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It’s no secret that crime in New York City began to skyrocket during the COVID pandemic a few years ago. While it has since been declining, things might get a bit safer as authorities have rounded up 30 alleged gang members who turned Washington Heights and Inwood into a war zone.
According to the Gothamist, the NYPD have announced that they have indicted 30 alleged gang members who they say are responsible for roughly half of the shootings in Inwood and Washington Heights and have hit them with a range of charges, including conspiracy to commit violence, weapons possession, attempted murder, and murder. While one might think these are just wild kids looking to gain street credibility, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg says it stems from a yearslong rivalry between two street gangs that turned deadly back in 2018.
Per the Gothamist:
“The violence did not impact just these defendants and their associates,” Bragg said at a news conference detailing the indictment. “It impacted the entire neighborhood, [creating] a climate of fear among ordinary residents who had no part in this violence.”
Bragg said all of the shootings addressed in the charges were sparked by an alleged gang killing in 2018. The incident sparked 18 retaliatory shootings that claimed seven lives, including innocent bystanders, Bragg said.
Bragg blamed the gang war for approximately 50% of all this year’s shootings in the 33rd and 34th precincts, which include much of Washington Heights and Inwood in Uptown Manhattan.
Well, at least the residents of Inwood and Washington Heights can rest a bit easier now knowing that the gang bangers in their neighborhood have been taken into custody, but that PTSD may stay with them for a long time.
Stay safe out on those streets, y’all.
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New York City Mayor Eric Adams caught the wrath of numerous people online after a clumsy statement defending NYPD officers shooting wildly at a subway farebeater.
On Sunday (September 15), New York City Mayor Eric Adams issued a statement in a post on X, formerly Twitter, after an incident where New York Police Department officers shot at an alleged farebeater at a subway station in Brooklyn. “Earlier today, one of our officers was shot while protecting our subway system. I am relieved to report he is in good condition now, and we have arrested the suspect who put so many lives in danger. I cannot thank these officers enough for their bravery,” Adams wrote. The post immediately received a correction through the platform’s Community Notes for omitting that it was NYPD officers who fired their guns, hitting a fellow officer as well as two civilians.
Earlier today, one of our officers was shot while protecting our subway system. I am relieved to report he is in good condition now, and we have arrested the suspect who put so many lives in danger. I cannot thank these officers enough for their bravery. pic.twitter.com/nSLDTyZwkj
— Mayor Eric Adams (@NYCMayor) September 16, 2024
The incident took place at the Sutter Avenue L train station in Brownsville, Brooklyn as two officers observed Derell Mickles enter the station without paying the fare at 3 P.M. They followed Mickles up three flights of stairs to the platform, where they confronted him. At a press conference, NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey stated that the officers on the scene yelled at him to stop, at one point following him onto a waiting train and then off. “The suspect challenged the officers, saying, ‘No, you’re going to have to shoot me,’” Maddrey told the press, adding that they deployed Tasers which were “ineffective”.
The officers then opened fire as Mickles reportedly charged at them, hitting him in the stomach but also hitting bystanders on the platform. “Everyone who was struck this afternoon, we believe, was hit by our officers,” Maddrey said, saying that the Force Investigation Division and the Detective Squad will conduct further investigations.
Adams’ statement omitting the NYPD officers’ culpability angered many who saw the statement on X, blasting him for another sign of ineptitude. Others noted that the situation came a day after his attorney Lisa Zornberg resigned in a surprise move, and four days after NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban resigned amid a federal corruption probe that has targeted several other members of Adams’ administration.
There may be no severe disciplinary action for the NYPD officers in the Brownsville subway shooting, as Caban reportedly signed off on internal disciplinary reductions before stepping down.
Check out more reactions to Adams’ statement below.
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A columnist’s criticism of the New York Police Department’s handling of subway crime led to department heads blasting him and Mayor Eric Adams chiming in.
The topic of crime in New York City’s subways has been a heated one, and a new column taking the NYPD to task for not having plans to aid those mentally ill despite the increase in officers present has compelled the department to lash out in posts on social media, with Mayor Eric Adams also chiming in. The column in question was written by columnist Harry Siegel and published in the New York Daily News Saturday (March 30). Siegel criticized department chiefs for making television appearances downplaying the trouble and pointing to the amount of officers, especially after high-profile incidents including a person being shoved off the platform in East Harlem last week.
Siegel was attacked by NYPD Head of Transit Michael Kemper in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “Your readers deserve more accurate reporting. This article is filled with misleading and straight up false information,” Kemper wrote, adding that Siegel incorrectly listed 10 deaths that had occurred in the subway system this year instead of four.
