When Mayor Michael Bloomberg referred to the NYPD as his “private army” and the “seventh largest standing army in the world,” he managed to provoke scorn from all but his most slavish admirers. Though his description was wildly inaccurate regarding the size of the department, his overall Putin-esque characterization of the cops as a extra-municipal tool to be deployed at his whim struck many as remarkably and accidentally honest.
Bloomberg
does deserve some credit for managing to hoodwink a large number of New
Yorkers into believing he's some sort of benevolent technocrat instead
of the corporate oligarch he so clearly is. But when it comes to
handling Occupy, Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly – and the
NYPD at large – are facing a new level of resistance.
Fifteen plaintiffs, including five elected officials, members of the
press, an Iraq war veteran, and Occupy Wall Street activists are suing the
city in federal court, alleging gross misconduct ranging from false
arrest and imprisonment to possible conspiracy between the police
department and JPMorgan Chase to chill citizen's rights to peaceably
assemble. The suit is known as Rodriguez v. Winski and calls
for, among other measures, the creation of an independent federal
position to oversee the NYPD. The department is out of control, the suit
alleges, and is incapable of holding itself accountable.
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