jeffrey
Scott Hornoff
- Willie
Upshaw
- Hurricane
Carter
- Guildford
4
- Birmingham
6
- Amirault
- Houston
- U.S. wrongful convictions:
Exonerateed
- Kirk
Bloodsworth
- Laurence
Adams
- Ludrate
Burton
- Stephen
Cowans
- Wilton
Dedge
- Albert
Johnson
- Kenneth
Marsh
- Dwayne
McKinney
- James Bernard Parker
- Peter
Reilly
- Peter
Rose
- Sylvester
Smith
- Clifford
St. Joseph
- John
Stoll
- Marty
Tankleff
- Wilton
Dedge
- Ray
Krone
-
- Still working on it:
- Dennis Deschaine
- Dennis
Perry
- Tim
Sandfort
-
Blogging
Blogging has been in the news.
It is the new, trendy thing with 40,000 new blogs being created
each day. I established a blog for this website last September
and it is now "taking off." These are a few of the
pages with ongoing discussions.
- Tasering Mary Lutz
- Saskatchewan Centenary
- Quint Blog discussion
- Rotten apples in the Saskatoon Police
- Blogging for choice
- Michael Cardamone witch hunt
- Implement recommendations of public
inquiries
- Stealing from the poor
- Vancouver's killer cops
- Tisdale rapists appeal
- Winnipeg police misdeeds
- Milgaard Inquiry
- Chief Sabo: can he be trusted?
- The Old Boys' Club Must Go!
- Vancouver activists
- John Hudak: Falsely accused mountie
- City of intolerance
- Constable Larry Lockwood: Exciteable!
- Eric Cline
This is a great way for like-minded
people to communicate and share our views. It is easier than
making a website and marginally more difficult than a forum.
People who want to contribute
simply have to punch the "comment" link and they will
be taken to a page with a box which allows them to write their
comment, preview and post it. It takes a while for the comment
to show up and some people get impatient and repost. That's fine,
I trash the duplicate posts and no harm done.
Please, please give it a try.
The internet is distinguished from other media in that it is
really and truly interactive. Blogging makes it possible to express
your viewpoint even if you don't have a computer. You can go
to the library or a friend's place or an internet cafe. Once
you've mastered the basics (and believe me, if I can do it, you
can do it) you will be participating in one of the most democratic
-- and potentially powerful -- media the world as we know it
has ever seen.
Come on. Don't be shy. Join
the Weblog World! -- Sheila Steele, March 20, 2005
Toronto Police paid out $30M in secretly resolved
claims over last five years
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