The newspaper would issue a correction afterward, but that didn’t stop NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kay Daughtry from also leveling a personal insult toward Siegel. “We are the police. And you are a gadfly — who should consider revising their definition of madness to: reading a Siegel column expecting a useful takeaway,” Daughtry wrote. NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell would go on to blast Siegel’s column on Sunday, saying it “demonstrates the overall disdain for the NYPD.” He would also call Siegel “anti-cop” in an interview on 1010 WINS Monday. Siegel would admit his error but also fired back at the police brass in a post, calling it “Incredible cop talk.”
Mayor Adams offered his two cents after both police representatives spent three days haranguing Siegel during his weekly press briefing Tuesday (April 2), calling Siegel’s column “distasteful” as it was published on the day of Officer Jonathan Diller’s funeral out on Long Island. “What you saw from Chell and Daughtry, you saw a human reaction,” he said. Adams has been particularly sensitive after coming under fire in an interview with activist and lawyer Olayemi Olurin on The Breakfast Club where she took him to task for “fear-mongering” and the NYPD’s racial profiling.
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New York City Mayor Eric Adams was left flustered when confronted on a radio broadcast about reviving harmful racial profiling policies by the NYPD.
On Thursday (March 28), New York City Mayor Eric Adams appeared on The Breakfast Club for a conversation with hosts Charlamagne Tha God and DJ Envy. It soon got tense due to lawyer and political commentator Olayemi Olurin challenging Adams on his administration’s stances concerning the New York Police Department and public safety, which left him at times visibly flustered.
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As Adams had finished a point about the public perception of crime and safety in the city’s subway system, Olurin questioned him on his rhetoric about in press conferences. “You’ve continued to fearmonger about crime in the subways, you’ve added 2,000 police officers in the subways despite the fact that you’ve acknowledged that the subways are not that dangerous,” she said. Adams replied, “I’m lost. Can you give me the quotes where I’ve done that?”
The exchange soon got testy as Olurin quoted statistics from a federal monitor regarding the revival of policies utilizing racial profiling of Black and Brown citizens as Adams seemed to scoff with a laugh. “They said that you brought back units doing stop and frisk worse than what we’ve seen in the Bloomberg era.” Adams countered by asking her to show data, to which Olurin replied, “I know it’s been available to you because your spokesperson commented on it.” She then went on to recount how in their analysis, they found that 97% of all stops and searches in ten neighborhoods have been on Black and Latino New Yorkers.
Adams was clearly frustrated, at times directing his conversation towards Charlemagne and DJ Envy instead of Olurin halfway through the interview, saying she was providing “misinformation.” One key moment came as Adams attempted to deflect by bringing up NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller who was shot and killed in Far Rockaway earlier this week, claiming that Olurin was “dismissive” of his life. “Mayor Adams, that’s not going to work on me,” she replied. He then challenged her on if she has ever visited the family of a slain officer, to which she countered: “And the family of the 19-year-old who was killed by cops that he called for help yesterday in Queens, have you visited them?” He offered no response.
The entire interview between Mayor Eric Adams and Olayemi Olurin is available to watch above.
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The NYPD is under fire after a traffic stop of City Councilman Yusef Salaam, with observers noting it as more inducement for police transparency.
Last Friday (January 25), City Councilman Yusef Salaam was driving through Harlem with his wife and children when an NYPD officer pulled him over. In a statement, Salaam said that as the officer approached, he told him that he was a city council member; Salaam had been listening to a call with his fellow members during the drive. “I introduced myself as Councilman Yusef Salaam and subsequently asked the officer why I was pulled over. Instead of answering my question, the officer stated, ‘We’re done here,’ and proceeded to walk away,” the statement continued. Salaam concluded by stating he wasn’t given a reason for the stop.
The NYPD would release the body camera footage of the incident, saying: “As the video shows, throughout the interaction, the officer conducted himself professionally and respectfully.” When asked about the reason for the stop, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Information Tarik Sheppard claimed that he was unsure if Salaam asked the officer the reason for the stop, but said that the report disclosed that the reason was that Salaam’s vehicle had an out-of-state license plate and illegally tinted windows. Mayor Eric Adams defended the stop saying it was a “picture-perfect example” of a professional police response.
Councilman Salaam, who was one of the Exonerated Central Park Five spending up to a decade wrongfully imprisoned, still maintained that he was not notified then of the reasons for the stop and cited that as a reason why he and his colleagues have heavily advocated for a new police transparency bill opposed by Mayor Adams. He declined to join a ride-along scheduled by the mayor, who claims the new bill’s guidelines would cause more work for officers. Other Council members who are more conservative such as Robert Holden blasted Salaam for announcing his position during the stop, accusing him of “using his official title to evade the law.”
