MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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Hits of the Day
NYC's Finest Threatened by Dancing Black Man
By NCD on Wed, 12/31/2014 - 11:47am |Before Christmas TV Host Ellen dared viewers to "sneak up and dance behind total strangers". So a YouTube star, Alexander Bok, took the dare and on Christmas Eve danced in and around Grand Central Station in NYC. He danced behind one guy for 20 minutes, the guy hardly noticed. Another guy smiled and gave him a hug. How did members of the finest and most professional law enforcement organization in the world react? When he danced by NYC cops, they cursed and yelled epithets at him and physically threw him to the cold wet street.
URL:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/alexander-bok-dancing-thrown-police
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Comments
I doubt anyone here will defend the actions of those particular police, but I hesitate to find out how others will do so (and I'm sure many will).
by Verified Atheist on Wed, 12/31/2014 - 12:15pm
Anyone who defends these cops likely also believes women who get beaten by abusing husbands did something 'stupid' to enrage him and ergo : 'they deserve it'.
The cops are uniformed professionals, in one of the most diverse ethnic cities in the US, they are hired, trained and paid to react courteously, proportionately and peacefully when possible to citizens, of all types, colors and demeanors. They seem to be the only folks in NY that routinely never react in that fashion. The department needs a total purging, starting with the union boss Lynch.
By the standards of these cops, de Blasio would be in the right to curse out and throw union boss Lynch to the street for his BS about blood on the mayors steps.
There is also no reason to believe that if the mayor 110% backed the cops against protestors, that the mental case guy Brinsley from Baltimore would have not done what he did.
Cop Lynch hates both the mayor and Brinsley, so he connects the two, but there is no connection. If the mayor said it was justified for cops to choke or kill blacks, there is no reason to believe Brinsley's psychotic mission to shoot cops would have been altered in any way.
by NCD on Wed, 12/31/2014 - 12:41pm
Paging Resistance... Oh, I'll do it for him:
I'm pretty sure that was a TOS violation. I have warned myself.
by Michael Maiello on Wed, 12/31/2014 - 12:53pm
Where'd I misplace my "...wet noodle..."
Thirty lashes... for ya'...
~OGD~
by oldenGoldenDecoy on Wed, 12/31/2014 - 4:40pm
Hey Michael, you dance behind the back of authority if you are a wild and crazy guy looking to make a name for yourself with a pretty good cameraman friend and know how to edit. I watched the vid, did you?
I would like to remind you of what you said recently about Guiliani and Offli (i.e., did Guiliani get a commission) and how you first fell for the Sony routine. Not that I think these cops took payola to play the role of "typical NYC cop" ,as it looks very authentic, but one could not be absolutely certain. I do know of performance artists who have found such amenable parties within the force. You need to guard your cynicism, else I lose my respect for you as a downtown kinda guy, hah!
Did you notice how some people flinched when they saw him? This is the the risk you take when you do performance art. The next guy could have punched him in the face. Unfortunately, our cops don't like performance art without a license in publc places, they like everyone behaving themselves in an orderly fashion. (The thing is, they forget it's supposed to apply to them as well. Don't want fights to break out? Hey, how about not throwing people to the ground? Doh?! Also, I argue below, we deserve more, we deserve cops who get it and have a sense of humor, and not just with David Letterman's producers.). Ellen may have a mainstream show, but her appeal is because she still has a bit of the radical to her, she doesn't do the standard in dress and behavior, she does some counterculture in dress and demeanor.
To everyone else, those cops act exactly the same as my 50th precinct cops.. Like I've said elsewhere, that's the NYPD I know = Not racist, just assholes to everyone who acts individualistic. They all follow the Dead End Kids model of the early 20th century, i.e., rascals are no good. That guy's color makes no difference, there are plenty of people of color around and they are not being picked on. "Broken Windows" is nothing new, it is the old timey cop on the beat making sure everyone is behaving him and her self.
