Justice. Only Justice Shall Thou Pursue

I learned about the execution style killing of two NYPD officers, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, in Brooklyn while at a family gathering, and it is heartbreaking to learn under any circumstances.

These officers were doing their jobs, trying to reduce crime in a high-crime area of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn they weren't even from the local precinct but  rather called in from other parts of the city to help. The man who killed them had an agenda that had nothing to do with protests or protesters; he had a lengthy criminal record and had shot and nearly killed his girlfriend before coming up to NYC to engage in more mayhem.

But NYPD supporters who ignore all that ails the Department and that there are bad officers in their midst, will try everything to link the killer to the protests. The PBA's Pat Lynch and others will try and blame the Mayor for the killings, claiming that the Mayor doesn't support the officers wholeheartedly and without reservations.

The problem is that there's no truth to the matter asserted. The Mayor does support the police. He also doesn't want anyone to tolerate criminal behavior by the police. He wants justice applied evenly and fairly. He has to warn his son (who is black) that police might not respect him or treat him properly because of the color of his skin, even if he does nothing wrong. That's not disrespecting the police; that's stating an objective fact. Police in NYC, and nationally, do engage in racial profiling and they do stop blacks far more often than whites when adjusting for per capita.

Justice. Only Justice Shall Thou Pursue. It's originally found in the Old Testament. It's a call for justice and to follow the law.

It's not just an empty slogan.

I've been referring to this belief quite frequently in the past several months, if only because it's become abundantly clear that there are some people who don't think that justice applies to everyone.

Some people believe that law enforcement is immune from being responsible for their actions that result in the death of unarmed people and particularly unarmed black men and children. This belief extends to the police and prosecutors who are supposed to uphold the law.

When the police and prosecutors fail to do their jobs properly, that harms everyone - it's a breach of the social compact that the police have with us. And they have to be responsible for their actions as well.

It's pitiful that the police boosters are trying to pin blame on people like Al Sharpton or Mayor DeBlasio for the shooting of the two cops; we don't hear these same voices blaming right wingers like Rush or Hannity when white supremacists and sovereign citizens use the same rhetoric and vitriol in stalking and targeting law enforcement. There, those people are categorized as lone wolfs and not representative of everyone else.

Personal responsibility.

It cuts both ways. It is ultimately the responsibility of the shooters and criminals who carry out these acts. It is also the responsibility for everyone to call out those who use extreme rhetoric.

Justice demands it.

The need to seek justice for those who are killed at the hands of police is not mutually exclusive with the need respect or to mourn their losses in such horrible circumstances. The NYPD has done heroic things, such as running into the burning WTC before it came crashing down on 9/11, and they've killed unarmed black men including Sean Bell, Eric Garner, and Amadou Diallo. They've sodomized Abner Louima, and the fight for justice continues. Good cops shouldn't stand to see their ranks sullied by those who violate the social compact, and yet that's exactly the message we get from their union leadership who blames the assassination on the mayor who represents an entire city, and not just a police union.

Justice demands it.

Cross posted at LGF.

Time To Eliminate Law Enforcement Responsibilities From the Port Authority

That's the video taken from one of the BASE jumpers who jumped from the top of 1WTC last September.

That incident, plus the more recent incident involving a teen climbing all the way to the top of the spire without anyone noticing anything wrong, shows how porous the WTC site is and how ineffective Port Authority security truly is.

I get how security can't be 100% perfect, but the Port Authority has made a show of how much security is there. It's a facade. They spent money on cameras, but didn't bother to install them.

They will repeatedly stop people attempting to enter the PATH but it's a superficial show and is hardly a deterrent when the search takes place at the base of the escalator bank.

Their police force is among the most highly compensated in the NYC metro area, and yet the site has repeatedly been entered by persons who don't belong. It is past time to turn over security at the WTC, and other Port Authority sites to the local law enforcement agencies, particularly the NYPD in NYC. There's nothing that the PAPD can do that the NYPD can't do - and the NYPD can do it better, and for far lower cost to taxpayers/riders/toll payers.

Eliminate the PAPD altogether. Consolidate law enforcement responsibilities in the local agencies and grant the NYPD and the New Jersey local law enforcement responsibilities and jurisdiction to handle the bistate crossings.

The PAPD was established because there are bistate bridges and tunnels, and this gets around the jurisdiction issues, but there are far too many problems with the PAPD that can't be solved with the existing system. The politicization of the Port Authority is a big reason. That politicization includes the Gov. Christie Bridgegate (GWB vendetta against Fort Lee Mayor for not endorsing him in a surefire reelection), and Gov. Cuomo and Christie's manipulation of a recent toll hike to make the governors look good even though they were approving massive toll and fare hikes.

Dismantling the bistate agency isn't going to happen anytime soon, not when both governors continue using the agency for their political purposes, but there has to be more accountability with the agency. Security problems at the WTC are only the latest issue. Cost controls on WTC reconstruction have long shown that the agency isn't interested in fiscal responsibility when they can get tolling and fares to cover any overruns. The agency is planning a vast capital program over the next decade, including rebuilding two bridges (Outerbridge and Bayonne) and building two new spans (new Goethals), plus major rehabilitation of the Lincoln Tunnel approach and the GWB. PATH is also getting expanded to Newark Liberty airport, but it doesn't appear that cost containment is in the picture, especially with the WTC PATH transit hub. And because there isn't sufficient cost control, money that could go towards other major capital projects is sucked up by the projects already in the pipeline.

Removing or at least seriously reducing the law enforcement responsibility will free up more money to do what the agency was intended to do in the first place - build transit infrastructure in the NYC metro area. It would help refocus the agency on its core mission.

NYPD Officers, Use of Deadly Force, and the Shooting Outside the Empire State Building

Police officers around the nation have among the toughest jobs in the nation. They're entrusted with protecting and saving lives and bringing those who violate the law to justice. There are times when those jobs conflict with each other - such as during car chases or gun battles.

It's very difficult to blame the officers for taking the actions they did, but it is unsettling to see that so many of those injured in today's shooting outside the Empire State Building were hit by stray gunfire from the police officers who were trying to subdue the gunman, Jeffrey Johnson. Some reports are indicating that all of those who were injured were from police gunfire, not the assailant's gun.

The NYPD is the largest police force in the nation, and they've done a remarkable job in reducing crime across the city - the murder and other violent crimes rates are down tremendously from just a decade ago. That doesn't mean that their policies and practices are above reproach.