However, Salaam was defended by others in the Council including Sandy Nurse, who overheard the interaction on the call. “He’s a dark-skinned Black man who went through a very traumatic thing as a child,” she said. “I think it would only make sense for him to identify himself, as someone who has lived his experience, to an officer — why wouldn’t he make that clear?”
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The New York Police Department is actively searching for a pair of robbers using mopeds as they accosted victims in Manhattan last month.
On Wednesday (January 3), representatives for the New York Police Department said that they were actively searching for two men who were riding a dark-colored moped as they robbed victims in Manhattan last December. The incidents took place on December 15 and 18.
According to their reports, the first of the incidents occurred on the 15th in the Midtown area at First Avenue and 52nd Street as the pair rode up alongside a 38-year-old woman. They snatched her purse from her forcefully, causing her to fall. The pair then sped off, according to witnesses. On the 18th, the pair set out on a longer spree of robberies over nearly three hours in Midtown starting at 7:40 P.M. as they robbed three more women between the ages of 22 and 40. The spree ended as the two attempted to rob a man in his thirties.
The news comes as similar incidents have become more frequent in the city since 2022. Last October alone, there were multiple incidents numbering over two dozen in Manhattan and in the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn involving theft by robbers on mopeds and e-bikes. The prevalence of these incidents has also occupied space on the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Instagram account recently, with posts capturing the thieves atop mopeds and scooters.
Despite those instances, the city did report a 9.7% drop in robberies during November 2023 when compared to the same period the year before. There were no published statistics for December. NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell stated at the news conference held at One Police Plaza that the department had seized over 27,000 illegal ATVs and unregistered mopeds last year as part of a focus on quality of life enforcement, up from 18,000 in 2022. In response to the news, Mayor Eric Adams displayed elation. “The results are clear — crime is down, jobs are up, tourism is back,” Adams said. “But our work is not done. We’re not spiking the ball. We’re not saying, ‘Mission Accomplished.’”
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Business mogul and entertainer Sean Combs, widely known as Diddy, is facing a mountain of a lawsuit connected to alleged abuse and other accusations. A report went wide that the Bad Boy honcho was under criminal investigation but the NYPD shot down those claims.
TMZ initially reported that Diddy was the target of an investigation, which came on the heels of the mogul facing a lawsuit from his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, who claims that Combs allegedly raped her and engaged in human trafficking among other charges. It was reported as a “locked” investigation involving Sean Combs but it appears that was not the case.
The outlet returned to the report with an update that can be read in full below:
The full NYPD statement reads … “Yesterday, a member of the NYPD’s public information office erroneously told a reporter about the apparent existence of an active case file containing the name ‘Sean Combs.’ There is no such investigation, at present. Further, the release of such information is not consistent with the internal policies of the office of the Deputy Commissioner, Public Information. The NYPD always treats allegations of sexual assault and rape extremely seriously, and urges anyone who has been a victim to file a police report so that support and services can be offered to survivors and a comprehensive investigation can be conducted.”
Ventura filed her lawsuit in New York at the federal court level. A statement from Combs has yet to surface.
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Everyone needs a side hustle, but an NYPD officer’s side gig has landed her and her boyfriend behind bars as the two were busted Thursday (Oct. 19), for allegedly peddling fentanyl in New York City.
Gothamist is reporting that Officer Grace Rosa Baez and her boo, Cesar Martinez, were taken into custody on Thursday and charged on Friday in Manhattan Federal Court with one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics and three counts of distributing narcotics. Authorities used a “confidential source” to catch Baez red-handed as she offered said source two kilograms of “top quality” fentanyl for $30,000 along with 400 grams of heroin at the same price. Baez was trying to make bank out on these streets.
After meeting the source at the couple’s “shared” Yonkers apartment and giving them a sample bag of the deadly drug, Baez met with the source again Oct. 19, and handed over a kilo of heroin and up to 640 grams of fentanyl. That was all authorities needed to make the bust.
Gothamist reports:
In a prepared statement, Williams alleged that Baez “flagrantly violated” her oath to “protect and serve the people of New York City … by pushing poison, including fentanyl and heroin, which are driving the nation’s deadly opioid crisis and have been responsible for thousands of tragic deaths in this city and around the nation.”
The charges resulted from an investigation carried out this month by law enforcement officials working with an unnamed “confidential source,” per SDNY.
