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G_j

(40,366 posts)
Mon Feb 6, 2012, 01:44 PM Feb 2012

Wall Street’s Secret Spy Center, Run for the 1% by NYPD

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/02/06/wall-streets-secret-spy-center-run-for-the-1-by-nypd/

February 06, 2012
How 60 Minutes Blew the Story

Wall Street’s Secret Spy Center, Run for the 1% by NYPD
by PAM MARTENS

On September 25, 2011, just eight days after the Occupy Wall Street protests began in Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, the much acclaimed CBS News program, 60 Minutes, aired a fawning look at the thousands of surveillance cameras affixed to buildings and lampposts throughout New York City. The cameras feed live images of people going about their everyday lives to a $150 million computer center equipped with artificial intelligence to integrate and analyze the daily habits of what are, for the most part, law-abiding Americans.

The thrust of the 60 Minutes program was the fine job of counter terrorism being done by the NYPD and its Commissioner, Raymond Kelly. It was a triumph in public relations for a police department about to go on an assault spree – pepper spraying and punching peaceful protestors; kicking, ramming and arresting journalists attempting to cover the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.

On air, the reporter, Scott Pelley, said the surveillance center was “housed in a secret location,” as one would expect of a real counter terrorism program — as opposed to a program to simply quash dissent. Mr. Pelley also said the program was run by the NYPD. As it turns out, neither of those assertions were accurate.

The New York Times, the worldwide news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP), Wired Magazine, the New York City Council had all previously reported the location of the supposedly super secret counter terrorism center on their public web sites: 55 Broadway in the bowels of the financial district. What was a secret about the operation, and not reported by 60 Minutes to its viewers, despite being well aware of the facts, is that the center is jointly staffed and operated by the NYPD along with the largest Wall Street firms – the same firms under investigation in 50 states for mortgage and foreclosure fraud and widely credited with causing the Nation’s economic collapse. The Wall Street firms that were involuntarily bailed out by the 99% are now policing the 99%.

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raouldukelives

(5,178 posts)
1. And that's the way it is.
Mon Feb 6, 2012, 02:09 PM
Feb 2012

A solider kills a civilian? The Army will investigate. BP pollutes an ocean? BP will investigate. Climate change is going to destroy life on earth? The people who profited from it will investigate.
One thing you can count on these days is nothing ever being changed for the benefit of the 99%.

 

badtoworse

(5,957 posts)
2. There is nothing wrong with this and your point about mortgage fraud is irrelevant
Mon Feb 6, 2012, 02:21 PM
Feb 2012

The Wall Street firms are the largest employers in NYC and employ thousands of people, the vast majority of which are in the 99%. They are also the high profile targets for terrorists. I would expect that the NYPD and the security people at these firms work together to insure the safety of a large number of people.

Not everything is a 1% issue.

 

badtoworse

(5,957 posts)
4. I don't see what one has to do with the other.
Tue Feb 7, 2012, 03:03 PM
Feb 2012

The NYPD didn't need security cameras or Wall Street to monitor OWS.

sabrina 1

(62,325 posts)
5. NYPD, like all our other institutions, working for Wall Street. I think it's time to let Wall
Tue Feb 7, 2012, 03:04 PM
Feb 2012

Street pay their salaries. The taxpayers could use the money and they NYPD, if it ever did, sure is not working for them.

The number of scandals now being exposed in that PD should result in a disbanding of a PD that for a long time has worked for Wall Street against the interests of the citizens of NY.

 

badtoworse

(5,957 posts)
6. So who would assume responsibility for law enforcement?
Tue Feb 7, 2012, 04:52 PM
Feb 2012

Without a police force, crime would skyrocket and the 99% would be put in a very dangerous situation. Without a credible plan to police the city and enforce the law, your suggestion to disband the NYPD is ludicrous.

sabrina 1

(62,325 posts)
8. Well, we need a police force but we need a civilian police force. The NYPD is not a
Tue Feb 7, 2012, 05:17 PM
Feb 2012

civilian PD any more, it is a militarized force that itself has committed enough crimes that is has lost its effectiveness, no longer trusted and very much feared by the people it is supposed to protect. It is riddled with racism eg, and few people who live in minority areas in NYC feel safe, not so much because of criminals, but because of the NYPD.

Once this happens, there needs to be a complete restructuring of the institution. It is currently eg, involved in several scandals, ticket fixing, racism, fixing stats to make it look like there is less crime than there actually is etc. I don't think it can be fixed, the corruption is too widespread, and previous attempts to fix that Dept. have apparently failed.

Same thing with the Oakland PD, itself about to be taken over by the Feds because if their history of abuse of citizens. Iow, when the organizations established to protect citizens, become more feared than criminals, it is time for some drastic action, imo.