There are ways to improve their training and procedures so that lives aren't put at risk. Currently, police officers have to rotate through the firing range once a year. That would appear to be insufficient to maintain the skills and proficiency in dealing with situations such as today's shooting.

Increasing the training/proficiency requirements costs money and the Department's financial situation is tight, but doing so is the prudent thing and can save money in the long term - such as avoiding lawsuits and improving tactics and training.

Today's shooting also seems to undermine the argument that allowing more firearms could have saved lives in the Aurora movie massacre or other mass shooting incidents around the nation. When trained police officers inflict injuries on bystanders in the process of taking down a perpetrator, why would anyone think that civilians with firearms would do any better? That ignores the training that police officers have to undergo to be police officers (and the periodic training updates).

Developing: Multiple Casualties From Shooting Outside Empire State Building

Shortly after 9:00 AM local time, multiple reports came in indicating that there was a shooting in the vicinity of the Empire State Building. It appears that there are at least six injuries, and at least one person killed besides the shooter. The NYPD and FDNY are on the scene, which has been secured.

The reports indicate that the shooter may have been recently fired from a business that operates in the building.

Police apparently shot the gunman, but not before the gunman killed at least one person. Several others have been taken to area hospitals. The area around the Empire State Building has been closed to traffic as the investigation continues.

At least four of those injured were shot. There were about 10 injured.

The victims were apparently targeted by the gunman. In one instance, a witness claims to have seen the gunman walk up to one of the victims and shot them point blank in the head.

UPDATE:
More details emerging, including several potential motives:

The investigation into the matter was in its earliest stages, and the official said he was unsure of the details and circumstances that led to the shooting.

Two law enforcement officials said investigators have concluded that the shooting had no connection to terrorism and that it appeared to stem from a domestic dispute of some kind. A third said it may have been sparked by a robbery or dispute in the street.

One woman said that she had just come out of a dentist’s office near the Empire State Building when the shooting happened.

“Suddenly I heard two shots or three shots, boom boom boom, and I saw two guys, they go to the floor,” said the woman, who would only give her first name, Monica. “I was really afraid.”

Andrew Pellenberg, 23, and a friend, both from New Jersey, were thinking about visiting the Empire State Building. “We heard 10 to 15 gunshots, and it was all in a 30-second span,” Mr. Pellenberg said.

Several of the victims were treated at the corner of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. The wounded were taken to Bellevue Hospital and St. Luke’s Roosevelt, with the more seriously injured going to Bellevue, the official said.

Stop and Frisk Hasn't Reduced NYC Shootings

Despite the soaring number of stop and frisk encounters by the New York Police Department, the number of shooting has continued at the same level as before stop and frisk became official NYPD policy.

While the NYPD was stopping and frisking a record 685,724 people last year, 1,821 people were victims of gunfire, according to NYPD and city statistics. That's virtually the same number as in 2002, Bloomberg's first year in office, when 1,892 people were shot, but just 97,296 people were frisked.

The year before, there were 1,845 shootings with a similar number of frisks.

"If you have a flat-line situation with shootings, and the stops are this high, you are throwing everyone up against the wall and you are losing the community, then you have to reassess," a former top NYPD official told "On the Inside."

There's a couple of points to address. If the number of shootings has remained constant during the past decade, but stop and frisk has increased exponentially, something is wrong with that policy since it was intended to get guns off the street. While proponents might argue that the number of shootings might have been even higher had stop and frisk not been in place, the numbers don't exactly bear this out as other reports have indicated that the number of guns recovered during stop and frisks is exceedingly and shockingly low.

Indeed, the number of guns recovered during stop and frisk has gone from 1 in 266 stops to 1 in 3,000. Doing the math, that works out to roughly 228 guns recovered in 2011 as compared to 365 recovered in 2003.

It's also interesting that the number of shootings has remained constant even as the number of murders has remained at or near historic lows. That could be attributed to better life-saving techniques or that there was more random and non-lethal gunfire (firing in the air and random people were struck in a non-fatal manner for instance). This points to the fact that the NYPD has gotten lucky with the low murder rates, considering that the gunfire hasn't decreased.

And that brings me back to stop and frisk. If the policy isn't getting guns off the streets (and a gun-buyback program might accomplish more without totally isolating a community and creating more problems for community policing efforts), then something needs to be done to refocus efforts on those criminal elements bringing the guns into the city. Stop and frisk isn't working and it is taking valuable resources away from other more vital services at a time when the NYPD is being pulled in multiple directions (think continuing counterterrorism work) with an ever more limited budget.

An Admission of Guilt, But Whither The Evidence?

Pedro Hernandez apparently confessed yesterday to murdering Etan Patz and then disposing of his body in the trash 33 years ago today. He was transferred to Bellvue Hospital in NYC and is under suicide watch.

It was unclear where Mr. Hernandez was held until he was moved to the hospital, and the official could not say whether he was transferred for any formal evaluation. Mr. Hernandez has been accused of second-degree murder by the police but has yet to be charged by prosecutors.

He told investigators that on the day Etan, 6, disappeared on his way to a school bus stop in SoHo, he lured the boy to the basement of the bodega where he worked with the promise of a soda, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said Thursday night. Once inside, Mr. Hernandez said he choked Etan, stuffed his body in a bag and took the bag about a block and a half away, where dumped it in the open amid other trash.

Despite the admission and confession, investigators still need to find evidence to link him to the crime; charges are pending. It's also troublesome that several family members had heard Hernandez tell stories of him doing bad things to a kid in NYC and that the kid was killed, but no one apparently took him seriously enough until the latest round of investigations in NYC earlier this month led one family member to speak with investigators.

One family member told The Star-Ledger that Hernandez joked that he had killed Etan but did not make the claim in earnest. The family member did not want to be identified for fear of upsetting other relatives.

Kelly said the tip was generated in the wake of a flurry of media reports about the case last month, when the NYPD and the FBI dug up the basement of a building down the block from the Patz home. Authorities suspected a local handyman who had a workshop in the basement killed and buried Patz there.

That man has now been cleared, Kelly said.

The family member who spoke to The Star-Ledger said the recent news about the search prompted Hernandez to call his sister, Luz, in New York City to talk about the case. The relative found it odd, saying Hernandez wasn't especially close to his sister and that the New Jersey man wasn't calling just to make chitchat.

