You are here: Home / Archives for NYPD

Police Brutality at Pete Rock Show…We Must Connect the Dots

July 1, 2011 By

The situation that took place the other night at Tammany Hall in Brooklyn where NYPD went wylding on innocent concert goers resulting in the arrest and brutal beating of 5 people, including the daughter of the co-headliner  Pete Rock should serve as a stark reminder just how such incidents are  all too common.

Those who attended this album release party described the event as peaceful. There were no problems inside and hardly anyone was aware that an army of police had amassed outside the venue. From the looks of things what took place  was a deliberate and a gross injustice…

When it comes to the issue of  police brutality many of us tend to focus on egregious scenarios where people are shot 50 times as was the case with Sean Bell in neighboring Queens, NY or shot at point blank range as was the case with Oscar Grant in Oakland, California. When these types of incidents occur we tend to rally the troops, hold loud demonstrations and demand justice as we should… After all, the police are on the taxpayer payroll and have been granted much power and authority. With that comes great responsibility. They are are there to serve and protect, not terrorize and oppress.

With that being said, all of us need to bear in mind that police terrorism goes beyond questionable shootings. Those  are just an accentuation of the day to day humiliation, harassment and beatings they put down on marginalized communities all over the globe.

Pete Rock

Many of us are weighing in and blogging about this unfortunate incident involving Pete Rock should ask themselves, would we have been speaking on this if this didn’t involve a Hip Hop star?  Even more importantly, if we heard about this incident and Pete wasn’t involved would we have brought into the ‘party line’ hawked by the police that these innocent concert goers somehow caused the beatings? Would we be saying to ourselves..’perhaps they weren’t so innocent?’

If we saw a video of a dread locked brother who wasn’t General Steele of Smif-N-Wessun explaining that the police were out of control, would we have dismissed it and said to ourselves  ‘That n– looks like a gang member or some sort of thug..He probably acted ill or  said something and deserved the beat down’?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCDrQZ0rbBw&feature=player_embedded

It’s important that we NOT see what took place at Tammany Hall as something that was isolated. The beatings that took place that night are no different then the ones handed out to innocent concert goers at a dead prez/ KRS-One Katrina benefit show in Los Angeles several years ago.

dead prez

Here police interrupted the show by flying helicopters and shining lights on the performers (the stage was in a courtyard inside the venue). They then ordered folks to leave the venue. Shocked concert goers were greeted by a gauntlet line of more than a hundred officers who provoked and intimidated folks as left the event…Their rationale for shutting down the event was the same one used by NYPD when they shut down the Pete Rock/Smif-N-Wessun party..3000 miles away and 6 years later-there was supposedly a ‘fight outside’ the venue…

We’ve all seen and heard these type of stories before, so much so,  that we can no longer say they are  mere coincidents. They’re deliberate. Maybe its some sort of police training excercise where young Black and Brown folks are fodder. Maybe its something more sinister, where the cops are letting off steam and literally going on some sort of hunting expedition.

Chief William H Parker

Say what you will, but we know one thing, back in the hey days of former police LA police Chief William H Parker and later Chief Darryl Gates, they had a two fold strategy. One was to militarize the police force and make them an efficient take no prisoners entity.

The second was to make sure every Black and Brown male who lived in the hood had contact with the police before they were 15 to make sure that it was clearly understood who was boss.  Parker had a strategy of recruiting police from the south who at that time harbored prejudice and ill feelings toward Blacks. He was known for calling Black people ‘nigras’ and had an even lower opinion of Brown folks. He was LA’s longest serving police chief.

Darryl Gates picked up where Parker left off and in many circles was considered  even worse in his assessment and subsequent action directed at Black and Brown communities..It was under Parker that the infamous Watts Riots of 1967 took place. It was under Gates that the Rodney King rebellion erupted.

Rudy Giuliani

Why do I bring all this up? Because the tactics used by LAPD with Parker and Gates as key architects were held up high and adopted by police departments all over the country and the world. Folks in NY got a taste of this adaptation, when Mayor Rudy Giuliani took office and directed his police to come down hard on any person who committed the smallest and most harmless of infractions. His theory was if you crack down on the little things it will prevent the big things from happening. For many this was seen as a good move designed to make NY one of the world’s safest big cities. For many in Black and Brown communities it was an absolute nightmare. Once Giuliani took office, it wasn’t too long ago that one found themselves getting hemmed up by NYPD even if you crossed against a red light or

It was under Giuliani that NYPD put together their notorious Street Crime Unit that consisted of undercover officers who would walk up to people, stop and frisk un them to make sure they didn’t have guns. Hundreds of thousands of Black and Brown folks were subjected to this tactic. It didn’t matter if you had on sagging pants and your hat turned backwards or was wearing a suit and tie. There was a strong likelihood you were gonna get stopped and frisked by aggressive police who were given the green light to knock heads and take names and numbers later…It was this same Street Crime Unit employing Giuliani’s tactics that led to a young unarmed 23 year old  African immigrant namedAmadou Diallobeing shot on the front porch of his house 41 times by cops who were supposedly ‘trying to protect and serve’.

