Cop accused of trading favors for sex invokes ‘Hillary defense’

A lawyer for one of the NYPD cops accused of doing favors for bribes — including mile-high sex with this hooker on a free trip to Las Vegas — said his client’s behavior was no worse than Hillary Clinton’s.

“It’s similar to what the FBI said about Hillary Clinton, and why she wasn’t charged,” said John Meringolo, a lawyer for James Grant, who pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court Wednesday.

“She was unaware she was committing a crime. Here, there is no crime whatsoever.”

Meringolo described his client’s alleged actions — swapping police favors for expensive gifts like the wild trip with prostitute Gabi Grecko — as mere violations of police conduct.

“There’s been similar conduct with private jets in the past,” he said, pointing to former Commissioner Ray Kelly, who he said “took a private jet” and then paid for it after the fact in order to hush criticisms.

NYPD Deputy Chief Michael Harrington and Brooklyn businessman Jeremy Reichberg also pleaded not guilty to several charges on Wednesday, including conspiracy to commit honest-services fraud, honest-services wire fraud, conspiracy to pay and receive bribes and the payment and receipt of bribes.

http://nypost.com/2016/07/13/nypd-officials-plead-not-guilty-to-corruption-charges/

NYPD Sued After Refusing to Reveal Its Stingray Surveillance Budget

The New York Police Department is still refusing to release basic information about quasi-secret cellphone mass-surveillance devices colloquially known as Stingrays, according to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed Thursday by the New York Civil Liberties Union.

In February, the NYCLU obtained documents showing that the infamously opaque police department had deployed Stingrays over 1,000 times since 2008 without having any written policy whatsoever governing their use. Like other departments, the NYPD doesn’t get a search warrant to use the devices, relying instead on “pen register” orders that don’t require cops to show probable cause of a crime.

But not included was information on the cost and type of Stingrays, the brand name for a class of device called cell-site simulators, which emulate cellphone towers to track nearby phones but can also be configured to record call logs and intercept text messages en-masse. Earlier this week, another FOIA request from the NYCLU revealed that police in Rochester, New York spent more than $200,000 on a Stingray devicethat it uses to track suspected gang members.

Now the NYCLU is suing to get that contract information from the NYPD, which has since been revealed by many other police departments.

“The NYPD must come clean about what models of Stingrays it owns and how it acquires them,” NYCLU Senior Staff Attorney Mariko Hirose said in a press statement emailed to Motherboard. “This is military grade technology with the potential to implicate the privacy of countless innocent New Yorkers. There’s no good reason why this basic information—like how much it spends on what models of Stingrays—is not in the public domain.”

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/nypd-sued-after-refusing-to-reveal-its-stingray-surveillance-budget

NYPD SUED AFTER REFUSING TO REVEAL ITS STINGRAY SURVEILLANCE BUDGET

In February, the NYCLU obtained documents showing that the infamously opaque police department had deployed Stingrays over 1,000 times since 2008 without having any written policy whatsoever governing their use. Like other departments, the NYPD doesn’t get a search warrant to use the devices, relying instead on “pen register” orders that don’t require cops to show probable cause of a crime.

But not included was information on the cost and type of Stingrays, the brand name for a class of device called cell-site simulators, which emulate cellphone towers to track nearby phones but can also be configured to record call logs and intercept text messages en-masse. Earlier this week, another FOIA request from the NYCLU revealed that police in Rochester, New York spent more than $200,000 on a Stingray device that it uses to track suspected gang members.

http://www.infowars.com/nypd-sued-after-refusing-to-reveal-its-stingray-surveillance-budget/

NYPD INTELLIGENCE COMMISSIONER SAYS ENCRYPTION ENABLING TERROR ATTACKS

John Miller, the department’s deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, told CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley Tuesday that terror groups are becoming increasingly elusive through utilization of “impenetrable” communication systems.

NYPD Commissioner Bratton Is A ‘Bald-Faced Liar,’ Says Ramarley Graham’s Mother

As long as anyone here [at the NYPD] can remember, this is the way it was done,” Donald said.

But when pressed about the case of former NYPD Officer Francis Livoti — who the NYPD fired in 1997 before the conclusion of a DOJ investigation into the death of Anthony Baez — Donald demurred.

That was “20 years ago,” he said of the Livoti case.

And asked if there’s a written policy stipulating the postponement of an Internal Affairs probe until the conclusion of a DOJ investigation, Donald said he’d have to check.

Donald added that the department will now “move expeditiously” in its investigation into Graham’s death.

Twenty-four New York City Council members Thursday sent Bratton a letter asking him to fire the officers involved in Graham’s death. At least one of those City Council members, Inez Barron, said that if Bratton’s alleged lie can be “documented,” then he “needs to be fired.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nypd-commissioner-bratton-lied-ramarley-graham_us_56e18716e4b065e2e3d4e81e?