Kelly said Hernandez was never before a focus of the exhaustive investigation, though his name was one of many in police documents listing those who lived or worked in the area. Hernandez had an apartment nearby and had been working as a stock clerk for about a month when Etan was killed in 1979.

It will still be up to prosecutors to make the case based on circumstantial evidence since there's nothing other than the confession and hearsay evidence that ties Hernandez to the crime.

If the remains of Patz were tossed in the garbage, it might be possible to track down where the garbage load was delivered (quite possibly to Great Kills landfill on Staten Island), but as we've seen with other instances of bodies dumped in garbage landfills, the chances of finding the remains after all these decades is quite slim.

Big Break In Etan Patz Case?

It looks like there's been a huge break in the Etan Patz case this morning as all the local media outlets are reporting that the NYPD has someone in custody who has implicated himself in the disappearance. It's not one of the two individuals (including convicted child molestor Jose Ramos) previously suspected in the disappearance of Patz from a SoHo street more than 30 years ago. The break comes nearly 33 years to the day from the disappearance:

The man in custody, Pedro Hernandez, is from Camden, New Jersey and worked in Patz’s SoHo neighborhood at the time of his disappearance, 1010 WINS’ Juliet Papa reported.

Speaking on “CBS This Morning,” CBS News senior correspondent John Miller said Hernandez was not considered a major suspect when Patz went missing.

“He’s in the interrogation room, he’s made admissions, he’s implicated himself and now you’re in the very odd position of trying to go and prove that his admissions are correct because this would also not be the first time someone has made admissions in the case and not have them pan out,” Miller said.

The little boy was last seen walking to a school bus on May 25, 1979. Patz’s parents let him walk to the bus alone for the first time that morning and he was never seen again.

Investigators will now have the arduous task of trying to piece together whether Hernandez's story pans out and can be verified. One of the goals may be to see if they can locate Patz's remains.

Earlier this month a joint NYPD/FBI investigation searched the basement of a building along the street where Patz disappeared. That did not turn up any evidence.

Here's hoping that this newest lead will result in discovering what really happened to Patz and help the Patz family gain closure on this most horrible event.

UPDATE:
Reports indicate that Hernandez strangled Patz after abducting him, but without more evidence, that's not substantiated. What would put this case to rest would be the revelation of where Patz's remains are located.

Despite Bloomberg Saying Nothing Wrong With Stop and Frisk; NYPD Commissioner Kelly Institutes Reforms

It's curious how Mayor Mike Bloomberg can defend stop and frisk as a policy that works on the same day that NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly announces reforms of the program to address community concerns.

In a letter sent earlier today to Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Kelly said top-ranking officials in each police precinct will now be required to audit reports of street stops by officers. This is in addition to a review undertaken at weekly Compstat meetings by the chief of the department, he wrote.

“I believe these measures will help us more closely monitor the daily street encounter activity of precinct personnel,” he wrote.

He also said that the department has republished an order prohibiting racial profiling and has created a new training course that “provides personnel with an additional level of clarity in determining when and how to conduct a lawful stop.”

Quinn, who released Kelly’s letter, said in a statement that the changes announced were “an important step forward” but said more needs to be done to reduce the number of stops and “bridge the divide between the NYPD and the communities they serve.”

A federal judge yesterday granted class-action status to a lawsuit against the city’s stop-and-frisk practices. The lawsuit alleges that the NYPD has systematically targeted blacks and Latinos and trampled on Constitutional protections against unreasonable searches.

Particularly of interest is the fact that Kelly had to reiterate the prohibition of racial profiling and additional training on how to conduct lawful stops. It would seem to be a nod to the fact that the policies that were previously put in place were insufficient or that the cops carrying out the stop and frisk activities need additional training.

Part of the problem with the program as a whole may be diminishing returns on a program that started out with the best of intentions and did take criminals and their weapons off the streets, but which has become a slave to its own statistics as a metric of how much activity beat cops are doing on a regular basis.

Despite Higher Stop and Frisk Figures, NYPD Ticket Writing Way Down

New York City is busy dealing with the stop and frisk controversy and suits filed against the policy, but a curious statistic was released on another aspect of policing in New York City.

The NYPD is on pace to write more than a quarter million fewer tickets than it did last year, likely as a result of a ticket-fixing scandal last year that led to beat cops not issuing as many tickets as they had been. That has budget ramifications as the tickets translate into revenues.

The city’s revenues from traffic and parking violations could come in under last year’s eight-year low because cops are on track to write nearly 270,000 fewer moving violations, The Post has learned.

Reports from Mayor Bloomberg’s budget office show that 1,262,585 of those violations were recorded in the last fiscal year, while only 744,741 were logged through the first nine months of fiscal 2012.

If that trend continues through June 30, when the fiscal year ends, the final tally will be 992,988 — a stunning reduction of 269,597 summonses.

The Post reported last August that cops upset at new regulations imposed after the Bronx ticket-fixing scandal were engaging in a widespread slowdown.

That includes both parking violations and moving violations, which combined can generate around $500 million annually.

Should the trend continue, expect to watch the City Council increase the fines associated with the various violations even higher than they are already so as to generate the revenues necessary to fund operations.

Even NYPD Professionals Are Questioning The Scope of Stop and Frisk

The release of data showing just how frequently the NYPD is using Stop and Frisk as a police tactic to reduce crime is staggering with its implications and whether the program is no longer achieving its objectives. It's got top level police officials questioning whether the program has gone off the rails - for performance objectives sake - and ignoring the implications for civil rights and actual crime fighting.

Last Friday, the NYPD revealed they conducted 204,000 "Stop-and-Frisks" in just the first three months of the year, pushing the boundary even further.

How has a police department that was conducting 500,000 stop and frisks a year — or 1,400-a-day — compelled the same number of troops to conduct 200,000 more — or 500 additional stops every day?

And why?

Is it all about fighting crime? Is it about Kelly and Bloomberg’s legacy?
One official offered insight.

He said the department a year or so ago quietly issued "performance standards" that only "put more pressure downward on cops, asking them, 'What did you do this week?'

"And the feeling was, ‘If they were going to break my balls, then I will just do what I know they want and end my problem. Period.'"

This well intentioned program started off well - and it was getting criminals off the street when it was focused on high crime areas, but as the program expanded, it started having unintended consequences. Instead of putting the community and police on the same page as far as fighting criminal elements in the communities, it creates distrust and apprehension.

