NYPD Will Stop, Frisk, Then Explain...But Kelly Won't Talk To City Council About It

The NYPD, as regressive as they are with the heavily used "stop and frisk" policy, made a slightly beneficial change in procedure as to how they deal with the minorities they love to search. Instead of just stopping people and frisking them for weapons, at the end of the intrusion they'll hand each person a card stating why they were searched. It's a step forward, but that doesn't mean City Councilmembers reviewing NYPD practices are happy.

From The NY Times:

While Mr. Kelly was discussing the new policy, at a news conference devoted mainly to the introduction of hybrid patrol cars, the department was skipping a City Council Public Safety Committee hearing about the “stop and frisk” practice. Instead of attending himself, Mr. Kelly sent an assistant commissioner to read his letter but to take no questions.

“The speaker and I are very disappointed, first of all, that the Police Department did not answer questions and secondly that they only advised us eight days ago that they would not be testifying when they had well over three weeks’ notice that we were preparing for this hearing,” said Peter F. Vallone Jr., the committee chairman.

Mr. Vallone hailed the new procedure, but objected to the way those plans were made public.

“It seems that some of their best policy improvements, like this one, come on the eve of a public safety hearing, which then slants coverage of the hearing toward their new policy,” Mr. Vallone said. “If that works to improve the Police Department, I am O.K. with it, but I would rather it not happen that way.”

Vallone of course, is the NYPD's biggest cheerleader, so to at least hear him disapproving of Kelly's actions is considerable. The reason he didn't attend, according to the Times is the impending lawsuit against the Police Department for their use of the "stop and frisk." So it seems like the NYPD's addition of "explain" to their stopping and frisking is a way to please the Court so that they do not strike the practice altogether.

Ray Kelly Wants Midtown On Lockdown

Slowly but surely, the powers that be are working on instituting a full-on police state that would make the fictional 'Gattaca' and 'Minority Report' a reality. Of course we aren't there yet, not even close, but things like this have to be introduced gradually. Liberty is not always given up so easily, so promising security is the way this gets done. Now it may be April Fools Day, but this plan is no joke.

From The NY Times:

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said Tuesday that he wanted to create a security network in Midtown Manhattan that would involve license plate readers, heavily armed officers and a web of private and public surveillance cameras.

The plan, which would resemble a counterterrorism network already being installed in Lower Manhattan between Canal Street and Battery Park, would keep a hyper-vigilant eye on the corridor from 34th to 59th Streets, from the Hudson River to the East River, the commissioner told City Council members at a budget hearing Tuesday.

Like its sister system, the Midtown zone would have at its core the collection of data, including license plate numbers and video of people on the streets. It would rely on a web of public and private security cameras feeding to a joint coordination center at 55 Broadway that became functional last fall.

The counterterrorism program is a lot like the way the TSA operates at the airport. The "benefit" to the people is psychological, in that it is supposed to make people feel safe. Yet its' ultimate goal is to take liberty away from New Yorkers (or wherever programs like this are put in place) in order to concentrate more power with law enforcement simply for the sake of power. The NYCLU is already on the case, and we should certainly pay attention or else it is only a matter of time until the next "necessary" police surveillance program is instituted under the guise of our security from terror.

Len Levitt Scorned By The NYPD

Len used to write a police column for Newsday and now does it by himself with his great blog NYPD Confidential. Apparently some of his writings have pissed off the wrong people (e.g. Police Commish Kelly) and they decided to pull his press pass. Well Len has words for them, care of the New York Civil Liberties Union:

Kelly And His NYPD Are Running From Rudy

As the "Rudy's Shag Fund" or "Sex on the City" scandal continues to spawn new legs over the weekend and into today, Rudy has remained consistent in his story that whenever he traveled, the city would pick up the tab and that the NYPD would reimburse the costs. It is a complex answer that many are giving odd looks at. These people have included former Mayor Ed Koch, the City Comptroller and now even Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. Kelly's refusal to back Giuliani up could spell even worse news for the Presidential contender.

From Newsday:

New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly tried on Friday to distance the NYPD from the controversy surrounding Rudy Giuliani's travel and security expenses incurred by detectives on mayoral protection detail, saying his department processes paperwork quickly and within guidelines.

Kelly said that during his tenure under former Mayor David Dinkins and now, during Kelly's second term, the NYPD pays all the expenses for the mayoral security detail.

"All I can speak to is the process we use in this administration," he said. "Detectives assigned to the mayor's security detail file all of their expenses through the department and they're reimbursed through the department.

Of course, Kelly wasn't on the payroll during Rudy's tenure, just during Dinkins' Administration and now currently with Bloomberg. That doesn't mean much to another high ranking police official though. The unnamed source said that the NYPD was never slow to pay for Rudy's security detail expenses. The message is clear, do not blame the Police Department for playing around with the city's budget. It isn't their fault, it has to be someone that wanted those expenses to go through illusory channels.

Big Brother Coming Closer To NYC

What once was the science fiction of George Orwell is quickly becoming the reality of today. There are so many high-tech gadgets that are meant to provide surveillance that it is scary and wondrous at the same time. Some of these tools look good, others seem to be right out of "1984."

From WCBS-TV:

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK An array of high-tech gadgets -- including a helicopter equipped with infrared cameras and a backpack designed to detect dirty bombs -- will help secure the city against terrorism, the police commissioner said Wednesday.

In the future, the New York Police Department even hopes to deploy "a system of stationary airborne devices" to help officers conduct surveillance and respond to emergencies in a bustling, target-rich setting, Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

"There is no environment across the nation that compares to New York City," Kelly said at a Manhattan forum hosted by the firm CIT Aerospace. "We have the highest number of critical assets in the smallest amount of physical space."

That is true, there are plenty of spots in the City that are targets and they need to be protected. Another thing we need to protect are our liberties, and those are the people's responsibility to stay vigilant for. Although WCBS reports on these specific devices, there are far more intrusive instruments across the pond that are in use today. The Brits are even closer to living under Big Brother than we are. Try and imagine surveillance cameras that talk back to you if it thinks you are misbehaving. Now that is frightening.