The Diallo shooting led to the disbanding of the Street Crime Unit, but it didn’t stop the tactics Giuliani implemented which had been drawn praise and adopted all over the world by police forces who feltl that aggression and terror are the ways to prevent crime.. It’s important to keep in mind that years after Giuliani has been out of office, NYPD as recently  as 2007 have stopped and frisked as many as 500 thousand people in one year alone.

We seen this type of tactic adapted with disturbing results in places like Pittsburgh, PA, as exemplified in the sad case of 17 year old Pittsburgh honor student named Jordan Miles.

Jordan Miles is a 18 year old violinist who played for First Lady Michele Obama

In Januray of 2010, just months after performing for First lady Michele Obama, Miles was on his way home, when he was subjected to stop and frisk tactics adopted by undercover Pittsburgh police who call themselves the Jump Out Boys.. Jordan fearing he was about to be robbed ran when a car pulled up and 3 large men jumped out demanding he give them all his drugs.. Jordan was quickly tackled as the Jump Out Boys, all martial arts experts, not only beat him senseless, but tore out one third of his dread locks.. Miles who had never been in trouble with the law, was told by the Pittsburgh Police Chief that he shouldn’t have ran, even though the officers didn’t immediately identify themselves.

Again this is all too commonplace.. It’s my hope that as we talk about and demand justice for what went down the other night in Brooklyn with Pete Rock and his daughter that we also push for systemic change. It’s my hope that all of us who blog, or have access to the airwaves not limit our outrage to incidents involving celebrities and rap stars..For those of us who cover Hip Hop, its important we remember the fans and supporter of this culture who are routinely at the short of the stick of police brutality incidents.

The Pete Rock that I know would definitely want justice and resolution to what happened to his daughter and all the others brutalized by the police..now dubbed the Monumental 5..He would also want this tragedy to not be inflicted on anyone else.

Something to Ponder

Davey D

On a side note, it was not lost on me that this took place at Tammany Hall.. The history of Tammany Hall is a long and sordid one in New York City politics. It was a political machine for the Democratic party  which under ‘the Boss’ William Tweed routinely used violence to control elections back in the 1800s. It was also known for using a growing Irish Immigrant class to smash on Black folks.. Tammany Hall controlled NY politics up to the 1960s..

After seeing the attacks on African Americans the other night first thing that went through my mind was the violent history , but thats for another discussion at another time..

Filed Under: 2011 Daily News Tagged With: , , , , ,

NYPD Black and Blue: COP Calls 911 & Gets Severely Beaten & Pepper Sprayed By Other Cops

September 9, 2010 By

photo credit: Panther 1619

This is the second story in less than a year where we had cop on cop violence.. Folks may recall it was about a year ago an off duty cop named Omar J Edwards came upon a robbery and was shot and killed by fellow officers . It was reported that Edwards did what a good officer should do he tried to apprehend a suspect who fled the scene.  As he was pursuing the suspect he was shot and killed  by fellow officers who thought he was the thug.

In this latest drama we have a NYPD cop’s wife who called for help against a gang of thugs including a man brandishing a gun.. When officers arrived on the scene they beat Larry Jackson a fellow NYPD officer. Here’s what the story reads

An NYPD cop whose wife called 911 for help against a gang of thugs says he was brutally beaten by baton-wielding fellow officers who stormed his Queens home. Larry Jackson suffered a broken right hand and multiple bruises from kicks and billy-club blows he said he got from the men in blue called to his home when a gunman menaced guests at his daughter’s birthday party. “To get my butt beat like that was unnecessary,” said the six-year veteran assigned to the 110th Precinct. “We called the police, and this is what happened to me.”

“I’m shocked, angry and disappointed,” said the 6-foot-3, 300-pound Jackson.