If police commanders in precincts are encouraged to show results - one way they can do so is by putting more of their beat cops on stop and frisk details, and they can show that they're in the field by reporting on the number of stop and frisks on a daily basis. It's a numbers driven policy that doesn't actually reduce crime and may be taking resources away from those tactics that have been shown to work best.

It's time to put stop and frisk back into its context - to use it in high crime areas. This is one time where the statistics do not back up stop and frisk.

The Rebuilding of Ground Zero, Part 155

The Freedom Tower (1WTC) is approaching its topping out. The tower is probably a week or two away from completing the bulk of construction. While the tower's antenna would remain to be built, the rest of the tower would be in the process of being fitted out for occupation.

Meanwhile, the NYPD has come up with a new security plan that makes little sense and would do more to disrupt traffic in Lower Manhattan than one could possibly imagine. It goes to the very inanity of the master plan's intention to restore the street grid (which resulted in a reduction of space that could be dedicated for the museum and memorial).

The security plan would create vehicle checkpoints along all major thoroughfares leaning towards the Trade Center site.

The NYPD's controversial new security plan for the World Trade Center will place stringent vehicle checkpoints and barricaded secure zones on all four sides of the complex, locking down several neighboring blocks lined with residential buildings and businesses beginning as soon as next year, police revealed.

Residents were in an uproar after learning of the NYPD's preliminary plans — unveiled at a Community Board 1 meeting Monday night — that will not only close off all the streets running through the World Trade Center site but will also close portions of Liberty Street, Vesey Street, Church Street, Washington Street, Greenwich Street and West Broadway.

"Am I going to have to go through security ever time I try to get home?" asked Mark Scherzer, 60, who has lived at 125 Cedar St. for 34 years and would now be partially in a secure zone.
"We didn't sign on to be part of the Trade Center campus," Scherzer added. "It's very concerning."

Vehicles looking to access the restricted areas will have to detour through one of four checkpoints and will have to submit to a security screening before being allowed inside, police said.

Lt. David Kelly, who works in the NYPD's counterterrorism bureau, told Community Board 1 that the security measures are necessary to protect the new World Trade Center towers from a truck bomb.

The four entry points include: Washington Street, between Barclay and Vesey streets, for 7 World
Trade Center's loading docks; West Broadway, between Barclay and Vesey streets, for livery and private vehicles; Trinity Place, at Liberty Street, for tour buses; and West Street, at Liberty Street, for vehicles going underground to make deliveries or park, Kelly said.

At each entry point, vehicles will first pass through a credentialing zone, where drivers will have to show that they have legitimate business on the site, and then they will go through security screening, Kelly said.

While residents may be able to register their cars as trusted vehicles and circumvent some of the security, the NYPD has not yet determined the details, and it may be especially difficult for those who rely on cabs.

Kelly said the security would be more advanced than the measures now in place in areas like the New York Stock Exchange, where vehicles are checked with dogs and mirrors.

Currently, there's a security checkpoint on Broadway below Liberty Street, and that has a tendency to back traffic up past City Hall. Additional checkpoints would be an additional inconvenience and makes one question the need for a vehicle security center for vehicles actually entering the WTC site.

This plan would essentially create a vehicle-free zone in Lower Manhattan, which may be something that the Bloomberg Administration wants, but it creates all manner of problem for those living and working in Lower Manhattan. It would create undue hardships for those living in Battery Park City and would be a further cost on the NYPD budget.

Under this proposal, the security perimeter for the WTC complex would be moved further away from the 16 acres that comprise the site. We don't see this kind of security in Washington DC, where major streets remain passable without security checkpoints, even around the White House.

However, if the NYPD asserts a vehicle free zone, then why was a street grid so necessary for purposes of the master plan? That's a question that the Port Authority has to answer - and one that makes little sense.

Frankly, a vehicle free zone (prohibiting cars and thru-traffic trucks) around the World Trade Center site would be a welcome addition due to the amount of congestion. It would allow buses to run more efficiently through the area and reduce congestion and pollution.

Has NYPD Gone Too Far In Surveillance Efforts Looking For Islamic Extremists?

Following the intel failures that led to the US government being unprepared for the 9/11 attacks, the NYPD vastly expanded its intel efforts, including establishing outposts in foreign countries to bring in intel directly from those foreign countries instead of relying solely on the FBI or CIA.

Those surveillance efforts include looking for Muslim extremists in the New York City metro area - including in New Jersey. While the NYPD can claim that they've thwarted numerous plots involving Islamic terrorists since 9/11, there have been several notable failures, including the Times Square bomber, Faisal Shazad. In that case, police didn't know of the plot to attack Times Square with a bomb planted in a SUV. Police learned of the incident after a local vendor alerted police to the smoking vehicle and it was only after conducting standard investigation techniques that Shazad was arrested.

As a result of the revelations about the scope of the surveillance, Muslim groups across the region are speaking out against the NYPD spying efforts, noting that it's a potential civil rights violation. They have a point, and while then-New Jersey Governor Richard Codey was informed of the spying efforts in places like Newark and elsewhere in the state, it doesn't mean that there was sufficient oversight.

Following the NYPD's illegal surveillance of radical groups during the 1970s, the NYPD entered into an agreement in 1985 called Handschu that required oversight of surveillance operations.

The Handschu agreement, as it is often referred to, was established in 1985 after decades of covert NYPD infiltration of activist groups including the New York City chapter of the Black Panthers. It also kept tabs on citizens who had done nothing more than sign a petition to end the Vietnam war, reporting their political positions to potential employers.

The element of the NYPD responsible for this surveillance went through a number of names, including the Italian squad, the black hand squad, and the bureau of special services. Today it is known as the intelligence division.

Handschu restricted the department's powers to monitor political groups, stipulating that police needed information indicating that a crime was being committed in order to investigate political activity. The rules remained in place for over 15 years.

In 2002 the NYPD, under the guidance of former CIA officer Cohen, lobbied to have Handschu's restrictions significantly loosened, following the September 11 attacks of the previous year. The department argued that it could not effectively fight terrorism with the rules in place.

The NYPD largely got what it wanted in 2003, when significant modifications were made to the agreement.

Civil rights attorney Jethro Eisentstein, who is involved in a class action lawsuit against the NYPD in relation to Handschu, says what remains of the agreement is vitally important to the latest revelations concerning the NYPD's surveillance of Muslim communities.

