NYPD officials "embarrassed" and "powerless" as cop blog fills up with disturbing racist comments

stringer bell
stringer bell Members Posts: 26,212 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited April 2015 in For The Grown & Sexy
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/04/nypd-officials-embarrassed-and-powerless-as-cop-blog-fills-up-with-disturbing-racist-comments/
NYPD officials embarrassed and powerless as cop blog fills up with disturbing racist comments

Week after week, racist posts appear on Thee Rant, a blog for current or former New York City police officers: African Americans are called “apes;” a retired officer says one of the blessings of retirement is not having to work the Puerto Rican Day parade, with its “old obese tatted up women stuffed into outfits that they purchased or shoplifted at the local Kmart store; a Middle Eastern cab driver berated by an officer is termed a “third worlder” who should have his “head split open.”

And week after week, the department’s top officials are, at once, embarrassed and powerless.


“It’s very disturbing stuff. Outrageous stuff,” said Stephen Davis, the chief spokesman for the NYPD. “We see it. It’s a problem.”

At the heart of the problem are the limits the department faces in what it can do.

“Monitoring these things is challenging,” Davis said. “There are privacy issues involved. We can’t go and peel back email names and tags and try to find out who these people are.”

The issue of the blog, started by former NYPD officer Ed Polstein in 1999, has gained notoriety most recently after a white South Carolina police officer shot a black man to death. Shortly after a video of the officer appearing to shoot the fleeing man in the back went viral on the Internet, Thee Rant blew up with comments.

“Cop looked good in his stance,” read one post
.

Polstein, who did not respond to requests for an interview, has said previously that anyone wishing to post on the blog has to provide proof that they are a current or former member of the NYPD. But whether they are, and how many have signed up, are among the many mysteries surrounding Thee Rant. The blog says it garners 120,000 page views daily.

Leonard Levitt, a respected former Newsday reporter who runs the website NYPD Confidential, said he has stopped assigning much significance to Thee Rant.

“To be honest, I don’t read it,” Levitt said. “I’d say these guys represent the worst elements of the department. I don’t think they speak for the average cop. I have a feeling it’s four or five guys doing most of the yowling.”

Incidents of officers being investigated or punished for their behavior online, in social media or on personal cell phones, have cropped up in Illinois, Missouri and Florida in recent weeks and months.

In a St. Louis suburb, for instance, an officer was fired after posting racist remarks about the protests in Ferguson. In San Francisco, eight officers were fired for exchanging racist and homophobic text messages.

Relations between the police and minorities have been fraught in New York for decades. The assault on Abner Louima and the killing of Amadou Diallo during Rudy Giuliani’s administration sparked a rise in tension. The aggressive stop-and-frisk tactics during Michael Bloomberg’s mayoralty deepened the mistrust and anger. And the choking death of Eric Garner on Staten Island last year provoked protests and slogans.

William Bratton, Mayor Bill DeBlasio’s police commissioner, has acknowledged the poor relations and vowed to improve them.

The existence of Thee Rant, and the occasional, perhaps outsize attention it gets, has not made Bratton’s efforts easier.

Garner’s death prompted some of the more extensive back and forth on the blog. Garner was killed when an officer sought to subdue him during a stop for illegally selling loose cigarettes. Bratton initially said it appeared the officer had used an improper chokehold. But a grand jury on Staten Island declined to indict the officer.

On Thee Rant, support for the officer was substantial. And occasionally ugly.

“A more accurate headline would be “Non Compliant Fat Bastard Gets Just Due In Resisting Law Enforcement Officers,” read a post in reaction to headlines in the city’s papers.

“Yes, they’ll pay off the ‘family,’” started another. “It’s a lot cheaper than a riot – And therein lies the problem…The cities of America are held hostage by the strong-arm tactics of the savages.”


Davis, the NYPD spokesman, said department policy is that officers should not be on social media, as well as blogs, except for official business. The department has shown it is willing to act against problem officers when it can. In 2012, New York City police officers were disciplined over racist and violent comments made on Facebook, many of which targeted the annual Labor Day West Indian Parade, describing the event as a “scheduled riot” and comparing it to working at a zoo.

“We don’t know how many active police officers are on it,” Davis said of Thee Rant. “If we did identify active officers speaking on the site in that capacity they would be disciplined for violating policy.”

“Unfortunately,” he added, “it’s one of these things that we don’t have ownership of. We don’t have any control over it. Some say that’s good, others maybe say it’s bad.”