Prosecutors and the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau are probing his claims.
His hand in a cast, he met with the Daily News on Wednesday and lifted his shirt to show the scars from Sunday’s early morning confrontation. Jackson, who is black, said the excessive force by the cops, who were white, might have been racially motivated.

“They didn’t treat me like a house-owner calling for help,” he said. “Everyone who lives in the 113th Precinct is not a perp.”

You can continue reading the story HERE

As you read this we need to ask ourselves at what point do we step up and turn a corner on what appears to be a war against Black folks and people of color? These incidents are happening way too often to be accidents. There’s a pervasive culture within the police departments and in society in general that sees us as enemies to be feared and contained and not as friends and neighbors who need to be respected and helped. We also need to be asking when will cops on the force step up and separate themselves from this poisonous culture  and see themselves as a part of a larger community that is being targeted? It should be obvious that at the end of the day they aren’t being respected by fellow officers..

-Davey D-

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Filed Under: 2010 Daily News, Political articles Tagged With: , , , , ,

Rap COINTELPRO XIII: MTV’s “Hip-Hop Cops: Is The NYPD At War With Hip-Hop?”

February 21, 2003 By
Cedric Muhammad

Cedric Muhammad

MTV should be commended for its recent look at something that we have been writing about for a couple of years – the surveillance of Hip-Hop artists by law enforcement. But the series doesn’t go far enough.

It has been a peculiarity, at least in our view, that the subject of law enforcement and Hip-Hop artists has been primarily reviewed from the prism of two major police departments – the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the New York Police Department (NYPD). Certainly there are logical and natural reasons for this. And for sure, any investigation of this subject should include those law enforcement officers and departments who have the most contact with artists at the local level. But the fact that the Notorious B.I.G.’s car was being followed by the FBI and ATF agents at the moment he was shot; the fact that the DEA was on the point of a major investigation of Rap-A-Lot Records and Hip-Hop legend Scarface (Read Our “Hip-Hop Fridays: Rap COINTELPRO Part IV: Congress Holds Hearings On DEA Rap-A-Lot Investigation”); the fact that the FBI and IRS were investigating Death Row Records at the height of the record label’s popularity and when Tupac Shakur was murdered; the fact that the FBI and IRS have been watching Puffy (P.Diddy) and Bad Boy Records’ business activities for at least 8 years; the fact that a government informant infiltrated the Wu-Tang Clan over two years ago and the ATF was offering convicts less time if they would implicate the group in gun-running (Read Our “Hip-Hop Fridays: Rap COINTELPRO Part II”); and the fact that federal law enforcement agencies are investigating the Murder Inc. record label right now and raided its offices recently should make it clear as to why we are not satisfied with any investigative report that makes the NYPD and/or the LAPD the end-all or be-all.

The problem isn’t MTV. They actually did a service and credible job exploring the context for how all of this mischief-making is possible and how the need for Hip-Hop-centered investigations is “plausible”, due to the cultural and socio-economic conditions and deleterious aspects of the Hip-Hop industry.

Russell Simmons

Russell Simmons

The problem is that for a variety of reasons activists, journalists, artists and executives can’t seem to accept the premise that what is happening is a continuation of COINTELPRO and not profiling or harassment. Many know that what is happening goes way above the power and influence of any local police department. But they are afraid to follow the trail all the way up. This was an important part of my recent conversation with Russell Simmons. Russell’s reticence in tackling the issue is understandable but until the Hip-Hop community learns the lessons of history and shakes its fear and state of denial, it is doomed to repeat the mistakes that others made before them in ignorance. Once the reality of RapCOINTELPRO is accepted for what it is then the appropriate political leaders can be pressured to hold hearings, write letters and obtain the files that would show beyond a shadow of a doubt that the United States Government, partly through the NYPD and LAPD is absolutely at war with Hip-Hop. And the rest of the members of civil society can confer on what actions should be taken. We have a lot of work to do in only a little bit of time.

The War on Street Gangs has been merged with a War On Drugs which has been merged with a War On Terrorism which will intensify with the war in Iraq. In all of this Hip-Hop will be framed as a primary force of sedition in America.

This is definitely one issue that separates the men and women from the boys and girls.

Cedric Muhammad
February 21, 2003

photo credit: Panther 1619

photo credit: Panther 1619

Here is the first portion of MTV’s report followed by a link to the subsequent portion(s) of the series:

One of the most hotly debated topics in the hip-hop world is the New York Police Department’s reported clampdown on the rap industry.