Specifically, Handschu required that surveillance operations must secure a warrant from a three-person panel comprised of two police commissioners and a mayor-appointed civilian. That was modified in 2003 when the panel was reduced to a single person.

It's the reduction of the panel to a single person that opens the door to mischief and it's time to restore a 3-person panel. That wont necessarily eliminate all warrants along these lines, but introduces a level of oversight lacking when you have a single person who is intent upon investigations that might lead to violations of civil rights (to say nothing of accusations of malfeasance).

Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Ray Kelly are defending the actions, and Bloomberg calls critics naive. Sorry, but that doesn't quite cut it. While there are indeed serious concerns about terror groups operating in the NYC metro area based on past history (both the 9/11 attackers and the 1993 WTC bombers had ties to the metro area), wholesale spying on an entire community is overbroad. It also reduces the level of trust between the Muslim community that would be willing to work with law enforcement to root out extremists in their midst and actually makes it more difficult to track down those who might be plotting attacks down the line.

The Buck Stops Where?

Yesterday morning, a New York City police officer, Peter Figoski, was killed in the line of duty as he responded to a burglary in Queens. The alleged cop-killer, Lamont Pride, is in custody after Figoski's partner ran down Pride as he tried to escape. Pride's accomplice in the burglary has been captured, and several others are now under arrest in connection with the murder:

The accomplice who fled from cops after his low-life pal shot and killed Officer Peter Figoski has been caught, police said Tuesday.

Three other suspects were also taken into custody overnight — two neighbors who live across the street and the alleged getaway driver.

The accomplice was arrested at 2 a.m. and will be charged with murder in the slaying of Figoski, a decorated 22-year NYPD veteran and father of four daughters, officials said.

Police were responding to a robbery in progress in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn at 2:15 a.m. Monday when one of the bandits shot Figoski.

The accomplice, who had been grappling with Figoski’s partner, Officer Glenn Estrada, ran off when Estrada made the split-second decision to chase the man who had just killed his partner. Estrada pursued and captured the alleged gunman, Lamont Pride, 27, several blocks away.

Police said they were initially looking for just the escaped accomplice but quickly realized more people were involved.

Sources said cops became suspicious of the story told by two “concerned neighbors” living across the street.

The pair were very quick to describe the guns used in the robbery at the Pine St. home.

"We were suspicious of them. We kept them and questioned them," a source told the Daily News.

The two neighbors are expected to be charged with murder. It is unclear what charges the getaway driver will face.

The real question though is why Pride was ever on the street to be in a position to carry out a burglary, let alone be in a position to murder a New York cop.

Pride has been arrested numerous times in connection with various criminal acts, including an attempted murder charge in North Carolina, and several crimes in New York City.

Did his case fall through the cracks? That's what various people connected with the New York and North Carolina justice systems want to believe, but someone has to be held responsible for the failure to incarcerate Pride.

Pride has been arrested twice since September in New York, and that's after being wanted on attempted murder charges in North Carolina. Each time, Pride was able to avoid incarceration and extradition to North Carolina.

“We ran him and found he was wanted in [North Carolina\] on weapon assault charges, but the warrant specified ‘extradite within the State of North Carolina only,’ ” said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

The NYPD contacted North Carolina authorities twice to press them to change the warrant, but they refused, sources said.

At Pride’s Nov. 4 arraignment, prosecutor Evan Degrees asked bail be set at $2,500. But Brooklyn Criminal Court Judge Evelyn LaPorte released him on his own recognizance, records show.

The warrant for the North Carolina crimes didn't contain the extradition orders and North Carolina prosecutors didn't want to go ahead and change the warrant to allow for extradition, and a New York judge was far too lenient considering his lengthy rap sheet. Pride was a one-man crime spree, and yet a New York judge allowed him to be released on his own recognizance. Prosecutors had called for a $2,500 bail.

In the end, Pride is fully responsible for the death of Officer Figoski, but the justice system in both North Carolina and New York failed Figoski, the NYPD, and the public by turning a blind eye to a career criminal and his lengthy felonious rap sheet.

Will anyone hold Evelyn LaPorte responsible for such an egregious miscarriage of justice? Will anyone hold the North Carolina prosecutors? Each had the ability to see to it that Pride remained off the streets while awaiting trial on the attempted murder charges in North Carolina, but now he'll be off the streets indefinitely as a result of the murder charges pending in the death of Officer Figoski.

More Details Emerge About Latest NYC Terror Plotter

The alleged terrorist who sought to carry out bombings in the New York City metro area has been identified as Jose Pimentel. Among the suspected terror targets was the Bayonne, New Jersey police department, which is colocated with the City Hall and other local government agencies. Pimentel figured that it would be easier than targeting locations in New York City because of its anti-terror initiatives. Other targets included post office boxes, NYPD cops and military personnel returning home from Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the family members who came to greet them. Still another potential target was the Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum.

The FBI apparently had concerns over the informant that was supplying the FBI and NYPD with information about Pimentel. The FBI apparently passed twice on Pimentel before the NYPD acted.

The FBI and federal prosecutors were unimpressed by Jose Pimentel's radical pedigree and Internet rantings, deciding he was a big talker who couldn't carry out his plans without help, sources said.

But when city cops arrested the Muslim convert over the weekend, he allegedly was drilling holes into pipes with the help of a jihadist bomb-making blueprint.

"No question in my mind that we had to take this case down," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Monday. "There was an imminent threat.

"All you have to do is look at this young man's blog to see the violent rhetoric and you see the evidence."

Pimentel, a divorced deadbeat dad with a petty-crime history, had been on the NYPD radar since 2009, when Albany cops tipped them to his radical views.

At the time, he lived upstate but he moved back to Manhattan early last year.

By September, his blog was so full of anti-American bombast and hints of violence that a confidential informant began working the case.

The feds were kept up to date as the alleged plot to blow up police cars and post offices progressed from talk to buying supplies at 99-cent stores and a Bronx Home Depot - with the assistance of the informant.

But in a replay of a different terrorism case in Queens earlier this year, the FBI and the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office took a pass.

It took several weeks for Pimentel to amass the components specified in the manual "Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom," officials say.

The criminal complaint outlines how the informant was with him when he bought some of the items. The suspect worked on the device at the informant's apartment.