According to the complaint, Baez and Martinez offered to sell the source kilogram quantities of fentanyl, heroin and cocaine on multiple occasions between Oct. 9 and Oct. 19.
With the evidence in hand and seriousness of the charges, Baez and her boo are facing 10 years to life in prison under federal drug statutes.
“These charges are extremely troubling because there is no place for corruption within the NYPD,” Police Commissioner Edward Caban said in a prepared statement, according to Gothamist. “If found guilty of these allegations, this officer will have tarnished the shield that she wore, as well as her sacred oath to New Yorkers.”
After facing the judge Friday (Oct. 20), Baez was released on $100,000 bail and placed on home confinement complete with an ankle monitor.
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The New York Police Department will have a futuristic member in its ranks as a “robocop” will begin patrolling the subway station at Times Square.
As Gothamist reports, last Friday (Sept. 22) the Knightscope K5 Autonomous Security Robot was unveiled to the public at a press conference held underground at the 42nd Street-Times Square subway station. Mayor Eric Adams was on hand with the NYPD to announce that the city was launching a two-month program to test the K5 robot. “I’ve gone a long way from being a transit cop, to being next to a robot,” Adams said to reporters, grinning as he stood next to it. “We’re going to keep us safe no matter which way we do it.”
The K5 robot, shaped like a small rocket and painted white with glowing blue lights to indicate that it’s on and functioning, checks in at 5-foot-2 in height. Boasting a giant camera for a face, it will be accompanied as it roams throughout the station by officers who will be trained in its functions and introduce it to the public. The K5 has 360-degree vision and moves at 3 miles per hour. It won’t access the subway platforms.
“It will record video that can be viewed in case of an emergency or a crime. It will not record audio, and it will not use facial recognition. However, the K5 does have a button that connects you immediately to a live person that New Yorkers can utilize 24/7 with questions, concerns or to report an incident if needed,” said Mayor Adams. The K5’s camera will be part of the NYPD’s surveillance network in the subways.
Knightscope, the company behind the K5, states that their robot has been deployed in 10 states to 30 clients, including hospitals and shopping malls. There have been incidents where similar machines were attacked in other cities in Northern California including San Francisco. “If you come here and damage K5 or commit any crime in the subway system, prepare to be identified and arrested,” said NYPD Transit Chief Michael Kemper.
Mayor Adams also touted that it will be cost-effective to taxpayers as the city is leasing the robot for $9 an hour. “This is a good investment of taxpayer dollars,” he stated. “This is below minimum wage, no bathroom breaks, no meal breaks.” The K5 will operate from 12 A.M. to 6 A.M., with the city assessing its results after two months.
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A Bronx judge just threw out a gang of cases thanks to a narcotics police officer who has been accused of playing dirty in order to secure numerous drug busts.
According to Gothamist, a judge in the Boogie Down dismissed 67 cases that were linked to undercover narcotics detective Joseph Franco who was fired from the NYPD in 2020 for making false statements about his arrests. With the 67 cases thrown out, the courts in the Bronx have now thrown out 324 cases due to “potentially wrongful convictions.”
The Gothamist reports:
“Prosecutors had relied on evidence from someone with compromised credibility, and the district attorney cannot stand behind these convictions,” Bronx DA Darcel Clark said in a press release.
Neither the NYPD nor Franco’s attorney immediately responded to requests for comment.
The latest batch of dismissed cases involves people who were charged between 2011 and 2015, when Franco was a detective in the Bronx. Of the 67 convictions, 24 were for seventh-degree criminal possession of a substance — a low-level drug possession charge — and nine were for marijuana offenses that are no longer illegal in New York, according to the DA’s office. Others were for fourth-degree criminal facilitation — when someone helps another person to commit a crime — and for using drug paraphernalia.
Franco himself stood trial for perjury and misconduct earlier this year as prosecutors accused him of lying about drug sales he claimed to have witnessed on both police paperwork and in court. Armed with videos that they claim show it would have been impossible for Franco to have seen what he said he had witnessed, the DA’s office called him out in a court of law but Franco ultimately had the charges dismissed as prosecutors failed to give the defense all the evidence they had as is required by law.
“His lies were a poison that tainted any fair or legitimate case,” Assistant DA Samantha Dworken said during opening statements in January.
Franco’s defense attorney, Howard Evan Tanner, denied that the former detective lied and said any contradictions in his statements were unintentional.
“I think he was trying to do his job to the best of his ability,” Tanner said in court.
Of course you do, Mr. Tanner. Of course you do.
What do y’all think? Sound off in the comments section below.
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