According to the Stolen Lives Project, 44 people have been killed by law enforcement in the five boroughs of New York City since Mayor Bloomberg took office in January of 2002. Whether these shootings were justifiable can only be determined through the courts and is not clear at this time.
Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly address security concerns on August 1, 2004. (Courtesy: Mayor Bloomberg's website, Photo by Kimberlee Hewitt.)
In all but one of the shootings, the police officer involved was not indicted.
In 2002 and 2003, rates of violent crime continued to decrease citywide.
Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly disbanded the Street Crime Unit in early 2002, and many feel there has been a steady transition away from some of the hardball tactics of the Giuliani era that inflamed neighborhoods in northern Manhattan, central Brooklyn and the Bronx.
The current administration put most Street Crimes Unit detectives back into local precincts. Smaller firearms units, with far fewer officers and detectives, now go after illegal gun dealers. Today, most street-level enforcement is the responsibility of local precincts and of Operation Impact, a program that suppresses street crime by flooding troubled neighborhoods with uniformed rookie officers and setting up visible, accessible command-post trailers. The program also includes meetings with residents and merchants, and a clear explanation of strategy and tactics. (Andrew White, Center for New York City Affairs, New School University)
After a 66 percent increase in misdemeanor arrests from 1993 to 1998, the level of arrests and pretrial detentions for such minor crimes as turnstile-hopping and public drinking has declined. While misdemeanor arrests remain high compared to the early 1990's, they dropped by more than 20 percent in Manhattan between 1998 and 2003, with the largest decline coming during Mr. Kelly's first year in office.
In January 2002, Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly launched Operation Clean Sweep, a direct and comprehensive quality of life enforcement program designed to respond to reports of an increase in quality of life offenses in the weeks after the September 11th attacks. The program targets quality of life violations reported to precincts and the NYPD's quality of life hotline, aggressively combating low-level offenders. To date, the initiative has generated more than 20,000 arrests and 209,000 summonses throughout the five boroughs.
The NYPD launched several anti-gun initiatives in 2002. The NYPD expanded its Firearms Investigations Unit, created the Bronx Gun Investigation Unit, engaged in a new initiative with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to bring more federal gun cases, and began tracing illegal firearms to source states to identify the traffickers for federal prosecution. In 2003, Operation Gun Stop led to 379 arrests (up from 273 in 2002) and the seizure of 186 guns, and Operation Cash for Guns captured 2,219 guns (432 more than in 2002).
There has been no substantial change in the structure, composition or enforcement capability of the Civilian Complaint Review Board. In a 2003 report, the New York Civil Rights Coalition harshly criticized the Mayor's choice of executive director of the Civilian Complaint Review Board. At that time, the incumbent was acting director of CCRB and the subject of a whistleblower's accusation that investigations on her watch were "biased" in favor of cops. Despite these criticisms, the CCRB board's mayoral and police commissioner appointees "lined up" against the City Council's appointees to hire her anyway, though she "had no public reputation as a fierce fighter of police misconduct or as a person who engages the communities of color about the problems associated with police-community tensions." (New York Civil Liberties Coalition, 2/24/03)
In September of 2003, an Albany Supreme Court Justice struck down the 48-hour police department regulation concerning the questioning of officers, deeming it unconstitutional. The regulation gave police officers two days to remain silent before they could be questioned by the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau regarding incidents of misconduct. Justice Edward Sheridan ruled that the 48-hour provision must be removed from the NYPD contract with the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association (PBA), which expires next year. (Amsterdam News, 9/25/03)
Across the city, 5,581 people issued complaints about New York police last year, a 21 percent increase from 2002 and the highest number since 1995, according to a report by the Civilian Complaint Review Board released last month, as reported in Newsday.
Overall, public opinion of Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has been positive; in January of 2004 the Commissioner had an approval rating of 70 percent (New York Times, January 20, 2004).
In 1998, Iris Baez founded the Anthony Baez Community & Parents Against Police Brutality Foundation, which is dedicated to assisting families confronted with police violence. The mission of the foundation covers education, human rights, constitutional rights, community awareness of police brutality and community involvement.
The Foundation is in the process of developing a "First Aid" kit containing information on what to do when a family member or friend is confronted by police misconduct and/or brutality. The kit will address questions like:
How to find legal counsel
How to log/date all information
How to make a complaint to the Civilian Complaint Review Board Complaint
How to obtain an independent autopsy
How to organize community and local representatives to support your case
Recently, Iris made the decision to work on the inside. In 2000, Iris was nominated to be a member of the Civilians Complaint Review Board. Mayor Giuliani rejected this nomination stating that Iris Baez would not be objective in her ability to evaluate the conduct of a police officer.
