NYPD "Stop and Frisks" Hit All-Time High

NBC New York

City police officers stopped and questioned 684,330 people on the street last year.

The number of so-called "stop and frisks" is rising.

City police officers stopped and questioned 684,330 people on the street last year, a record since the NYPD began yearly tallies of the tactic in 2002 and a 14 percent increase over 2010.

It couldn't be determined how many people were patted down during the encounters, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Typically, half of the potential suspects who are stopped are frisked or searched...[Full Article]

Labels: New York City, NYPD, pat-down, stop and frisk

CIA to pull officer from NYPD after internal probe

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A CIA operative's unusual assignment inside the New York Police Department is being cut short after an internal investigation that criticized how the agency established its unprecedented collaboration with city police, The Associated Press has learned.

In its investigation, the CIA's inspector general faulted the agency for sending an officer to New York with little oversight after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and then leaving him there too long, according to officials who have read or been briefed on the inquiry. They spoke only on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the investigation. The CIA said last month that the inspector general cleared the agency of any wrongdoing.

The inspector general opened its investigation after a series of AP articles that revealed how the NYPD, working in close collaboration with the CIA, set up spying operations that put Muslim communities under scrutiny. Plainclothes officers known as "rakers" eavesdropped in businesses, and Muslims not suspected of any wrongdoing were put in intelligence databases.

The CIA officer cited by the inspector general for operating without sufficient supervision, Lawrence Sanchez, was the architect of spying programs that helped make the NYPD one of the nation's most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies. The programs have drawn criticism from Muslims as well as New York and Washington lawmakers...[Full Article]

Labels: Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, intelligence, New York City, NYPD, police

Is The NYPD Experimenting With Drones Over The City? Evidence Points To Yes
Miami, Cities In Texas Also Said To Be Trying This New Way To Be Eye In The Sky

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — They’re used in war zones for surveillance and military strikes.

But are there plans to deploy drones in the Big Apple to keep an eye on New Yorkers?

More and more people believe it’s inevitable, reports CBS 2’s Don Dahler.

Drones are unmanned aircraft that can fly at low altitudes and shoot live video — or shoot live missiles.

Surveillance cameras already dot the city’s streets, but is the NYPD exploring the use of even more eyes in the skies, in the form of drones? Some evidence points to yes...[Full Article]

Labels: drones, New York City

NYPD, Feds Testing Gun-Scanning Technology, But Civil Liberties Groups Up In Arms
Terahertz Imaging Detection Out To Detect Illegal Concealed Weapons

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – The NYPD is stepping up their war against illegal guns, with a new tool that could detect weapons on someone as they walk down the street.

But is it violating your right to privacy?

Police, along with the U.S. Department of Defense, are researching new technology in a scanner placed on police vehicles that can detect concealed weapons.

“You could use it at a specific event. You could use it at a shooting-prone location,” NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly told CBS 2′s Hazel Sanchez on Tuesday.

It’s called Terahertz Imaging Detection. It measures the energy radiating from a body up to 16 feet away, and can detect anything blocking it, like a gun...[Full Article]

Labels: firearms, guns, New York City, NYPD, terahertz imaging

ALWAYS KNOW THE LOCAL CONCEALED CARRY LAWS OF THE PLACES YOU VISIT

"A tourist from Tennessee waltzed into one of the most secure sites in the city — and politely asked a cop if she could check her weapon.

Instead, she was dragged out in cuffs..."

Labels: 2nd amendment, arrest, CCW, concealed carry, New York City

CIA's watchdog: No problem with NYPD partnership

USA Today

WASHINGTON (AP) – The CIA said Friday its internal watchdog found nothing wrong with the spy agency's close partnership with the New York Police Department.

The agency's inspector general concluded that no laws were broken and there was "no evidence that any part of the agency's support to the NYPD constituted 'domestic spying'," CIA spokesman Preston Golson said.

The inspector general decided to do a preliminary investigation after a series of stories by The Associated Press revealed how after the 9/11 attacks the CIA helped the NYPD build domestic intelligence programs that were used to spy on Muslims. A CIA officer also directed intelligence collection and reviewed reports, according to former NYPD officials involved.

The revelations troubled some members of Congress and even prompted the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, to remark that it did not look good for the CIA to be involved in any city police department. Thirty-four lawmakers have asked for the Justice Department to investigate but so far that request has gone nowhere...[Full Article]

Labels: Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, law enforcement, New York City, NYPD, police

NYC 'Lone Wolf' is Just Another Patsy Entrapped by a Paid Informant

Eric Blair
Activist Post

Same story, new patsy. A 'lone wolf' American citizen becomes radicalized on the Internet, a paid "informant" escorts him to buy bomb-making material, and authorities arrest him in the nick of time to save us from a dangerous terrorist plot.