On Saturday, he was an hour away by his own account from creating a functional explosive when cops grabbed him at the informant's apartment, cops said.

At the time of the arrest, the NYPD showcased a video that depicted how a device like the one Pimentel was assembling could tear apart a car and do significant damage to anyone nearby.

The NYPD's intelligence division had him under surveillance for several years, after Albany police had tipped off the NYPD to his increasing radicalization and criminal history following his divorce and his wife took custody of their son. His plans to carry out a terror attack became more concrete following the death of Anwar al-Awlaki in a US airstrike in Yemen on September 30. That was the final straw apparently, and Pimentel moved ahead with his plans to build bombs for his attacks.

The NYPD amassed hundreds of hours of recordings, and Pimentel's website is offered up as further evidence of his radicalization as a converted Muslim and his deep-seated hatred of the US; particularly its ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

NYPD Thwarts New York City Bomb Plot

The New York Police Department has arrested a Dominican man in upper Manhattan for plotting to blow up a police station and to attack returning US troops. The bomb plotter apparently got inspiration from the jihadi website of Anwar al Awlaki.

Mayor Bloomberg, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. were expected to discuss details of the alleged terror threat at a City Hall press conference Sunday night.

The suspect, whose name was not immediately released, had been under surveillance by the NYPD counter-terrorism officers for some time, a source said.

Cops raided his Convent Ave. apartment in upper Manhattan earlier this week when an NYPD informant tipped them off that the suspect was assembling a bomb, the source said.

The would-be saboteur has apparently learned to build an explosive through web sites founded by Anwar al—Awlaki, the American-born jihadist cleric killed in September in a CIA-led drone strike in Yemen, the source said.

The suspect was identified through one of the al-Awlaki web sites, where he posted anti-American comments, the source said.

The press conference identified the man as a 27-year old lone wolf, inspired by al Qaeda.

As they say, developing.

What Next For the OWS Movement?

After another state court judge issued a ruling allowing Brookfield Properties the right to control their own park and allowed New York City to clear Zuccotti Park of protesters and their belongings, including tents, sleeping bags, and other paraphernalia, the park reopened under the new more stringent rules.

No one will be able to bring sleeping bags or tents into the park, and security barriers and checks of belongings were being carried out. Protesters did reenter the park, but only about 50 stayed on overnight. Those who may attempt to sleep on benches or the planters in the park would be removed from the park as violating the rules, which are posted at the barriers. It was quiet for the first time in weeks, and the entire park property was accessible once entering through the barriers.

What exactly did the occupation of parks and open space in New York City and elsewhere actually accomplish? Where will the OWS movement go from here?

That's the question being asked all over the place among the media and pundit types, but perhaps more importantly, among the people who were directly involved in the protest squatting in several cities across the United States.

I'd say that they definitely got quite a bit of exposure on the protests for the sake of protesting, and raised awareness about income inequality, but people already knew that. Considering that at most a few hundred people were directly involved in the Zuccotti Park protests on a regular basis, but whose numbers swelled when various marches were conducted outside the confines of the park, there was outsized media attention on the protests. Location had quite a bit to do with the attention. After all, had these protests occurred in someplace like Union Square or Washington Square, no one would bat an eye since this kind of protest is a near-daily occurrence. The tent city visual didn't exactly help spread the message, and conservatives would characterize the protesters as hippies or other left-wingers who were on the fringe.

Certainly, there were fringe leftists and hippies at these protests, but there were also clearly middle class people who wanted to see changes in federal laws and regulations to reduce the influence of banking and restoring laws such as Glass-Steagal, which allowed banks to enter into transactions that were in part behind the market meltdown in 2007-2008. It's the latter group that needs to get its voice heard - these are the folks with real ideas and possible policy changes that can form the basis for reform. That doesn't mean it will be successful, but it's far more likely to be successful than trying to occupy a few parks and open areas in cities.

The protests gained the most attention when there were confrontations with police; whether it was rioting in places like Portland, or arrests for assaults among protesters in New York; or when they disrupted traffic by shutting down the Brooklyn Bridge. In fact, protesters are contemplating another shutdown of the Brooklyn Bridge, and marching on the NYSE at Wall Street tomorrow. Those optics and tactics don't endear themselves to other New Yorkers, many of whom rely on the Wall Street businesses for their jobs. Protesting outside a bank headquarters may gain attention, but it wont change the bank policy, let alone the federal regulations and laws that govern bank conduct. Those changes have to come from Congress and that means getting candidates elected who want to push through reforms to the banking and regulatory system.

The thing is that if the NYPD didn't crack down on the protests, they would have likely slowly disappeared as the cold of winter saw all but the hardiest types go on to other things. It was the earlier police actions that galvanized groups to join in support with the OWS movement and energized the crowds to grow and stick around, even during and after the freak October nor'easter.

The NYPD action to clear the protesters from the park may likewise cause the protesters to change tactics and focus more on policy than on occupation, although that may only come after one last attempt to disrupt the NYSE and Wall Street tomorrow. The sooner that OWS can focus on the policy, the better for the group. The country needs ideas on how to improve the moribund economy and reduce the chances that another market meltdown can occur, to say nothing of the growing income disparities and problems with funding health care and education. These are complex issues that can't be solved by occupying Zuccotti Park, but can be by engaging in the political process.

BREAKING: Judge Backs City Ban on Occupy Wall Street

In what could be a crippling blow to the OWS crowd, Justice Michael Stallman, has ruled against the protesters.

Hours after baton-wielding cops cleared Occupy Wall Street protesters and their tents from Zuccotti Park on Tuesday, a judge backed the clean sweep.

The ruling by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman says that city can stop protesters from bringing tents, tarps and other camping equipment into the park.

The decision is likely to be appealed, so it was unclear if the city would immediately reopen the park to people without tents.

Some Occupy Wall Street protesters had already moved to another public space, owned by Trinity Church, at Canal St. and Sixth Ave., where they used bolt cutters to open a fenced-in area.

Police swooped in and made numerous arrests. Daily News reporter Matt Lysiak was among several reporters covering the confrontation who were arrested.

Other demonstrators were massed around Zuccotti, where the overnight raid netted the arrest of 200 people, including Manhattan Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez

An interesting note, the case was originally commenced by Order to Show Cause. An Order to Show Cause, in over-simplified terms, is a way to bring a motion before the court on an expedited basis. This requires a Justice's signature to shorten the notice period and to grant any temporary restraining orders that are requested. For this, the OWS lawyers turned to a friendly face:

When the cops raided Zuccotti Park, lawyers for Occupy Wall Street woke up a judge with a civil liberties background and asked for help.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lucy Billings signed an early-morning order temporarily barring cops from keeping protesters and tents out of Zuccotti Park.

