A Short Note on the “New” “Majority-Minority” NYPD:

From revcom.us|
The NYPD and news media are making a big deal about how the composition of the NYPD has changed since the old days when it was mostly white. In fact, they claim themajority of cops are now Black, Latino or Asian.

So what! Of the five cops who fired 50 shots at Sean Bell and his friends, three—including the detective who opened fire—were Black. When Malcolm Ferguson was killed, NYPD spokespeople argued that it had to be a “legit” killing because the cop who shot him was Latino. And the NYPD officer who killed Akai Gurley in the stairwell of a Brooklyn Housing project in November 2014 was Asian.

And guess what? Of the three cops who assisted Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, one was Asian and one was Black. In fact, the Black cop (J. Alexander Kueng), according to his mother, became a cop in order “to bridge that gap in the community, change the narrative between the officers and the black community.”

NO. As BA concisely and accurately points out, “The role of the police is not to serve and protect the people…” The way that police act, including their racist brutality, flows from their actual role under system, which is to oppress, control and terrorize the people, especially the most oppressed. Whatever intentions and illusions anyone has, including some who may join the force to “improve relations” with the community, that’s not how it works. You might as well try and eliminate gambling, prostitution and drug dealing and promote peace on earth and goodwill to men by joining the Mafia. In the real world, YOU will be changed to fit the needs of the institution, the institution is not going to change to satisfy your self-delusions. And your “diversity” will just be another weapon for these thugs to get over among the oppressed and fool those with more privilege.

1994: Nicholas Heyward Jr.—Gunned Down for Playing With a Toy Gun

At 7:30 pm on September 27, 1994, 13-year-old Nicholas Heyward Jr. was playing cops and robbers in a stairwell at the Gowanus Houses project in Brooklyn. As described in NYCityLens.com, Nicholas and two friends rounded a corner. Seeing a real cop—Housing Authority Police Officer2 Brian George—Nicholas dropped his toy gun and said “We’re only playing. We’re only playing,” but George shot him in the stomach with his very real .38 caliber service revolver.

Nicholas died at 3:00 a.m. the next morning.

The Brooklyn District Attorney refused to even present the case to a grand jury. He held a press conference with a table full of realistic-looking fake guns to make it seem like the shooting was “justified,” a “split-second decision.” But the “gun” Nicholas carried was an obvious toy—plastic, with a long orange tip.

For 21 years, Nick’s father, Nicholas Heyward Sr., fought doggedly for justice together with other parents of children murdered by police. Finally in September 2015, then-District Attorney Ken Thompson agreed to reopen the investigation. But a year later, the DA’s office announced that they would not bring charges, claiming that “Based on the totality of the evidence, we have concluded that the shooting did not rise to the level of a criminal act. Officer George reasonably believed that his life was in danger when faced with a realistic-looking gun aimed at him.”

Another housing cop, quoted in a 2004 NY Post article on this case, revealed the depraved indifference of these pigs to the lives of Black children: “’You don’t know how many times I’ve come close to shooting someone,’ said a 10-year housing cop veteran… ‘I’d rather be tried by nine [in a grand jury] then carried by seven [pallbearers].’”

1994: Anthony Baez—Choked to Death Over a Stray Football

On December 22, 1994. Anthony, a 29-year-old Puerto Rican man, was hanging out with his family in front of their home in the Mt. Hope section of the Bronx, playing touch football with his brothers. A couple of times the football accidentally hit police cars parked nearby. The driver of one car, NYPD Officer Livoti, backed by five other cops, jumped out and arrested Anthony’s brother David for disorderly conduct, handcuffing him and slamming his head into the squad car’s hood. When Anthony protested, Livoti turned on him, handcuffing and choking him for about a minute, ignoring Anthony’s father’s shouts that Anthony suffered from asthma. Anthony died that night from asphyxiation.

The Baez family and many others initiated determined public protests which after two years forced the District Attorney to indict Livoti for criminally negligent homicide. He was granted a bench trial (meaning the judge alone would hear and decide the case, not a jury).

According to NYPD Confidential, “Scores of cops showed up in the Bronx courtroom” to support Livoti. “The president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, Lou Matarazzo, spent a couple of days as a spectator. His predecessor, Phil Caruso, came out of retirement, greeting Livoti outside the courtroom by hugging and kissing him on the cheek.”