Reuters reports, "A U.S. citizen born in the Dominican Republic, (Jose) Pimentel was arrested on Saturday in a Manhattan apartment while putting the bomb together, police said. They called him a 'lone wolf' who had converted to Islam and became a radical."

New York City police said that Pimentel has been under surveillance for two-and-a-half years, since May 2009 and was monitored by a paid informant who helped him acquire materials for a bomb...[Full Article]

Labels: Activist Post, New York City, patsy

Bloomberg: Jobs crisis could spark riots here

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is worried that high U.S. unemployment could lead to the same kind of riots here that have swept through Europe and North Africa.

"You have a lot of kids graduating college, [who] can't find jobs," said Bloomberg, during his weekly radio show on Friday. "That's what happened in Cairo. That's what happened in Madrid. You don't want those kinds of riots here."...[Full Article]

Labels: jobs, Michael Bloomberg, New York City, rioting, riots

Cleaned out! New Yorkers empty stores of everything from milk to flashlights as they batten down the hatches ahead of Irene

UK Daily Mail

By Associated Press

Last updated at 5:38 PM on 27th August 2011

With just hours before Hurrican Irene was due to roar into New York, the city's residents were frantically clearing shelves and stocking up on essentials.

Consumers flooded into hardware stores, grocers and big-box retailers to pick up generators, bottled water and flashlights ahead of Hurricane Irene's arrival.

Flashlights and batteries were like gold dust in New York, where some stores were also cleaned out of milk and groceries.

At Ace Hardware in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, close to where the hurricane is expected to land, business more than tripled.

Unlike residents farther south who might be more practised with weathering hurricanes, the crowds in New York and northern New Jersey at times didn't seem to know what to do.

Instead of buying generators and gasoline, as many coastal homeowners routinely do, apartment dwellers were thinking less about protecting their property, more about protecting themselves.

The hunt was on water, liquor for hurricane parties and flashlights.

The ShopRite in West Orange, N.J., was chaotic on Friday afternoon, with cars honking as people waited to get into the parking lot.

An Ace Hardware store in Nags Head, N.C., was all sold out of portable generators by Thursday.

John Robbins, an employee at the Nags Head store said: 'With everyone saying this is going to be a bad one, no one is leaving anything to chance.'

Some retailers are getting a boost in business, but extreme weather like hurricanes is damaging to the retail sector as a whole.

And this one is coming in the thick of the critical back-to-school shopping weekend, a time when some merchants make up to 25 percent of their annual revenue.

In fact, weather research firm Planalytics estimates that Irene will stop 80 million shoppers from hitting the malls this weekend.

At the same time, demand for hurricane-related supplies is giving some retailers an unexpected boost that will likely continue as people deal with the clean-up in Irene's aftermath.

In a note to clients on Thursday, Citigroup analysts Deborah Weinswig and Tina Hwang said they expect department stores will suffer with shoppers locked up inside their homes, while discount stores, supermarkets and home-improvement stores will get a rush of customers eager to stock up on canned foods, batteries and other survival gear.

To meet the increased demand, many big retailers like Home Depot, Lowes and Wal-Mart have assembled disaster teams.

Sherif Mityas, a partner at AT Kearney, a retail consulting firm said: 'Preparing for a hurricane is all about the supply chain.

'Making sure you got the right products at the right time that consumers are looking for. They're wired into how the storm is affecting the communities around the stores.'

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, has its own staff meteorologist, who can evaluate the weather data and analyse how it will impact its stores and workers.

The discounter also can forecast what shoppers are looking for before a hurricane strikes - and in its aftermath - by using predictive modelling that studies past spending behaviour.

Mark Cooper, senior director of Wal-Mart's emergency management team, said the retailer is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to ensure that stores have all the items on its list for emergency preparedness kits.

The list, which is on www.ready.gov, includes batteries and cleaning supplies.

In the Northeast, Cooper said Wal-Mart also plans to push more supplies like bug spray and clean up products in anticipation of flooding.

'Katrina is the benchmark for hurricanes,' said Cooper, who estimates that about 600 of the more than 4,000 Wal-Mart stores could be impacted by the storm.

'We'll see how this one goes. Regardless of size, we will be prepared.'

At Home Depot's 24-hour command center, 100 associates that include human resource associates and logistics executives, are carefully monitoring TVs and coordinating response efforts.

