Archive

July – December 2006

December 25, 2006
Not a Reporter Was Stirring ...
On the night before Christmas, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly decided to stroll down Fifth Avenue.

December 18, 2006
Kelly's Way to Run a Railroad
Let’s try and get this straight. The NYPD hosts a two-day terrorism conference last week, supposedly about how home-grown terrorists can smuggle a bomb into the city via a commuter train. Law enforcement agencies from upstate New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania are invited.

December 11, 2006
The NYPD’s Absent Black Brass
Ray Kelly made his reputation in the NYPD in the 1980s under Benjamin Ward, the city’s first black police commissioner, whom Kelly has referred to as his “mentor.”

December 4, 2006
Past and Present Meet in Queens
A top official investigating the fatal police shooting of Sean Bell is the same man who blew the whistle on Al Sharpton two decades ago in the case that brought him to national prominence — the “rape” of Tawana Brawley, supposedly by six white men.

November 27, 2006
Shooting in Queens: Will Kelly's Spin Cut It?
Strip away the power-red ties. Strip away all the terrorism talk and denigration of the FBI, Homeland Security, and every law enforcement official save himself. Strip away the intimidation of reporters and threats of retaliation for negative stories. Strip it all away and you’ll find — as indicated by Saturday’s shooting in Queens of three unarmed blackn men by five undercover officers reacting to the threat of a gun that has not been found — that the police department of Ray Kelly may not be so different from that of Howard Safir.

November 20, 2006
The Bernie Kerik Charity Fund?
Authorities have subpoenaed the publisher HarperCollins, seeking records of payments to Bernard Kerik in what appears to be a widening probe of the former police commissioner, sources say.

November 13, 2006
The NYPD’s P. Diddy Connection
Let’s further examine Police Commissioner Ray Kelly’s “Presidential Excellence and Diversity Award” from the Sepia Skin Care company at Justin’s Restaurant in Manhattan. The restaurant is owned by Sean [P. Diddy] Combs, who received Sepia’s “Chairman’s Entrepreneurial” award at the same event.

November 6, 2006
Down on the NYPD’s Farm
It is known as the Farm — the place where cops in the New York City Police Department go to dry out.

October 23, 2006
Which Direction for the Mosque Investigation?
As the NYPD reinvestigates the unsolved murder of police officer Philip Cardillo inside a Harlem mosque 34 years ago, how will Police Commissioner Ray Kelly deal with the roles of two powerful black men to whom he owes — or could owe — a lot?

October 16, 2006
Outside NYPD Monitor? Not Likely Under Kelly
Retired detective Thomas Rachko was sentenced last Friday to seven years in prison for stealing $800,000 from drug dealers while assigned to the Northern Manhattan Initiative, a narcotics unit, focusing on drug dealers in Harlem and Washington Heights.

October 2, 2006
Burning With Bernie
A New York City police captain has been subpoenaed as part of a federal investigation into former police commissioner Bernard Kerik.

September 25, 2006
Garry McCarthy and Newark's Learning Curve
Newark’s Mayor Cory Booker may be a Rhodes Scholar but he has something to learn about appointing a police director — esp ecially when he comes from the NYPD. Check behind the man’s resume.

September 18, 2006
CCRB: Dead Board Walking
Two obscure resignations in two obscure city agencies point up the sorry state of attempting to monitor the police department under the supposedly benign leadership of Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

September 11, 2006
New York City’s Terror Rivalry
Terrorism seems to be a cottage industry in New York City. How else to account for two rival terrorism conferences on the same day?

September 4, 2006
McCarthy’s New Jersey Alert
With Deputy Commissioner Garry McCarthy believed to be a candidate to head Newark, New Jersey’s police department, a flyer has been making the rounds in certain law enforcement circles.

August 28, 2006
Bernie and the Mob?
Former NYPD police commissioner Bernie Kerik’s lawyer Joe Tacopina objected to this column’s description of Kerik's relationship with a New Jersey company which, Kerik admits, paid for $165,000 in renovations to his Bronx apartment.

August 21, 2006
Kelly’s Port Authority Veto
Gov. George Pataki’s veto, rejecting Ray Kelly on the Port Authority board, has more to do with politics than with Kelly. Nonetheless, Kelly’s actions, since returning as police commissioner in 2002, didn’t help him.

August 14, 2006
Kelly Versus Giuliani: The Perils of 9/11 Criticism
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly learned a harsh lesson last week, one that may haunt opponents of Rudy Giuliani in the 2008 race for president.

August 7, 2006
The 9/11 Commission's Saint Rudy Problem
No one who sat through the 9/11 Commission’s public hearings at the New School in May 2004 will forget its wimp-out in questioning Rudy Giuliani.

July 31, 2006
The NYPD's Reward, and Price, for Loyalty
Today as you read this column, Michael Collins — who, with recently retired chief Thomas Fahey, has been the face of the New York City police department for more than a decade — will be promoted to Assistant Chief.

July 24, 2006
Standing Up For Bernie
Frank and Peter DiTommaso, founders of the New Jersey contracting company Interstate Industrial, may have thought they were being stand-up guys when they denied to a Bronx grand jury they paid $165,000 for renovations to Bernie Kerik’s Bronx apartment.

July 17, 2006
DCPI: Never Underestimate Incompetence
The New York Post ran a front page exclusive last Monday, reporting that the NYPD had recruited its first Hasidic cop. The story, by its veteran police bureau chief Murray Weiss, said that 24-year-old Joel Witriol of Brooklyn would start that day at the Police Academy.

July 10, 2006
FBI to Ray Kelly: We Fight Terrorism Too
So the FBI does have Arabic speakers who monitor jihadi chat rooms and web sites.

July 3, 2006
Bloomberg's Complex Kerik Decision
In removing the name of Bernard B. Kerik from the jail complex at 125 White Street, known ingloriously through the city’s history as the Tombs, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has taken a giant step in exploding some lies and myths surrounding 9/11.