Archive » January 2019 – Present

Archive

January–June 2019

June 24, 2019
The Mayor Needs a History Lesson
Mayor de Blasio, in his quixotic campaign for president, was the shrillest of his progressive rivals to lambast Joe Biden for saying he had worked successfully with segregationist senators to pass legislation.

June 17, 2019
Demonizing Linda Fairstein
Unrepentant as she may be, what is happening to Linda Fairstein is disgraceful. In the words of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas at his Senate confirmation hearing, this is a high-tech lynching.

June 10, 2019
Dead Man Walking
Consider this: What if, as Daniel Pantaleo’s lawyer claimed last week, Eric Garner died not from the NYPD cop’s supposed chokehold but from poor health — specifically obesity. Garner weighed nearly 400 pounds.

June 3, 2019
What's the Message, Darcel?
Over the past year and a half, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark has prosecuted a sergeant, a captain and a deputy inspector in unrelated cases in Bronx State Supreme Court. A conviction could have resulted in dismissal and prison time. All three were acquitted.

May 27, 2019
Schools Chancellor Carranza: Playing the Race Card
It might be a wee bit too much to call Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza a racist. He just doesn’t like white people.

May 20, 2019
On Firing Pantaleo
So how will Mayor de Blasio’s running for president affect the fate of police officer Daniel Pantaleo over the “chokehold” killing of Eric Garner?

May 13, 2019
After the Judge
Judge Richard Brown died last week with his boots on, so to speak. He’d hoped to resign on June 1, the 28th anniversary of his appointment as Queens District Attorney. Instead he died last week from Parkinson’s, a disease that had afflicted him for many years, although he rarely missed a day [or a night] at work.

May 6, 2019
Whither The Times?
Contrast how the New York Times reacts to its internal problems — in this case, the anti-Semitic cartoon the newspaper recently published in its international edition — with how the newspaper reacts to the NYPD.

April 29, 2019
Vetrano Case Conviction: Division and Doubts
Anyone who doubts that race, poverty and policing drive the city’s criminal justice system might examine the case of Karina Vetrano.

April 22, 2019
Barnard College: Are You Kidding?
Here’s another example of academic racial folderol, this time at Barnard College, where past historical grievance collided with a more benevolent present.

April 15, 2019
Pity the Democrats
Once again, Republicans are attacking the Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, who is Muslim. Once again, they are helping split the Democratic Party.

April 8, 2019
Ken Burns's Jogger Documentary: What He Ducked
Once again, PBS’s Channel 13 last week presented Ken Burns’s documentary on the Central Park jogger.

April 1, 2019
Shilling for de Blasio
Once a political operative, always a political operative.

March 25, 2019
He Ain't No Larry
Call him the antithesis of Larry Byrne.

March 18, 2019
The Crazy Internet
Candace Owens. Remember her?

March 11, 2019
Principles and Punches
So, Michael Bloomberg has decided — yet again — not to run for president.

March 4, 2019
Racism? Victim? Hoax? Other?
Here’s the latest from the racism-victim-hoax circuit, following the actor Jussie Smollett’s apparent lie that he was attacked by two men because he was black and gay. This one involves Candace Owens, a striving 29-year-old black commentator and Donald Trump supporter. Her story is more nuanced than Smollett’s. At a conservative convention in the Washington area last week, she issued the apparently startling revelation to some that “America Is not a racist country.”

February 25, 2018
The Max for Jussie?
Well, was that the Rev. Al Sharpton calling out actor Jussie Smollett, saying Smollett should face “accountability to the maximum” if the “Empire” star faked a bias attack in Chicago last month?

February 18, 2018
More on Mutts
NYPD Confidential recently posed this question: Was PBA President Pat Lynch’s use of the word “mutt” to describe a 16-year-old black youth who dragged a detective in a stolen car, causing him permanent brain injuries, racist? The column drew an overwhelming response. Here are some of them.

February 11, 2018
NYPD vs. City Hall: Who's the Boss?
Seven months after Larry Byrne retired as NYPD deputy commissioner for legal matters, his position remains unfilled.

February 4, 2018
Dogs, Wolves, and Mutts
Is it racist when police call a violent criminal an “animal”? What about a “mutt"?

January 28, 2019
The Ties That Bind
En route to federal prison for bribery, Lieut. Paul Dean, formerly the No 2 at the Pistol Licensing Division, created a mini-brouhaha, detailing in court papers what he called a “culture of corruption” that favored the rich and powerful in issuing pistol permits.

January 21, 2019
The Saga of Cyress Smith
Sgt. Cyress Smith joined the NYPD on April 15, 1997. Five years later, he began filing complaints and lawsuits claiming racial discrimination that continue to this day.

January 14, 2019
Harrington's Turn
“As a police officer, I wouldn’t have done anything differently. Nothing I did was inappropriate. The only thing I’d do differently is not talk to the feds. Not that I told them anything I don’t stand by. But to see how they lie. They cherry-pick facts. They make things up.”

January 7, 2019
Freebies As Friendship
The NYPD needs a new code of ethics, not just for cops but also for its top commanders and commissioners.