Home Depot's emergency preparedness team started working this past weekend with its stores in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, which have already been hit by Irene.

By Friday morning, Home Depot had 500 trucks supplying its East Coast stores with products that are in demand, like generators.

‘Product is selling just as fast as it arrives,’ said Steve Holmes, senior manager of corporate communications for Home Depot, the nation's largest home improvement retailer.

By Friday, Lowe's sent out 500 trucks so that stores could quickly be restocked with hurricane-related items, including cleaning chemicals, mops, brooms, sump pumps, wet/dry vacuums.

‘This is a huge storm, especially in the Northeast when they're not used to hurricanes,’ said Katherine Cody, a spokeswoman at Lowe's, the nation's second largest home-improvement retailer.

For all their preparation, a hurricane can still take retailers by surprise, particularly at stores in areas that are being evacuated.

At the Ace Hardware in Nags Head, the store sold out of generators and sandbags.

And one grocer in Elizabeth City, N.C. was so busy that workers didn't even have time to give specifics.

A worker who answered the phone on Thursday at Weeksville Grocery in Elizabeth City said: 'I've got a line of people out the door. I don't have time to talk. Have a good day.'

So many shoppers were snapping up goods at the ShopRite in West Orange, N.J. on Friday afternoon that Amelia Panico had to settle for buying a few gallon-size jugs of water because the store sold out of the smaller bottles she wanted.

'It's now or never,' Panico said after braving lines that snaked through the store.

At the Ace Hardware in Elizabeth City, sales of electric lanterns, charcoal, batteries and pure oil - which is used for old-fashioned kerosene lamps that are popular in low-income areas - were strong this week that Dorran Hulse, the store's manager, had to order an additional shipment of items.

Mr Hulse said: 'As soon as we did it, people came in and bought items. We were telling them what time the truck was going to be in and people were here waiting for it.'

In Kitty Hawk, there were unusually long lines at the Home Depot, which displayed several pallets of 5,000-watt portable generators for $599 - enough to keep the power going in a house.

Jim Rogers, 52, of Kitty Hawk, was loading plywood into the back of his pickup truck outside of Home Depot.

Inside his truck, he had a tarp and rope to use to cover and tie down his patio furniture.

'Everyone is just trying to protect their homes,'said Mr Rogers, who plans to evacuate after securing his house.

ITEMS YOU NEED FOR AN EMERGENCY SUPPLY KIT

• Water, a gallon per person per day for at least three days, for drinking and sanitation
• Food, at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food
• Battery-powered or hand crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert and extra batteries for both
• Flashlight and extra batteries
• First aid kit
• Whistle to signal for help
• Dust mask, to help filter contaminated air and plastic sheeting and duct tape to shelter-in-place
• Moist towelettes, garbage bags and plastic ties for personal sanitation
• Wrench or pliers to turn off utilities
• Can opener for food (if kit contains canned food)
• Local maps
• Cell phone with chargers, inverter or solar charger

(Source: Ready.gov)

Labels: Hurricane Irene, New York City

National Emergency Alert System Set To Launch In NYC

NEW YORK, (CBSNewYork/AP) – A new national alert system is set to begin in New York City that will alert the public to emergencies via cell phones.

WCBS 880′s Paul Murnane In Lower Manhattan: Verizon And AT&T Are On Board

The announcement of the new emergency alert system came Monday in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death and an uptick in security and safety concerns around New York City.

The Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency said the system will warn people about terrorist attacks, natural disasters or other emergencies.

Starting next year, all new cell phones will be required to have a chip that receives the alerts. Some smart phones already have the technology...[Full Article]

Labels: Emergency Alert System, New York City

First Responders, NYPD Conduct ‘Dirty Bomb’ Drill In NYC

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A week-long series of terror drills involving dozens of agencies and first responders begins Tuesday in the Big Apple. The focus will be on one of the great concerns of the post-9/11 era: nuclear terrorism.

The NYPD and 70 other law enforcement agencies across our region will test their ability to detect radiological materials and prevent an attack orchestrated by four fictional terror cells intent on targeting New York City with a “dirty bomb.”

“We’ll be manning up to 400 checkpoints throughout the Metropolitan Area to test our ability to intercept radiological material. There actually will be samples of radiological materials,” NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

This is only a drill. There is no specific threat...[Full Article]

[Webmaster - False flag terror attacks almost always take place during terror drills which are used as a cover. Any time you have these "drills" going on, you have the danger of the government making them go operational.]

Labels: exercises, New York City, terror drills

Granny Fined $100 for Tossing Newspaper Into City Trash Basket

City litter baskets have signs that read: "litter only'' and "no household trash''

A New York City woman says she'll fight a $100 summons for tossing a newspaper into a city litter basket.

