Belated Happy Earth Day – NYC Confiscates Bikes for Obama Visit

Ralph Bernardo of Disinfo, once again finds  another case of NYPD hi-jinx as told via way of the Gothamist:

NYPD Allegedly Sodomizes Marijuana Smoker

Tony Newman wrote this for Alternet:

New York City police have arrested over 300,000 people for low-level marijuana possession since 1997, sometimes employing outrageous methods to humiliate citizens.

Corrupt NYPD Crime Cops Busted

Dave Hogarty wrote for the Gothamist:

Two members of the NYPD’s Organized Crime Control Bureau were relieved of their badges after videotape of a raid on a downtown club made its way to the Internal Affairs Bureau. According to the Post, in one segment, a veteran sergeant is seen bending down over an open cash register (some money was reportedly stolen). His supervisor was taped urinating in the establishment’s kitchen sink. One of their OCCB co-workers, a detective, was suspended earlier this year when he was accused of acting as a pimp for teenage girl prostitutes.

Read more.

Culture Jamming: Ad Remixer Takes A Shot At NY’s Finest, Will Ferrell

Thanks to Greg @ Disinfo

Courtesy of Animal New York:

The subway ad pranking bandit is at it again. After emasculating Iron Man, bombing Army Wives and countless other revisions, the vandal targeted killer cops with this activisty ‘MY NYPD Killed Sean Bell’ alteration, complete with gun wileding anti-hero Hellboy. Will Ferrell’s new upcoming, probably not funny comedy Step Brothers was also put on blast with the help of equally stupid movie The Mummy—it received a slight, but not as significant modification as you can see after the jump.

See more here.

Bored Cops Put Queens NY Nightclub Under

Radley Balko wrote for the blog Reason:

Last year, New York police officers were seen dancing in the streets just before arresting four men in a city nightclub on charges of selling $100 worth of cocaine. It took six months and the men’s life savings, but their names were finally cleared when prosecutors took the unusual step of announcing in court that the men had committed no crime.

That’s because club surveillance video shows that the undercover cops had no contact with the accused men in the two hours they were in the club.

Now, club owner Eduardo Espinoza says the police are retaliating against him.

Espinoza said he thinks police are retaliating against him because of a strange phone call he received shortly before the harassment began.

A man who identified himself as the officer who made the drug arrest in his club demanded to know if Espinoza had taped the events of that night.

“I said I already gave it to the defendants,” Espinoza said, “He said, ‘Oh s–t.’ He hung up.”

Espinoza had received just two summonses in the two-and-a-half years he owned the club prior to turning over the videotapes. He has received more than a dozen since.

“I been harassed so much, I’m selling my business,” said Espinoza, owner of Delicias de Mi Tierra on 91st Place in Elmhurst.

“Every two to three weeks, there’s cops in here, searching the bar. If there’s no violation, they’ll make it up. I lost all my clients – everybody’s scared to come in my place right now.”

The officers implicated by the surveillance tapes are being investigated, but still on duty.

More here.