Hi Helmut … should I have included the “/sarcasm” tag on my comment? Should you have? Why is sarcasm so hard to convey in writing?

Of course NYPD is racist. All police forces are racist.

I was going to ask that very question. Is what you said true?

I don’t understand why they let a lot of these guys go home before arresting them. Jose Guerena is a perfect example – he worked the night shift at a local mine, if memory serves. That means he had a predicatble schedule and the cops knew exactly when he would be walking across the parking lot at the mine – why not pick him up there away from innocent women and children and the dangers of dynamic entry into a residence? Why not pull him over on the way home from work? Snag him outside his house when he left for work that evening?

It’s the same with this kid – why risk lives and let him go home first? If it is because of a perverse incentive to save on the paperwork for a search warrant, new rules could be passed to stop that mess pretty easily. One of the only times you’ll ever hear me say “there oughta be a law” is when that law constrains government or law enforcement from doing something bad to civilians who are innocent (and yes, no matter whether this kid was flushing pot or not, or whether Jose was dealing weed, they were innocent by the very definitions laid out in our legal system – innocent until proven guilty…)

NYPD has become a bunch of amateurs. Why didn’t one of the other cops just wander into the kitchen, grab a substantial looking knife, and toss that into the bathroom. The get some crime scene photos of the knife: there, justiification for killing someone in their bathroom. No need for a gun, and no need to rough up someone’s grandmother.

Why didn’t they arrest Mr. Graham outside? Because once he goes into the apartment, then they can search the apartment without getting a warrant. Makes their job a lot easier.

Some new professionalism. I’m sure Scalia would be proud.

Oh come now, CyniCAL. Jus because NYPD’s aggressive “stop and frisk” program is used almost exclusively against blacks and hispanics. And just because of all the stories going back, say, one hundred plus years about ill treatment of blacks and others in New York City (I believe James Baldwin discussed this in some detail). Oh, and I bet you probably heard about Louima and Sean Bell and all those guys to. I mean CyniCAL, NYPD really seems to be totally color-blind. Yep, they call ‘em as they see em. Just ask the union!

There is NOTHING noble about these ‘men.’

I have an acquaintance who is NYPD. I think she experiences a lot of cognitive dissonance between her job and reality.

I KNEW IT!!!

He was Black!

New York City is a much safer place if you’re not Black or Hispanic. It’s almost like the police have it in for minorities there.

To the White folk: “Move along, nothing to see here.”