That said, NCD is onto something here comparing the behavior used to execute "Broken Windows" to the whole domestic violence mindset. I think citizens deserve better in this day and age. actually I'd like to see some kindness and a fulfillment of the promise "to protect and serve." What the hell do they need a college education for if this is how they are going to act? We no longer accept the early-20th century model of nasty authoritarian emotionless fathers who are feared and obeyed as the cultural standard for fathers. Why is NYC accepting it in their cops? Kindness no longer signifies weakness. I wonder if the NYPD union bosses think that cops Ramos and Liu were slain because they were kind and therefore, weak.
As a feminist, I have actually been struck by this whole problem when I've seen female cops act like this. My immediate reaction is: why do you have to act like an asshole 1940's macho brute to do your job? It actually seems ridiculous sometimes.
by artappraiser on Thu, 01/01/2015 - 3:05am
NCD, I'm going to add some things trying to get into your point about culture of corruption and the need for a purge. It's tough for me to explain but I'd like to try. The remnants that cling, the whole union attitude is intimately involved with the culture of corruption of the Dem machine in the boroughs. Some lower level pols and their appointees in government have the same attitude of entitlement to be assholes to the people they serve and to "get one on" to make some profit or power for themselves and their own on the side.
This is precisely why DeBlasio is having trouble and Bloomberg didn't. Bloomberg was authoritiarian himself. He could say cut the shit, all of youse, I am not playing that game and I will support something like your stop and frisk because I think it's correct policy, but you have to cut all of this other shit. They couldn't do their usual circle the horses, everyone else is the enemy routine. I was just thinking about the last time I saw NYPD cops act polite to confused tourists (a reminder that tourism is our income just as much as Wall Street if not more, especially now that Manhattan residential real estate is more and more foreign pied-a-terres.) It was during the early Blloomberg years, not before and not since. Somehow, I don't know how exactly to express it, this is really getting at the why of the phenomenon of NYC voting tor Republican/Independent mayors. He was verging on making them get it: the old days of your power are gone. Now they have a Dem mayor, the remnants of the old machine are making a play, testing DeBlasio out, seeing if they can force him to let them continue and maybe even grow their power.
by artappraiser on Thu, 01/01/2015 - 3:23am
De Blasio is failing the test, makes sense. He is frankly a door mat for Lynch to hurl insults on.
I note Democrat Cuomo is no where to be seen or heard on the cop situation either,
Although Democrat NY State DA Schniederman, originally from the upper West Side, had the only real solution to these kangaroo cop courts with his suggestion the gov let him have jurisdiction over cases where cops kill the unarmed (instead of local DA shills for cops like Staten Isl. DA Donovan).
I lived and went to school in Manhattan for 9 years just post-Knapp, and frankly, anyone with half a brain knew the cops were corrupt as hell, even if they didn't personally see them shake down citizens for bribes they heard the stories from others.
I did witness a NYC cop collecting a bribe on one occasion. It was from the 2nd floor office of my Dad at a major NYC university overlooking the street. Heavy equipment weighing tons had to move across the sidewalk and had been held up for hours, truck crane there etc., permits were in order as this was a huge upgrade, planned months in advance. The work finally proceeded just as I watched a wad of something change hands on the street. I asked what was going on as I watched alongside my Dad, he said the cop demanded a bribe from the contractor. His university facility was the one being stiffed, and he was mad as hell.
In 9 years I never observed one commendable action by a single NYC cop, it was quite the opposite.
Have they gotten better? I certainly hope so. But when someone says NYC cops are the finest in the world, I ask, finest at what?
by NCD on Thu, 01/01/2015 - 11:07am
finest at what?
At being arrogant and rude and self-centered and thinking they are the best in the world. Just like mid-20th-century New Yorkers!
New York culture has mostly moved on from that old style, become more multi-culti. Even the wealthy have become more multi-culti, more and more of them aren't even American citizens. (Not to brag, as that has different problems, just a reality.)The NYPD has been forceably integrated with the multi-culti for a couple decades now, but this segment of old style "white working class guys from the boroughs we're the best in the world" still has a stranglehold on its culture somehow. It mystifies me how they do it.