Davis said he did not know of any active effort to determine whether current officers are commenting on the site or who they are. He said the department would investigate any specific allegation that a particular officer was behind objectionable comments.

“It’s, in a sense, unfortunate that a lot of it is done under the banner of freedom of expression now,” Davis said.

Polstein, who joined the department in 1988, told the New York Daily News in 2005 that he’d started the blog as his personal diary. “It was how I felt at the moment,” he told the News. “It is my constitutional right to vent.”

Over the years, the local media has occasionally reported on Thee Rant. In one recent instance, the blog decided to go after a reporter who had done a story about the South Carolina shooting comments. One contributor to the blog found a video of the reporter at a conference, posted it, and then encouraged others to mock the reporter’s looks.

The coverage prompted objections from at least one current or former officer, who suggested Polstein should take a more active role in moderating the blog.

“There hasn’t been a moderator on here in days,” the officer wrote. “If Ed had any loyalty to active duty cops, he’d remove the law enforcement angle of the board and let er rip. As it is, anytime a lazy reporter wants to smear the NYPD, all he has to do is come here and read the ravings of some diaper wearing geriatric that fell hard off the Aricept train and say that it was an active NYPD cop saying it.”

The NYPD’s Davis said he hoped the police union might step in to rein in the blog.

“A lot of retired people are still active in the union and it doesn’t do anybody any good to have these remarks out there,” he said. “They really don’t help. But that’s the nature of the social media beast right now.”

Al O’Leary, spokesman for the New York City Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, declined to comment for this story.
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Comments

  • stringer bell
    stringer bell Members Posts: 26,212 ✭✭✭✭✭
    http://www.businessinsider.com/an-nypd-message-board-lit-up-with-racist-comments-following-the-shooting-of-an-unarmed-black-man-in-south-carolina-2015-4
    An NYPD message board lit up with racist comments after the shooting of an unarmed black man in South Carolina

    Former and current New York City cops have lit up an NYPD message board with racist comments following the shooting of an unarmed black man in South Carolina.

    Thee Rant, an online community forum for New York City police officers, allows users to post anonymously as long as they have signed up for membership with a valid NYPD ID.

    "The perpetrator was wanted for non support and stole the cops lazer and ran like a typical ni**aaa," user DisGraziato wrote yesterday. "Aren't police allowed to shoot a fleeing felon?? Eight shots in the back. A good shoot if you ask me.."

    The 'perpetrator' that the user is referring to is 50-year-old Walter Scott, who was allegedly shot to death on Sunday by a South Carolina police officer after being pulled over for a broken brake light. He had been arrested before for failing to pay back child support.

    "Who cares," wrote user otjkid. "One less azzbole that comes through the drive through on foot."

    "Was there a local Duty Savage, or did Sharpton himself fly down to size this up?" wrote HUD.

    Other commenters were more critical of the officer.

    "Can't side with guy on this one," wrote user MY TWO SENSE. "That was about as ugly as it gets."

    "He shot an unarmed guy in the back, who was 50ft+ distant and running away," wrote TrueBlue. "What was the cop thinking?"

    This is not the first time the message board has been defaced with racist comments by NYPD officers, according to Newsweek. After a man opened fire in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY during the city's West Indian Day Parade last September, NYPD officers took to Thee Rant to vent about West Indian and African-American "savages."

    The savages have won," user OldSchoolCop wrote. "Protect yourselves, your families, other LE and their families."

    "The mere interaction with those people involved and the complete lack of respect for each other made me realize how much of a sheet culture the West Indies really are," wrote user MY TWO SENSE. "These people...assault, ? , pillage, you name it."
  • Kakarot
    Kakarot Members Posts: 303 ✭✭✭
    embarrassed? they're like an obese woman scared to look at the mirror nude.
  • Ghostdenithegawd
    Ghostdenithegawd Members Posts: 16,231 ✭✭✭✭✭
    They act like we can't use computers, build them or hack their ? ,
  • CeLLaR-DooR
    CeLLaR-DooR Members Posts: 18,880 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Only shockin' to the crackas of the public. The officials feel the same way as the posters
  • blackamerica
    blackamerica Members Posts: 2,897 ✭✭✭✭✭
    How can you be sworn to serve & protect when you're more racist & ignorant than the criminals you're chasing?
  • optimistic
    optimistic Members Posts: 659 ✭✭✭✭✭
  • iron man1
    iron man1 Members Posts: 29,989 ✭✭✭✭✭
  • D0wn
    D0wn Members Posts: 10,818 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I rather be an black ape swinging tree to tree than a pale pig playing in ? .

    one of the dopest things posted On this site
  • R0mp
    R0mp Members Posts: 4,250 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Lol.

