Archive

January – June 2007

June 25, 2007
Getting Burned by Bernie
Beware of getting too close to Bernie Kerik. His own lawyer is the latest person in hot water over ties to the former NYPD commissioner.

June 18, 2007
Rudy and Bill: Run Silent, Run Deep
Twice in the past three months, Rudy Giuliani has visited Bill Bratton at his office in Los Angeles where he is police chief. Twice, Mohammed has come to the mountain.

June 11, 2007
More Money Troubles for Pitch
A state judge has directed a top aide to former police commissioner Bernard Kerik to repay a $30,000 loan the aide received while heading the security subsidiary of former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

June 4, 2007
Where Was Mayor Mike?
O.K., so where was Mayor Mike? You’d think it would be political suicide for a major public figure to blow off a major public event — especially one about public safety. In the past, such an absence raised eyebrows, prompted panicked excuses from underlings, or at the very least a reporter’s question asking where in the world was the big guy.

May 28, 2007
Kelly and Bloomberg: Dispute or Charade?
Are Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg in dispute over the city’s labor practice of “pattern bargaining,” or is theirs an orchestrated charade?

May 21, 2007
Congressman and Kelly: No Big Love
It took a former small-town mayor from Mississippi to articulate what every bigshot law enforcement official in the country believes but lacks the guts to say.

May 14, 2007
The NYPD and Judith Miller
Upset by Jim Dwyer’s articles in the New York Times, detailing the NYPD world-wide, possibly illegal, spying on non-violent groups before the 2004 Republican National Convention, the department sought a sympathetic ear.

May 7, 2007
Brooklyn Prosecutor Stonewalls IAB
A top Brooklyn prosecutor refused to cooperate with a police investigation involving his key investigator, who was accused of beating a friend to death.

April 30, 2007
NYPD’S Terror Machine
Here is some of what little we know about the NYPD’s fight against terrorism.

April 23, 2007
Me and RFK, Jr.
Your Humble Servant found himself in an unfamiliar role last week. After 30 years of covering murders and trials, I found myself part of both, subpoenaed as a witness in a convicted killer’s desperate attempt for a new trial.

April 16, 2007
Mosque Shooting’s 35th Anniversary: Still No Answers
On this, the 35th anniversary weekend of the fatal and unsolved shooting of Police Officer Philip Cardillo inside a Harlem mosque, there remains no definitive answer to the question still haunting the New York City police department: Who gave the order to release the dozen Muslim suspects without identifying or fingerprinting them?

April 9, 2007
Welcome Home, Pitch!
Bernie Kerik’s former chief of staff, John Picciano, has returned to New York from São Paulo, Brazil, where he was in residence for the past couple of years. His return is as mysterious as was his departure.

April 2, 2007
Brotherly Love: Rudy and Bernie
Rudy Giuliani was so enamored of Bernie Kerik that, three years before appointing him police commissioner, he tried to make him the department’s number two man.

March 26, 2007
NYPD Intelligence: A Mad, Mad World
What began as the NYPD’s honest, though perhaps misguided, attempt to catch terrorists outside New York City has turned into a bizarre, perhaps illegal, monitoring of legitimate political protest groups.

March 19, 2007
Sean Bell Indictments: Everything’s Black and White
Let’s begin with something no authority in this town will acknowledge: when it comes to crime and our so-called “criminal justice” system, whites and blacks view things totally differently.

March 12, 2007
Advice From “Some Airport Cop From Boston”
So Rudy Giuliani broke ten years of silence to meet with Bill Bratton last week in Los Angeles. Giuliani is running for president. Bratton is L.A.’s police commissioner. Here is what they probably said.

March 5, 2007
How Ray Kelly Rejected the Top FBI Job
Do Police Commissioner Ray Kelly’s myth-makers know no bounds? His biographical highlights now appear on the free, on-line “people’s” encyclopedia, known as Wikipedia.

February 26, 2007
The True Terror Threat … Inside the NYPD
The NYPD has begun an investigation into the royal treatment of Deputy Commissioner for Counter-Terrorism Richard [The Young Prince] Falkenrath.

February 19, 2007
Prince Falkenrath’s Travels
Deputy Commissioner for Counter-Terrorism Richard Falkenrath may be helping the NYPD and the citizens of New York in fighting Al Qaeda. But the NYPD and the citizens of New York are sure helping him.

February 12, 2007
Shining Some Light on Terror
When Police Commissioner Ray Kelly introduced Richard Falkenrath as the Deputy Commissioner of Counter-Terrorism, he cited Falkenrath’s “outstanding and impressive academic credentials.” Kelly was probably unaware of something equally important in Falkenrath’s life: his love of top-of-the-line luxury cars.

February 5, 2007
Driving Mrs. Kelly
For nearly five years, NYPD detectives assigned to protect and drive Police Commissioner Ray Kelly regularly chauffeured his wife on personal trips at taxpayer expense, say detectives with first-hand knowledge of the practice.

January 29, 2007
Terrorism’s Los Angeles Connection
The Manhattan Institute, the alleged think-tank of right-wing intellectuals, has found a new police department to adore.

January 22, 2007
Mayor Mike: Kelly's Enabler
Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s notion in the wake the of the Sean Bell shooting that adding $1.5 million to the Civilian Complaint Review Board will help to monitor the police department is, well, ridiculous.

January 15, 2006
Aaron Wong: Can the NYPD Discipline Itself?
If anyone believes the New York City police department can discipline its officers without an outside watchful eye, he should check out the case of Aaron Wong, a 21-year-old black man from Staten Island whose jaw was broken by a retired, white cop.

January 8, 2007
Police Shooting Incidents: The NYPD’s New Math
The NYPD must be desperate in attempting to portray itself as the soul of restraint, following the 50-bullet fatal police shooting of Sean Bell.

January 1, 2007
2007: In Terror We Trust
Here are some predictions about what we can expect in 2007.