But within hours, she was off the case as court administrators chose a new judge — and excluded Billings’ name from the list of candidates.

Billings’ biography notes that before she became a judge in 1997, she spent three years as a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union and also worked work community legal services.

“I have devoted my career to public service, especially the disadvantaged in desperate circumstances,” she wrote in a 2007 pre-election statement.

Lawyers for Occupy Wall Street phoned Billings after cops moved into Zuccotti Park early Tuesday, evicted the protesters and got rid of their tents and other camp equipment.

Asked why they called her first, protest lawyer Daniel Alterman wouldn’t say, remarking that he’s not a “gossip guy.”

The lawyers also called an emergency hotline set up to assign judges to after-hours cases. A staffer told them that since Billings had already been contacted, she should handle the Zuccotti matter.

The OWS lawyers tried to forum shop, but the system worked. Don't get me wrong, I have first hand knowledge that Justice Billings is a fine Justice. And, waking up a friendly judge for an order to show cause is a well known practice, especially in criminal law for search warrants. I am also very familiar with Justice Stallman, another fine Justice. Either way, I am sure the First Department will have -- or probably already has -- a set of papers seeking an appeal of the decision. I would not be surprised if the change of Justices is raised as one of the appeal grounds.

NYPD Clears Zuccotti Park of Protesters In Dead of Night

The New York Police Department moved in overnight and cleared out Zuccotti Park, home to the Occupy Wall Street protests since September 17.



At least 70 people were arrested for resisting NYPD officers who cleared Zuccotti Park near Wall Street and the World Trade Center site in New York City. The NYPD moved in on the park in the dead of night, taking protesters off-guard. Most of the protesters offered no resistance, but some refused to clear from the park, tying themselves to trees or each other.

The protesters, about 200 of whom have been staying in the park overnight, initially resisted with chants of “Whose park? Our park!”

The massive operation in and around Zuccotti Park was intended to empty the birthplace of a protest movement that has inspired hundreds of tent cities from coast to coast. On Monday in Oakland, Calif., hundreds of police officers raided the main encampment there, arresting 33 people. Protesters returned later in the day. But the Oakland police said no one would be allowed to sleep there anymore, and promised to clear a second camp nearby.

The police action was quickly challenged as lawyers for the protesters obtained a temporary restraining order barring the city and the park’s private landlord from evicting protesters or removing their belongings. It was not immediately clear how the city would respond. The judge, Justice Lucy Billings of State Supreme Court Judge in Manhattan, scheduled a hearing for later Tuesday.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who scheduled a news conference for Tuesday morning, had issued a statement explaining the reasoning behind the sweep. “The law that created Zuccotti Park required that it be open for the public to enjoy for passive recreation 24 hours a day,” the mayor said in the statement. “Every since the occupation began, that law has not been complied with” because the protesters had taken over the park, “making it unavailable to anyone else.”

“I have become increasingly concerned – as had the park’s owner, Brookfield Properties – that the occupation was coming to pose a health and fire safety hazard to the protestors and to the surrounding community,” Mr. Bloomberg said. He added that on Monday, Brookfield asked the city to assist in enforcing “the no sleeping and camping rules.

“But make no mistake,” the mayor said, “the final decision to act was mine.”Some of the displaced protesters regrouped a few blocks away at Foley Square, with the row of courthouses on Centre Street as a backdrop and police officers looking on. The protesters swapped stories of their confrontations with the police and talked about what to do next.

One protester at Foley Square, Nate Barchus, 23, said the eviction was likely to galvanize supporters, particularly because a series of gatherings had already been planned for Thursday, the protest’s two-month anniversary.

“This,” he said, referring to the early-morning sweep, “reminds everyone who was occupying exactly why they were occupying.”

At the park they had occupied since mid-September, workers using power washers blasted water over the stone that covers the ground. Soon the park caught the attention of people passing by on their way to work who had become accustomed to seeing the protesters’ tents and tarps.

The protests have accomplished little in the way of tangible progress although they have managed to highlight income inequality.

The park will be reopened to the public, but no one will be allowed to remain overnight.

Many of the protesters who left Zuccotti Park made their way to Foley Square, which is where state and federal courthouses are located. I doubt that they'll remain there for long and either take the show over to Union Square or Washington Square Parks. Some may try to make their way back to Zuccotti Park, but I don't expect to see another encampment there although a judge signed an order not only allowing the protesters to return to the park, but that they can take their tents with them.

Click to enlarge: Read the full court order

I think the judge is misreading the law and has taken an overly expansive view of free speech that infringes on the rights of the property owners (Brookfield Properties) whose rights are being trampled by not being able to maintain their own property because the protesters have squatted on them.

Businesses in the immediate area may breath a sigh of relief as the Zuccotti Park protesters have made a mess of sidewalks as barricades have limited access and some restaurants have lost significant business. Yet, the protests were largely confined to the park; it was when the protests marched off to other locations that mayhem (mostly arrests for disorderly conduct) ensued. In some respects, it would be easier to leave the protesters in place and deal with the security situation there rather than let the protesters disperse and find their way in to other locations, such as Wall Street itself.

Some protesters have vowed to shut down Wall Street Thursday, which sets up another potential confrontation with the NYPD. The clearing of Zuccotti Park may have been done in anticipation of those expected marches/protests at the NYSE on Thursday, but may not have the intended effect.

Still, it's interesting to note that for all of the press coverage of the OWS protests, we're talking about all of a couple hundred people at most engaging in protests at any one time in Zuccotti Park. From that perspective, the ability to garner press to the degree it has is quite remarkable even if the message has been more than muddled about what the protests sought to accomplish.

It's also important to note that there are distinctions between the OWS movement in Zuccotti Park and those in other cities or overseas, where there have been more violent confrontations than here in New York City. Part of that can be attributed to how Zuccotti Park's protesters have "organized" but part of that has to do with the nature of who has been attracted to the protests.

UPDATE:
The number arrested is now closer to 200.