Delia Gluckin told The New York Post that she got the ticket from a Sanitation Department agent on Sunday.

The Manhattan resident said she offered to take the paper out but the agent wrote out the summons for putting "improper refuse in a city litter basket.''...

[Full Article]

Labels: litter, New York City

Organ Wagons To Make House Calls

MYFOXNY.COM - It might sound a little disturbing to some people but a new pilot program will attempt to recover kidneys from people who die at home in Manhattan.

A team of organ specialists will have about 20-minutes after a cardiac-arrest patient is declared dead to arrive at the home, check a donor registry, determine medical eligibility, obtain a family member's consent and get the person into a specialized ambulance.

A special team will monitor 9-1-1 calls about people in danger of dying and they will travel directly to a person's home without being summoned.

The program is being launched Wednesday. It could eventually lead to thousands more organs donated each year. But the five-month trial, a collaboration between Bellevue Hospital and New York City's police and fire departments, could be declared a success without a single organ being recovered, organizers say...

[Full Article]

Labels: Manhattan, New York City, organ harvesting

New York City Police Photograph Irises of Suspects

The New York Police Department has begun photographing the irises of people who are arrested in an effort to prevent escapes as suspects move through the court system, a police official said Monday.

The program was instituted after two embarrassing episodes early this year in which prisoners arrested on serious charges tricked the authorities into freeing them by posing at arraignment as suspects facing minor cases. The occurrences exposed weaknesses in the city’s handling of suspects as they move from police custody into the maze of court systems in the five boroughs.

With the new system, the authorities are using a hand-held scanning device that can check a prisoner’s identity in seconds when the suspect is presented in court, said Paul J. Browne, the department’s chief spokesman.

Officials began photographing the irises of suspects arrested for any reason on Monday at Manhattan Central Booking and expect to expand the program to all five boroughs by early December, Mr. Browne said.

The department has been working on the program for months, Mr. Browne said. But the effort caught many in the city’s legal circles by surprise as news of it began trickling out late last week. It is raising concerns among civil libertarians and privacy advocates, who say the authorities’ cataloging of the new data could put innocent people under permanent suspicion.

“It’s really distressing that the Police Department is once again undertaking a new regime of personal data collection without any public discourse,” said Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, “and we don’t know the reason for it, whether this is a necessary program, whether it’s effective to address the concerns that it’s designed to address, and whether in this day and age it’s even cost-effective, not to mention whether there are any protections in place against the misuse of the data that’s collected.”...

[Full Article]

Labels: iris recognition, iris scanning, iris-detection, New York City

As Terror Alert Continues, NYPD Holds Drill To Prep For Mumbai Style Attack
New York Terror Exercise Simulates Commando Assault On Wall Street



As US officials proclaim an alleged European terror plot still active, New York City police conducted a drill Thursday that simulated a Mumbai-style attack on civilians on a crowded street in Manhattan's financial district.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly addressed the media before the drill, which began with two large explosions. "This is what we do," he explained. "We think the unthinkable." The drill simulated multiple bombs and shooters, including a bomb under a vehicle, and police responded with helicopters, dogs, automatic weapons and an armored car.

Earlier Thursday, the State Department's counterterror chief told reports in London that the travel alert issued last week that advised travelers in Europe to be careful was still in effect. "We don't view the conditions as warranting us rescinding the alert," said Daniel Benjamin. The alert was issued Oct. 3, when intelligence led authorities to believe a Mumbai-style assault on so-called "soft" civilian targets might be imminent in Europe.

In the immediate aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai assault that claimed 175 lives, the NYPD revised its tactics to deal with a terrorist commando assault. During Thursday's drill in the Bronx, heavily armed Emergency Service Unit officers were backed by officers from the Organized Crime Control Bureau trained to respond to such an attack. The OCCB officers are intended to beef up the NYPD response and prevent multiple simultaneous attacks from overwhelming the responding force.

The drill simulated an attack in lower Manhattan's financial district, near Wall Street and Ground Zero, on a mock block that contained a department store, a hotel and a federal regulatory agency. European authorities view these as the kind of "soft" and financial targets that might be attacked in a commando-style assault. Multiple civilians and officers were "shot" during the drill.

"We've got some info from one of the perps that the Empire State Building might be next," one police radio crackled during the drill.

As it did, helmeted cops with M4 rifles and M14 assault rifles began stalking the street hunting snipers and assailants...