As revcom.us reported on the trial:

Livoti’s defense claimed no chokehold was put on Anthony, that he died of an asthma attack. But Anthony's brothers and his father testified that Livoti put Anthony in a chokehold until his body went limp and fell to the ground. And the chief medical examiner of New York, Dr. Charles Hirsch, left no doubt about what killed Anthony. He said, “The compression of his neck, in my opinion, is the dominant cause of his death.” ... Five other expert witnesses agreed with Hirsch. [Pictures showed] hemorrhages in his eyes and multiple hemorrhages on his larynx.

Five other cops were involved in the incident; none intervened to stop this murder. Four of them testa-lied in court, backing up Livoti’s claims. The judge himself referred to the cops’ testimony as “a nest of perjury,”3 but still acquitted Livoti.

Outrage and protest over this verdict was so great that Livoti was soon fired from the NYPD, and in 1998 he was charged and convicted by the federal government of violating Anthony’s civil rights. He was sentenced to 7 ½ years in prison. Also in 1998, NYPD settled a wrongful death suit by Anthony’s family for three million dollars.

1997: Abner Louima—Raped and Tortured by a Police Gang in Their Lair

On August 9, 1997, Abner Louima, a 30-year-old Haiti immigrant, was outside a Brooklyn club popular with Haitians. A fight broke out and cops showed up in force, hurling racist insults. Revcom.us reported that cops grabbed and cuffed Louima. They drove him around, hurling racist insults, kicking him and hitting him with their radios. Then they took him to their precinct house where the cops who busted him transferred him to Officer Justin Volpe:

Volpe told the other cops, “This collar is mine.” Louima was brought to the duty sergeant’s desk, where his pants were pulled down to his ankles for a “strip search,” in full view of the other cops. Louima remembered, “I kept screaming, ‘Why? Why?’ All the cops heard me, but said nothing.”

Then Volpe and another cop took Louima to the bathroom and closed the door. One cop said, “You ni*gers have to learn to respect police officers.” Another threatened, “If you yell or make any noise, I will kill you.”

Louima described how he was tortured: “One held me and the other one stuck the plunger4 up my behind. He pulled it out and shoved it in my mouth, broke my teeth and said, ‘That’s your shit, ni*ger.’ ”

Louima yelled out in pain. The station house was full of cops. But, he said, “No cops said anything. None came to help me.” [All emphasis added.]

Not one cop reported this incident of horrendous torture. And even when a nurse treating Louima in the hospital called NYPD’s Internal Affairs office, she said that the officer who answered clearly “didn’t care” about—and didn’t act on—her call. Only when another nurse contacted local news media did the NYPD take any action.

For the cops it was apparently “business as usual.” In fact, that night when Volpe went home, his dad, a retired cop, asked him how his shift went. Volpe replied: “Routine.” We have to ask: How many other “routine” incidents of torture never see the light of day?

In the wake of huge mass protests, Volpe and another cop were charged with serious crimes. In 1999 Volpe pleaded guilty to federal charges and was sentenced to 30 years in jail. In 2000, Officer Charles Schwarz, was convicted on federal charges but his conviction was overturned on appeal. He was then charged with perjury for covering up the assault and sentenced to five years in jail.

1999: Amadou Diallo—41 Shots!

On February 4, 1999, 23-year-old Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo died in a hail of bullets. Four NYPD plainclothes cops (Sean Carroll, Richard Murphy, Edward McMellon, and Kenneth Boss, part of the infamous NYPD Street Crimes Unit5) fired 41 shots, 19 of which entered Diallo’s body as he stood outside his apartment.

As revcom.us wrote, the cops said

Diallo was acting “suspicious.” He “fit the description” of a rapist. He was “reaching” for something they thought was a gun. They fired 41 shots because they thought they were being fired at, either because bullets "ricocheted" back at them or because one of the cops fell to the ground. But these are all lies. The fact is, Diallo was unarmed. He had only a beeper and a wallet.

The cops were placed on paid administrative leave after the murder. For at least 11 days, none were charged or even questioned. It took until March 25 for a grand jury to indict them on charges of second-degree murder and endangerment. In December, the court ordered a change of venue to Albany, in a successful effort to get a jury unfamiliar with the reality of the NYPD. On Feb. 25, 2000, the Albany jury acquitted the cops on all counts.

In 2015, Kenneth Boss—the only one of the four still working for the NYPD—was promoted to sergeant.