In the wake of high-profile investigations into the slaying of Jam Master Jay, the joint FBI-NYPD raids on the offices of Murder Inc., and the recent arrests of 50 Cent and Fabolous on weapons charges, the hip-hop community is abuzz with talk of an elite “hip-hop squad” or “rap task force” whose duties include tailing rappers’ vehicles and even monitoring their lyrics.

During a recent stint as a guest DJ on New York’s Hot 97, 50 Cent tauntingly shouted out the “hip-hop cops” that he claims follow him everywhere. But does such a task force targeting rappers really exist?

No, insists the NYPD.

“There is no such thing,” said Detective Walter Burns, a senior NYPD spokesperson. “We have no hip-hop task force, no hip-hop unit, no hip-hop patrol.”

Police point out that when they do create task forces, like the Terrorism Task Force or the Hate Crimes Task Force, one of their purposes is to let the public know they’re making an extra effort to stop crime. “If we did have a hip-hop task force,” another NYPD spokesperson said, “we wouldn’t deny it. We’d want to tell you that it exists.”

But many artists aren’t buying it.

“It’s definitely a task force,” Fat Joe said. “You go to hip-hop spots now and they ain’t just your normal walking-the-beat cops. There’s cops out there in undercover cars like they know something we don’t know. Like bin Laden’s in the club, B.”

“It’s just a thing where it’s targeting hip-hop,” Fabolous said. “I don’t think you should target something. If it’s a problem, you go handle the problem, that’s what cops are for. They are there to protect and serve. They’re not there to make a problem.”

Hip-hop Web sites liken the current situation to the once-secret FBI surveillance of African-American leaders and civil rights activists in the 1960s. Many rappers claim to have first-hand knowledge of the elite task force’s existence, and some say they’ve even seen confidential NYPD Intelligence Division documents containing information on rappers’ places of residence and vehicles.

“It’s called the Entertainment Task Force,” Keith Murray said. “They watch you as far as on the streets, and they watch you as far as monetary operations, taxes, who’s paying who what, where you getting money from. They got they scope on rappers right now.”

Pressed on his source for the existence of this task force, Murray said, “I’ve read numerous things on it and I’m seeing it come to fruition.”

The story of a hip-hop unit within the NYPD has been widely disseminated by major news organizations, and such reports have led to accusations of “rapper profiling” and civil rights infringement. But police spokespeople as well as other sources within the force say it’s simply not true. “We don’t target rappers,” Burns said. “The NYPD investigates crimes.”

Perhaps it’s a sense of self-mythologizing – all the Italian-gangster wannabes populating the ranks of the hip-hop game – that leads some rappers to feel they’re constantly under surveillance. Just how did they think law enforcement was going to react to artists who take on the surnames of crime kingpins like Gotti and Capone and Gambino?

Lieutenant Tony Mazziotti, a retired 28-year veteran who oversaw investigations of actual gangsters – major racketeers in the Gambino and Genovese crime families – said: “With the rappers, I think it’s this sense that, ‘Hey, we’re worthy of being investigated. That means we’re for real.’ ”

But what’s actually for real, one retired NYPD detective insists, is that there is a rap-related unit within the police force. What’s more, he said, he’s the cop who created it.

“I was the one who started the whole thing,” Derrick Parker revealed to MTV News. “The unit was created in ’98. … When Biggie was buried here in New York, there was a lot of concern, there were a lot of threats made. The chief [of the department] wanted me to run this entire investigation for him and to report to him.”

Parker said that for more than four years he gathered intelligence on the rap community, compiled files, went to nightclubs and interviewed rappers who were jammed up in criminal cases. Pressed on the exact name for the entity he created, Parker said, “It’s not called the hip-hop unit, it’s really just under Gang Intel.”

www.mtv.com/bands/t/task_…dex2.jhtml

Cedric Muhammad

Friday, February 21, 2003
www.blackelectorate.com/a…asp?ID=810

Filed Under: archive articles, Rap Cointelpro Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Rap COINTELPRO PtV…The NYPD Zeros In On Hip-Hop

April 27, 2001 By
Cedric Muhammad

Cedric Muhammad

The news out this week that the New York Police Department (NYPD) has been specifically watching the Hip-Hop community should come as no surprise to those of you who are regular readers of our “Hip-Hop Fridays” columns. For nearly a year now, we have been writing about the documented relationship between the FBI, local law enforcement and the media in the 1960s and 1970s and comparing that relationship with its real and potential counterpart today, in reference to the Hip-Hop industry. Any skepticism for what we have been arguing should have been swept away by Jay-Z’s arrest two weeks ago, by the NYPD street crime unit, and by this week’s admission from the NYPD, that its gang intelligence unit has been monitoring Hip-Hop artists and the nightspots that they and their fans frequent.