    NiggerMonkeyApeChimpGorillaBaboonOrangutanBonobo is the official language of incensed swine-slab slime.

    They can all go crash head-first into the trees they say we swing from. ? maggots.
  • aka_OG
    aka_OG Members Posts: 1,746 ✭✭✭✭✭
    i never understood how they are the ones who believe in evolution the most but call us a monkey with no hesitation

    i've yet to see monkey with an afro or curly hair - but seen more than enough with straight hair...
  • LEMZIMUS_RAMSEY
    LEMZIMUS_RAMSEY Members, Writer Posts: 17,670 ✭✭✭✭✭
    these policemen need to be educated.
  • soul rattler
    soul rattler Members Posts: 18,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
    a retired officer says one of the blessings of retirement is not having to work the Puerto Rican Day parade, with its “old obese tatted up women stuffed into outfits that they purchased or shoplifted at the local Kmart store;
    Bruh that's ? up but



















    1-Serious.jpg
  • nex gin
    nex gin Members Posts: 10,698 ✭✭✭✭✭
    these policemen need to be educated.

    I must respectfully disagree w/ you. This type of stuff falls in the realm of "can't teach an old dog new tricks". They are only embarrassed & apologetic when they get caught. They say and do the things they do because that's who they legitimately are.....ignorant, power-trippin bigots. These muffugguhs have a deep seeded hatred that no amount of education can correct.
  • h8rhurta
    h8rhurta Members Posts: 1,119 ✭✭✭✭✭
    This is a DIRECT contrast as to why they can't serve and protect. The ? excuse about you can't peel back layers because of privacy is ? when you see that CURRENT NYPD officers are speaking they way they are about the people they serve. The more they fight to not do anything the more they look like they're sanctioning this behavior. The blue shield euphoria has a MAJORITY of officers feeling the same way and they know there is little to no real repercussions for their actions. They're not really bold, they just hide behind screen names and unions. Take away the badge and gun and most of them don't want any part of the job.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 0 Regulator
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • D. Morgan
    D. Morgan Members Posts: 11,662 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2015
    The police aren't here to "protect and serve" that is a ? line that they try and feed people.

    The police are here to enforce the interests of the rich ruling class and keep the masses in line with how the rich ruling class feels.
  • [Trillmatic]
    [Trillmatic] Members Posts: 3,531 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Man who cares. Yall ain't gonna do ? anyway but be fake mad for the rest of the night.
  • Kakarot
    Kakarot Members Posts: 303 ✭✭✭
    aka_OG wrote: »
    i never understood how they are the ones who believe in evolution the most but call us a monkey with no hesitation

    i've yet to see monkey with an afro or curly hair - but seen more than enough with straight hair...

    Hell, to me its a compliment. Frieza never understood that.
  • OGClarenceBoddicker
    OGClarenceBoddicker Members Posts: 4,493 ✭✭✭✭✭
    who cares, non-blacks love us, this article is just a figment of you guy's imagination, white people love us, extend a helping hand in love
  • Ilike2get baked
    Ilike2get baked Members Posts: 879 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Sorry but this is old..NYPD pigs are racist and water is wet...common sense
  • PapaDoc223
    PapaDoc223 Members Posts: 2,162 ✭✭✭✭✭
    NYPD has alot of quiet racist. There was this white kid in high school whose dad was a cop. Man he wpuld black spanish and asian jokes with his white and some hispanic ? friends. He was irish. Now where would he learn all this ? from? Probably his racist cop of a dad.
  • RottenBerries
    RottenBerries Members Posts: 7
    They act like we can't use computers, build them or hack their ? ,
    Average idiot on the street they're probably referencing can only instagram and twitter
  • RottenBerries
    RottenBerries Members Posts: 7
    aka_OG wrote: »
    i never understood how they are the ones who believe in evolution the most but call us a monkey with no hesitation

    i've yet to see monkey with an afro or curly hair - but seen more than enough with straight hair...

    2hhoe15.jpg
    I don't know. I think these dudes look kind of like apes.