Tags: Ramarley Graham

2 NYPD Officers Injured Chasing Down Suspect in Violent Astoria Crime Spree

Police say a man on a rampage killed one and injured several others, including two NYPD officers. The suspect was eventually arrested during a standoff with cops, some of it caught on camera. NY1’s Lori Chung filed the following report.

Gunshots sent officers scrambling in Astoria on Sunday evening as police moved in to take a suspected killer into custody and end a violent rampage that left one man dead.

“It’s really scary,” said one eyewitness who saw the suspect being taken away in an ambulance.

Police say James Dillon slashed a woman in the face outside his 39th Street home around 11:30 a.m. Nearly four hours later, he allegedly attacked a 61-year-old man at a liquor store on Astoria Boulevard when the owner tried to help.

“The owner of the liquor store attempted to intervene, tried to push him out of the store and at that point that was when the owner of the liquor was stabbed,” NYPD Deputy Chief John Essig said.

The wound was fatal for 55-year-old George Patouhas, who later died at Mt. Sinai Hospital, according to police. After the stabbing, police say Dillon then tried to set both men on fire.

“Steps out of the store and throws accelerant back into the store onto both males and attempted to light it on fire, which he did,” Essig said.

The surviving victim suffered severe burns before the suspect took off again.

Police say they caught up to Dillon after a woman reported that a man was trying to break into her 36th Street apartment.

http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/criminal-justice/2016/03/6/police-arrest-man-they-say-slashed-a-woman–burned-a-man-and-stabbed-another-to-death-in-queens.html

 

Jury selection begins in Akai Gurley shooting case

Jury selection started Wednesday in the highly charged manslaughter case of a rookie cop accused of gunning down an unarmed man in a dimly lit Brooklyn stairway — and some potential jurors were dismissed after they said they were biased against the NYPD.

Two separate panels of approximately 75 potential jurors from across the borough were herded into Brooklyn Supreme Court ready to answer questions about whether they’d be able to serve on the trial, which is expected to last a month.

Officer Peter Liang, 28, is charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide for shooting Akai Gurley in the stairwell of the Pink Houses in East New York on Nov. 20, 2014.

Prosecutors are expected to contend that Liang was patrolling the stairwell with his gun out against police regulations, and pulled the trigger when he was startled to come across Gurley, 28, and his friend Melissa Butler.

http://www.nydailynews.com/jury-selection-begins-akai-gurley-shooting-case-article-1.2504129?utm_content=buffer341ca&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=NYDailyNewsTw

Jury selection begins in Akai Gurley shooting case https://t.co/LqhiN0TCai pic.twitter.com/AfPvc9sNRH

— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) January 21, 2016

EXCLUSIVE: Judge gives NYPD cops 1% salary raise, gets paid $115G for 46 days needed to reach the decision

https://twitter.com/NYDailyNews/status/690013605509599233

The union slammed Edelman’s decision, arguing that the arbitrator sold out cops in the high-profile case so he could get more mediation business from the city.

“Howard Edelman clearly did not legitimately earn his pay in this arbitration,” PBA President Patrick Lynch said in a statement. “While sitting in judgment of the police officers’ contract, he accepted future work from the city, a clear conflict of interest, and failed to inform the PBA.”

But Lynch and his members were the ones who voted to go to arbitration after negotiations with City Hall broke down in 2014.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/exclusive-judge-paid-115k-nypd-cops-1-raise-article-1.2504043?utm_content=buffer6b6f5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=NYDailyNewsTw

https://twitter.com/NYDailyNews/status/690013605509599233

 

 

 

NYPD cop who gunned down unarmed Akai Gurley may testify at his trial

A rookie cop is slated to go on trial this week for gunning down an unarmed man in a Brooklyn housing project — and he may take the stand in his own defense.

The lawyers for Peter Liang, 28, say he might testify about how he fired the shot that took the life of the unarmed Akai Gurley in a dimly lit stairwell in the Pink Houses on Nov. 20, 2014 — a potentially risky move that opens him up to cross-examination by prosecutors

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/nypd-gunned-akai-gurley-testify-article-1.2501143?utm_content=bufferaffee&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=NYDailyNewsTw

The rookie cop who shot and killed Akai Gurley may testify at his own trial this week: https://t.co/XtSeKw4Rbg pic.twitter.com/XWZVEG6LC6

— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) January 19, 2016

 

NYPD breaks up pro-immigration protest

Activists opposed to the US authorities rounding up and deporting immigrants have organized a protest outside the Immigration Court in New York City, bringing a busy district of lower Manhattan to a standstill.

 

Dozens of protesters blocked the intersection of Varick and Houston Streets in lower Manhattan, where the Immigration Court for New York City is located. They are carrying signs protesting the recent raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), rounding up over a hundred people who were in the US illegally.

https://www.rt.com/usa/328307-nyc-protest-immigration-raid/