Having said that we hope that no one is really so naïve as to believe the NYPD’s explanation of their activities, that they are doing what they are, to protect Hip-Hop artists. We argue to the contrary and believe that their explained efforts to “serve and protect” the Hip Hop industry is a cover story, or a front to really arrest Hip-Hop artists on gang, drug and racketeering charges. This has been their aim for some time now.

To be sure, there are certainly a few who may be guilty of crimes. But a full-scale monitoring of an entire industry, in its biggest city, is evidence of more than good police work. After all, if drugs and gangs are what they are after, the police would be better staking out raves, heavy metal concerts and the homes of Rock artists in search of heroin, cocaine and ecstasy drug use, as well as ties to organized crime.

Black-Panthers-Huey-Bobby-brownFar from an effort to save rap artists, the effort is an indication of a return to the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Program – a program that was aimed at organizations like the Nation Of Islam, the 5% Nation Of Islam, the Black Panthers, SCLC and SNCC. Interestingly, two of the biggest files that the FBI kept during COINTELPRO, were its files on the NOI and the 5 Percenters – the two communities that arguably have had more impact on Hip-Hop than any other.

So now, an entire music industry joins that rarified air, previously the domain of activist and progressive organizations and those concerned with political consciousness, social change and community development. Now, that we have established this fact, we hope that the Hip-Hop community in general, and Hip-Hop artists in particular, are prepared for what awaits them and what has already been happening to them. We hope that they are prepared for their telephone lines to be tapped; their vehicles and homes to be bugged; agents to be placed within their organizations; their friends turned into government informants; letters and communications attributed to them, and even their forged signatures attached to such, without their knowledge; conflicts started between rivals and competitors; lies and half-truths about them planted in various media outlets, and yes, even violent action taken against them.

Every one of these acts, and much, much more were performed in COINTELPRO, with the help of the FBI and local police departments. In order to get an idea of how extensive the FBI’s efforts were, and for evidence of what we have described above, one should visit the FBI’s reading room, in person or online. foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex.htm .

photo credit: Panther 1619

photo credit: Panther 1619

You maybe surprised at some of the names the FBI has in its file index as part of COINTELPRO or other surveillance programs. The list includes several celebrities www.fbi-files.com/celebrities/index.html who the Bureau feared could move the public in ways counter to the desired direction of the status quo. Many of the most famous were White actors. The same fear exists today for Hip-hop artists who may have the most loyal fans in all of the entertainment industry.

The NYPD’s program is already being described as illegal and unconstitutional. Many believe that the program represents “profiling” – a practice that is increasingly coming under fire. It will be interesting to see if civil libertarians or the liberals and progressives which dominate the industry will come to the aid of the Hip-Hop community and defend them from what at the very least, is a massive invasion of privacy and at the most, an act of war.

We advise that Hip-hop artists should not be surprised to find little support from the labels that employ their services. For years, several record executives have been handing over marketing plans and providing information on a variety of artists to federal law enforcement officials. And on the local level, we know of at least two record label executives who have silent alarm buttons in their offices that connect them to the NYPD, in the case of an emergency or violent altercation. Of course these record label execs have their own artists in mind as the likely perpetrators of aggression.

Which leads us to a final point. If the Hip-Hop community is going to avoid the mistakes that the targets of COINTELPRO previously made, they will have to 1) begin to question their “friendships” with record label executives, lawyers and business managers who seem to have no problem providing privileged information to law enforcement officers 2) compare notes with one another 3) discontinue their recently increased leaning toward public disputes, 4) End any activities that can be construed as illegal and 5) they must seek ways to peacefully resolve conflicts and unite.

That is a tall order for rappers with enormous egos, and a disrespect for history, but if lives are to be saved today, a major change in the thinking of Hip-Hop artists and some of their fans must take place, in a hurry.

In light of the NYPD’s new program, if anybody can’t see what is happening by now, we don’t know what else will get their attention, before it is too late.

The more things change the more they stay the same. Hip-Hop…meet COINTELPRO.

http://www.blackelectorate.com/articles.asp?ID=34

Cedric Muhammad

Friday, April 27, 2001

Filed Under: archive articles, Rap Cointelpro Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
« Previous Page