 

badtoworse

(5,957 posts)
11. No police force is perfect
Tue Feb 7, 2012, 06:56 PM
Feb 2012

I've lived and worked in the New York City area my entire life and am quite familiar with the NYPD. They have a very tough job to do and they do it exceptionally well. I think they are the best in the country, maybe the world.

In any case, how would a civilian police force differ from what we have now?

sabrina 1

(62,325 posts)
12. I'm quite familiar with them also. And I do not agree with your assessment.
Tue Feb 7, 2012, 07:13 PM
Feb 2012

As for how a civilian PD differs from what the NYPD has become, let's start with not using tactics and weapons against peaceful, unarmed citizens that are only suitable for a war zone. The people are not Al Queda.

And let's stop arresting and jailing Journalists, let's stop beating up minorities, unlawfully targeting and harassing them, among other things.

And do not fudge crime figures to make it look like you are actually fighting crime, when apparently you are not.

Do not 'fix' tickets to benefit your buddies and family, treat all citizens equally, according to the law.

But using military weapons and tactics on US citizens peacefully exercising their rights distinguishes a civilian Police force from a militarized one.

We do not want the military patrolling our streets, it is unconstitutional and for good reason nor do we want PDs armed and trained as though they were going off to war, instead of enforcing civilian laws right here at home.

Sure, it's a dangerous job, but far less so than many other jobs. And no one is forced to be a cop. If they feel that threatened, find another job. Some cops seem able to do a good job, so it's not impossible. And the more they alienate those they are supposed to protect, the more dangerous they are making things for everyone.

 

badtoworse

(5,957 posts)
13. I don't think we're going to find much common ground here
Tue Feb 7, 2012, 07:27 PM
Feb 2012

Do the things you describe sometimes happen? Yes, but they happen on any sizeable police force at times. If your police force lacked the weapons that the NYPD has, I do not believe they would have the capacity to respond effectively to violent crime, especially if terrorists were involved.

Assuming you had a similarly equipped, 25,000 man "civilian" police, you would have the same issues. Such a police force would include some rotten apples, some guys on the take and they would make mistakes too.

I'll stick with what we have.

G_j

(40,366 posts)
14. a few bad apples arrested 1,800, many pre-emptively, during the R. convention, or was it a mistake?
Wed Feb 8, 2012, 02:24 PM
Feb 2012

I'm not finding much common ground here either. So whose interests were they protecting?

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/nypd-can-keep-its-secrets-2004-convention-arrests-remain-mysterious/

June 11, 2010, 3:28 pm N.Y.P.D. Can Keep Its Secrets: 2004 Convention Arrests Remain Mysterious
By DAVID CARR

On Wednesday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that the New York City Police Department can withhold 1,900 pages of data detailing police surveillance in advance of the 2004 Republican Convention in New York.

So now and forever, the reason that 1,800 people were arrested, many pre-emptively, during the convention and placed in a pen on the Hudson River – nicknamed Guantanamo on the Hudson by some – will remain very much a mystery. Those documents also might have shed some light on the efforts of undercover police officers sent all over the country to gather intelligence on people who might come to the city to protest.

The city has paid out millions to those who were arrested and a Federal District Court judge, along with a federal magistrate, had ruled that the city was required to release the data that led to the arrests, but the Second Circuit decided that transparency could “undermine the safety of law enforcement personnel and would likely undermine the ability of a law enforcement agency to conduct further investigations.”

The 43-page ruling has the collateral effect of preventing the press from inspecting the rationale that New York used to fence off protests and to raid various church, theater and civic groups before the convention. In part, the city was able to keep the information secret by conflating peaceful political protest with the Gollum of terrorism.

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badtoworse

(5,957 posts)
15. The directions to do that almost certainly came from the Mayor's office
Wed Feb 8, 2012, 02:41 PM
Feb 2012

Your beef is with Bloomberg

Dawson Leery

(19,348 posts)
7. I never understood the love affair and deference given to LEO's.
Tue Feb 7, 2012, 05:02 PM
Feb 2012

They exist to protect the status quo, corruption and all.
Their unions only fight for their members, they feel no connection with other working class unionized workers (and non-unionized).
By large margins, the cops and their union bosses supported the execution of Troy Davis. Let them sink.

 

T S Justly

(884 posts)
9. Big Bank J.P. Morgan gave 4.6 million to NYPD near the time NYPD were brutalizing Occupy citizens
Tue Feb 7, 2012, 06:42 PM
Feb 2012

Who were Occupying big banks. Sounds like another one of those coincidences, to me.

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