It's actually kind of odd because the kind of cops in the video, they don't even live in NYC any more, they live in places like outside the Queens border on Long Island. (The population of Queens is like the U.N. now.) They get assigned to Manhattan somehow, that's part of the stranglehold, I suspect. You don't see many cops that look like that in the boroughs anymore, when you get to Manhattan central, it switches to the cops all look like Archie Bunkers' relatives. And still lay claim to being New Yorkers. Even the Dem machine tends to be more Hispanic these days....
by artappraiser on Thu, 01/01/2015 - 1:23pm
Awe, those cops were just caught on a bad day. Normally they are over on fifth Avenue welcoming wealthy tourists to the city.
by Oxy Mora on Thu, 01/01/2015 - 1:27pm
more like sitting in climate-controlled litle blue booths outside consulates to shoo tourists and other lingerers away and preferably get them moving towards Madison Avenue to shop. Where they already made sure that there are no homeless beggars that morning, they have already shooed them east a few blocks or onto the subway for the day. Want directions Mr. & Mrs. tourist? You should have hired a driver or at least hail a cab! Can't help you, go over to 72nd street entrance to Central Park where there's map, cause we are too important to help you, have to watch for the terrorists. Or you can go to the Met Museum steps where loitering is allowed and ask someone else (but none of this performance shit without a license.) At night, the streets of 10021 are empty except for outside a very few local watering holes, they like it that way, because most of them have gone home to Long Island, off duty. It's real quiet, like a small town, everything's closed.
(Though I live in the Bronx, I know the UES area intimately enough from business)
by artappraiser on Thu, 01/01/2015 - 1:58pm
Reminds me of all the L.A. cops living way to the north in Simi Valley. They closed a book store there and I got there late. Was still able to pick up a stash of great books for a buck a piece (including a signed first edition Toni Morrison.). Oh, I forgot, the Reagan library is there.
Stereotype alert.
by Oxy Mora on Thu, 01/01/2015 - 2:14pm
An authoritative description.
They also used to station a blue booth outside the DA's residence, while often taking the opportunity to needlessly harass other residents.
by NCD on Thu, 01/01/2015 - 2:32pm
Perhaps incremental improvements will result from the tragedies in Ferguson and New York. An article in the Dallas Morning News discusses a bill being considered to require interrogations of suspects to be recorded---now, in Texas, recordings are only required for confessions, not, e.g., the interrogations leading up to same. The article states that events in Ferguson and New York may give momentum to the idea that heightened scrutiny of officers is needed. The bill would make a suspect's statements as a result of an interrogation inadmissible in court if the interrogation wasn't recorded, (with exceptions). Kevin Lawrence, exec. director of the Texas Municipal Police Association worries that, "A serial killer or some child molester could go free by some technicality that was not intended by the statute."
I'll let you know when this bill passes.
by Oxy Mora on Thu, 01/01/2015 - 2:03pm
Let me clear up any misconceptions; I prefer dancing behind the back in most instances, it's less confrontational and I can live to dance another day
by Resistance on Thu, 01/01/2015 - 6:21am
Thank you for clearing that up Resistance, I actually was including you in the idea that no one here would defend the actions of those particular police, and I'm glad that you've reinforced that belief. I know we have our disagreements, but I know you wouldn't wish that treatment on anyone.
by Verified Atheist on Thu, 01/01/2015 - 9:13am
I think it is telling that the NYPD is in open revolt against the mayor because he is not 110% behind their mission. To me this shows that they are not responsive to the Political Class that supposedly oversees them but to a higher power the Oligarchs that actually wield power in our society.
You will never see the cops or any of their leaders turn their backs on the Masters Of The Universe of Wall Street, the people they are paid to protect.
You have to have some sympathy for the police for they are never respected only feared and those whom they actually protect and serve view them as expendable tools in their sick authoritarian game.
by Peter (not verified) on Wed, 12/31/2014 - 3:06pm