Via the New York Times dead tree edition in my house this morning on page A21 below some article about smartphones:
(oh yeah on the internets too)
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Starts out OK. The Times is at least reporting what happened.
As the police arrested a protester in the street, an officer wearing a white shirt — indicating a rank of lieutenant or above — walked toward a group of demonstrators nearby and sent a blast of pepper spray that hit four women, the videos show.
Numerous videos and photos captured the aftermath: two women crumpled on the sidewalk in pain, one of them screaming. They were temporarily blinded, one of the women, Chelsea Elliott, said.
Here's the insane part.
The Police Department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, said the police had used the pepper spray “appropriately.”
“Pepper spray was used once,” he added, “after individuals confronted officers and tried to prevent them from deploying a mesh barrier — something that was edited out or otherwise not captured in the video.”
This article was written by Joseph Goldstein of the New York Times.
Mr. Goldstein.... have you looked at the video? I find it pretty hard to imagine that the ladies who were sprayed were "tried to prevent them from deploying the barrier". even if some things were edited out.
There was NO imminent danger to the police or anyone else. How about a little follow up? What do they call it. Oh yeah Investigative Journalism.
More from the article
Ms. Elliott was one of several protesters on East 12th Street who had been corralled behind the plastic netting, which was being held by a line of police officers.
Ms. Elliott said she spent part of the time trying to engage the police officer nearest her in a conversation about pensions.
“I’m just trying to converse with them in a civilized manner, and tell them I’m a civilized human being,” Ms. Elliott said. She remembered saying, “Stop! Why are you doing this?” in response to an arrest not far away, but doing nothing else to attract attention.
“A cop in a white shirt — I think he’s a superior officer — just comes along and does these quick little spritzes of pepper spray in my and these three other girls’ eyes,” she added. The officer’s identity was not provided by the police.
More likely scenario. White shirt officer:
a. Doesn't like what he's hearing from DFH protester.
b. Doesn't like all the other DFH protesters on HIS beat.
c. Pulls out pepper spray as a way of saying shut the hell up bitch.
d. Imagines that everyone else seeing pepper spray will fall into line so that they don't also shut the hell up.
e. Has done this before successfully without consequence.
f. Doesn't realize that this time there are cameras all over the place despite the efforts of the NYPD to take them all away.
I'm not against cops, but this crap has to stop. NYT - do your damn job.
6:12 AM PT: Top of the Wreck List??? I'm blushing.
If you want to contact the NY Times
Reporter joseph.goldstein@nytimes.com
Public Editor - public@nytimes.com -
Arthur S. Brisbane is the fourth public editor appointed by The Times. The public editor works outside of the reporting and editing structure of the newspaper and receives and answers questions or comments from readers and the public, principally about articles published in the paper. His opinions and conclusions are his own.
His column appears on Sundays at least twice monthly.
and for the heck of it
Corrections: nytnews@nytimes.com
9:28 AM PT: This is in the comments, but it looks like the name of the captain who might be in a little trouble is Anthony Bologna.
This is some background on him
http://www.thevillager.com/...
Apparently he worked in Internal Affairs for a while.
n February 1993 he began working as an internal investigator in the chief of patrol’s office. “It was my first taste of internal investigation and it opened my eyes to the darker side of police work,” Bologna said. “You read in the papers about cops doing things that you can’t believe because you think everybody’s like you. But a department this large can’t really be completely free of it. If you don’t find anything wrong, you’re in real trouble because you’re not looking,” he observed.
“I don’t think I could work in the pre-Knapp [before the Knapp Commission investigations] days in the early ’70s,” he said. In the past, service in Internal Affairs was held in low esteem. “But it is now a career path,” Bologna observed. When officers go before promotion review boards, representatives of all divisions are present, but Internal Affairs has the first option on candidates.
Update 7:49 AMEST
Lawrence O'Donnel Kicks ass on this video. Basically dares the Mayor and Police department to do something. Maybe we're starting to win here. h/t to Evergreen2 in the comments.
Tue Sep 27, 2011 at 4:55 AM PT: Please check out Charlie Grapski's Action Diary.
Tue Sep 27, 2011 at 4:55 AM PT: http://www.dailykos.com/...