The Latest From Zuccotti Park's OWS Protests and an Albany Update

Overnight, the New York metro area got hit with quite a bit of rain, and it turned a whole lot colder. That cold will last through the weekend, and weather forecasts are putting snow in the forecast for Saturday. While the suburbs north and west are being threatened with 6 inches or more of snow, the city itself is likely to see a dusting to an inch at most.

It will be a most unpleasant situation for those trying to tough out the protests at Zuccotti Park. Making it even more difficult is the FDNY and NYPD, who have confiscated generators and propane and gas tanks and other equipment as fire hazards and are looking for fire code violations.

The FDNY were looking for safety violations. At issue: Propane tanks and gas generators being used to keep the protesters warm. The inspection, involving dozens of firefighters, was overseen by Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano.

Protesters turned over six generators and dozens of gasoline cans, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. He reiterated that the protesters can stay as long as they want, provided that they follow the law. Bloomberg spoke on his weekly radio show on WOR.

Earlier this week, fire officials had raised concerns to the city about potential fire hazards in the park, especially as the temperature drops. Protesters are using tents, sleeping bags, and more to help them stay warm. It will be interesting to see how the protesters cope this weekend, when New York City may get its first snow of the season – even if it is expected to be just trace amounts.

While the temperature is dropping in the city, things may be heating up between protesters and the police. Thursday, the head of the NYPD’s Sergeants’ Union issued a warning to demonstrators.

He says protest-related incidents that leave cops injured could be met with civil lawsuits.

That warning came after escalating violence at Occupy demonstrations around the country.

While the NYPD unions are threatening lawsuits against those that attack police officers, I also expect a slew of suits against the police department on grounds that they violated the protesters civil rights or used undue amounts of force to subdue protesters. Some of those cases may be valid, but each will take time to investigate. Already, one such incident resulted in a police officer being reassigned after he used pepper spray against a protester inappropriately.

Meanwhile, a Fox 5 NY reporter, John Huddy was threatened with an assault by a protester who was angry and otherwise incoherent. NYPD arrested the person, and Huddy was quick to point out that protesters' reactions to him have been generally friendly and accommodating. Huddy has been covering the protests on a daily basis from Zuccotti Park along with a handful of other reporters, so he's a known quantity down there to the protest "spokespeople".

I expect some to use the Huddy incident as an indictment of the whole, but as Huddy notes, that's the exception to the general rule among the protesters.

Meanwhile, upstate in Albany (where there's also snow in the forecast and much colder weather, people marchedfrom the Occupy Albany encampment in Lafayette Park near the State Capitol to to the War Room, protesting Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s support for letting a surcharge on high income New Yorkers expire.

Another issue that is a hot-button topic for the protesters is hydrofracking, and while Mayor Jerry Jennings is supportive of the OWS Albany protests (including resisting calls from Gov. Cuomo to disperse the protesters from the park), he's vetoed a city ban on hydrofracking. Jennings correctly notes that the state has yet to promulgate rules on hydrofracking and it's premature to take an action when the state is going through the process of setting rules.

While some local politicians have supported the OWS movement, others are warily moving in the other direction, including Assembly Speaker Shelly Silver, whose district includes Zuccotti Park.

Silver, at the same time, tried to distance himself from the Occupy Wall Street protesters encamped in his Lower Manhattan district.
“I don’t consider them political allies,” he told reporters after an unrelated news conference in Manhattan. “The people have a right to be heard . . . But I also believe that neighbors have a right to enjoy their homes as well.”

That's even as he supports extending the millionaire's tax surcharge for New Yorkers.

UPDATE:
As to the threat of the police suing protesters who attack cops, there's a few interrelated issues. One would be that workers comp would likely supersede the civil action to recover from the defendant in a legal action. However, if a civil action can proceed, it would be like any other assault/battery case in NY. The police officer, as the plaintiff would have the burden of showing that the defendant assaulted him or her.

Thing is that we usually don't get such warnings when police officers are injured in the line of duty (such things happen all the time). We don't hear about a cop suing a drug dealer who shoots and injures the cop in the line of duty - yet they're going after these protesters with a threat of a lawsuit. That's pretty ballsy.

UPDATE:
In a related note, Chris Nolan is filming the next installment of his Batman series in New York City over the next few days and may include some background shots of the protesters at Zuccotti Park in some fashion. After his New York appearances, the Dark Knight will find his way to Newark for more exterior shots.

Continuing Protests At Zuccotti Park Bring New Problems

It seems that the NYPD is being kept busy, not with the protests themselves, but by crimes in and among some of the protesters.

Two days after a man accused of assaulting three female protesters in Zuccotti Park was arrested, some friends of his threatened to kill the woman who had filed the complaint that led to the arrest, the police said on Tuesday.

One of the men accused of making the threats, Hasan Castillo, 23, of East Orange, N.J., was arrested Tuesday night.

The police said one of the men told the woman: “You had our friend arrested — we’re going to kill you. Watch your back.” The men are being sought for witness intimidation.

The initial assault occurred on Saturday, when Garfield Leslie, 19, of Brooklyn tried to sell cocaine to protesters, than attacked the three women, one of whom fell and broke her wrist and another of whom suffered a cut lip, the police said. He was arrested later that night.

By and large, the protesters have been trying to keep out the criminal element, but since anyone can join the protests and camp at the park, people who have no connections to the protests can fill in - including homeless and other less savory characters.

Yesterday, I saw a minor spat between a couple of protesters over placement of tents within the park - complaining that they were taking up space meant for someone else. I was also noticing that some of the flower beds are now getting trampled as those with tents are taking up more space within the park, and those in sleeping bags are being pushed off towards the raised planting beds along the side of the park. Police have also cordoned off the area surrounding the sculpture that some yahoo climbed over the weekend. That area had been a gathering/focus point for protesters along Broadway.

I should have new photos/video posted later today.

UPDATE:
As promised, here are the photos:

The drum circle group along Church Street.

Captured for your attention.

These were plastered in several places around Zuccotti Park, and relate to the Obama Administration's Secure Communities program and illegal aliens.

Food prep under the tents.

Among the issues: hydrofracking, medicare for all, and health care, as well as outsourcing of jobs (apparently by Verizon).

The tents at Zuccotti Park.

Protesting the war on workers near the corner of Broadway and Liberty.

The protests aren't complete without the usual crazy conspiracy theorists. This  is another one of the cranks out to sue Johnson and Johnson.

Another view of the drummers in Zuccotti Park making a racket.

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