[Full Article]

Labels: exercise, New York City, terror drills

Real-Time Security Cameras Link NYC Subway Hubs
Residents More Than Willing To Look Other Way On Privacy

NEW YORK (CBS 2/1010 WINS) — As many as 500 cameras have been placed in nearly every corner of three of the busiest transit hubs in New York City – in the stairwells and on the platform.

All of them are keeping a close watch on who and what’s going in and out of our subways.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg didn’t waste time talking about the subways, “which we know terrorists regard as what they would call high value targets.”

LISTEN: 1010 WINS’ Reporter Stan Brooks gets details from Bloomberg on the new system

Bloomberg, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and Metropolitan Transportation Authority chairman Jay Walder announced the city’s newest security initiative on Monday.

Hundreds of MTA subway security cameras placed in Grand Central, Penn Station and Times Square are now directly piped into the NYPD’s security operation center, allowing police eyes in places where they didn’t have them before...

[Full Article]

Labels: big brother, New York City, privacy, subway, surveillance

Homelessness Up 50% In New York City

MYFOXNY.COM - If you think you've been seeing more people sleep on city streets, statistics back up the perception. The homeless population living on New York City streets has gone up 50 percent in the past year, according to city statistics reported by the HellsKitchenLife.com blog.

The New York City Department of Homeless Services conducts a yearly survey of the streets of the city to count the number of homeless who are not in shelters. The HOPE survey was conducted in January 2010.

The number of homeless in the borough of Manhattan was up 47 percent in the past year, according to the count. The 2010 count had 1,145 people living in the streets. That is up 368 from 2009.

Brooklyn had the biggest increase of any borough. It saw a homeless increase of more than 100 percent in 2010.

More than 1,000 people now live in New York City's subway system -- up 11 percent in the past year...

[Full Article]

Labels: homeless, New York City

MEXICAN POLICE TO PATROL NY?

NEW YORK, New York — In a series of events which has caused wide notice and a storm of protests, the government of Mexico, through its consulate in New York in the United Nations, has announced it will begin patrolling the New York City borough of Staten Island to “safeguard” its nationals there...

[Full Article]

Labels: consulate, Mexico, New York City, patrol, Staten Island, United Nations

Officer Is Charged in Hit and Run

[From NYTimes.com]

A New York City police officer accused of hitting a bicyclist with his car and driving off without reporting it was charged on Tuesday with assault and reckless driving.

On the afternoon of June 14, the authorities said, the officer, Louis Ramos, was headed the wrong way on Jay Street in Brooklyn, with his lights flashing and siren blaring, when he drove through a red light and struck the cyclist at Sands Street.

Officer Ramos and his partner, Paris Anderson, got out of their police car, dragged the cyclist to the curb, handed him a tissue and drove off without calling an ambulance or reporting the accident, said Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney, in a criminal complaint. Surveillance cameras captured the encounter.

The cyclist suffered cuts and bruises on his face and a fractured wrist. He was treated at Long Island College Hospitaland released.

In addition to assault and reckless driving, Officer Ramos was charged with leaving the scene of an accident where there had been an injury. He pleaded not guilty. He and Officer Anderson were suspended without pay last month.

The case comes amid heightened friction between police and cyclists. Two videos showing officers shoving cyclists to the ground in Times Square during group rides — one in July 2008, the other in March 2007 — were widely seen online. One of the officers, Sgt. Timothy Horohoe, was found to have lied but did not face serious sanctions. The other officer, Patrick Pogan, resigned from the force and was convicted of lying, but a judge decided against jail time or probation.

[Webmaster - Assaulting bicyclists seems to be a common past-time for the NYPD...]

The NYPD in action in July 2008...




And in March 2007...

Labels: bicyclists, New York City, NYPD, police, police brutality, video

Queen Elizabeth II visiting Ground Zero, addressing UN for first time in half a century

LONDON (AP) — Queen Elizabeth II will visit Ground Zero for the first time and make her first address to the U.N. General Assembly in over half a century when she arrives in New York on Tuesday.

The 84-year-old monarch, accompanied by her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, will lay a wreath at the former site of the World Trade Center to pay tribute to victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks. She will also open the British Garden of Remembrance in nearby Hanover Square to honor the 67 British citizens killed on 9/11.

Royal aides say she was personally concerned about the tragedy, but had not had an opportunity to go to New York herself.

In 2002, on the first anniversary of the attacks, she sought to console the grieving British community living there by sending them a personal message, expressing her sympathy and thanking New Yorkers for their support for grieving Britons...

[Full Article]

Labels: 9/11, Ground Zero, New York City, Queen Elizabeth, U.N., United Nations