In 2003, Iris ran for City Council on the Democratic/Green Party Ticket. Due to redistricting, the signed petitions she needed to run were rejected by the city. She hopes to run again in the future and win.
Current Family Life
After raising 6 children and 5 adopted children, Iris and her husband Ramon continue to make a commitment to young people in their home in the Bronx. Today they are raising six foster children. Mixed into her busy schedule, Iris travels around the country speaking to groups about the need for police reform.
Judge Sterling Johnson, Jr. of United States District Court in Brooklyn overturned a jury verdict that had cleared the city of liability in the 1999 police shooting of Gidone Busch. The judge said that leaving the verdict in place "would result in a miscarriage of justice." Now Doris Busch Boskey and her family are free to pursue a new trial seeking damages from the city for the shooting.
Doris Busch Boskey was quoted in the New York Times as saying, "Somehow, finally, maybe justice will be done. People will see that my son was not lunging, was not attacking." (Excerpted in part from New York Times article, September 10, 2004)
August 2004
Doris Busch Boskey is waiting for a decision from the Civilian Complaint Review Board concerning her case. She continues to speak out about the cover-up, evidence tampering and demonization that went on in Gary's case. In addition, she is working to promote better screening and training of police officers, especially in the use of patience and verbal communication as opposed to the use of physical force and tools like pepperspray. She is working to publish a book of Gary's poetry, which he finished and designed just weeks before he was killed.
Representative Jerrold Nadler (NY-D) has tried to get the Justice Department to reopen the case 3 times. First in June of 2001 when they refused to prosecute, then in June of 2003 when it was discovered that they had determined that Gary was not moving forward or lunging when he was shot. The Justice Department also determined that there was a possibility that the officers colluded to coordinate their story, and they sent a letter to Internal Affairs and asked them to investigate. Their investigation consisted of asking the officers if they colluded and they said they didn't.
In November, 2003, Doris Busch Boskey lost a civil suit she had brought against the city. During the four-week trial, with one juror literally sleeping his way through the proceedings and another hardly bothering to conceal his ties to the police, the courthouse seats were empty most of the time.
City attorneys repeatedly charged in open court that the residents of tight-knit Boro Park had conspired to deny the police version of what happened. Why residents of the conservative, police friendly neighborhood would take it into their heads to contradict police was never explained.
The city further alleged that potential witnesses had been intimidated by Doris Busch. It seems this is a trait that runs in families. Gary Busch scared beefy, well-armed cops, whereas thin, sixty-something Doris Busch could terrify whole neighborhoods. But according to one witness, if there was any intimidation it came from police, whom he was nervous about contradicting in open court.
Shortly after the trial, the city announced plans to sue the Busch family for several hundred thousand dollars in legal costs — an astonishing insult to pile onto this injury.*
Representative Nadler again asked the Justice Department to reopen the case. There is also a motion to set aside the verdict, and that decision is still pending.
* Last three paragraphs excerpted from an article by Harvey Blume in HEEB magazine (July 2004). Used with permission.
Kadiatou Diallo is the founder of the Amadou Diallo Foundation, dedicated to the promotion of racial healing through educational programs. She has worked closely with members of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care to improve relations between the police and the community. She has worked with politicians in an effort to pass state and federal racial profiling laws.
Wheeler Avenue, the street where Amadou lived and was killed, was renamed Amadou Diallo Place on February 4, 2003, the fourth anniversary of his death.
In 2003 Kadiatou published her autobiography, My Heart Will Cross This Ocean: My Story, My Son, Amadou.
Mrs. Diallo has received e-mails and letters from all over the world. This is an excerpt from a postcard she received from a woman in Africa after the settlement January 2004:
"I am a young woman from Burkina Faso and I admire you for being a mother and a courageous woman. I know that your effort has rooted and I wish for it to reach the size of this giant tree, the Baobab Tree on the front of this postcard, to reach to millions and millions of people a million times because people all over the world should know that this great country of liberty and all the promise it inspires to people is also a giant country of injustice." — Mai Sakara
And this from a writing student at Manhattan Community College:
"Every woman on this earth should read this story to be inspired by this young girl who has become a woman of strength and dignity. Amadou came to this earth for a mission and that is to touch the human spirit. He did not come to last for long, and his mission was accomplished." — Wore Ndiaye
In 2005, Kadiatou will build a 20-classroom school in Labe, Guinea to bring computer access to students. She continues to lecture throughout the country, donating all of the proceeds to the Amadou Diallo Foundation.
"
["post_title"]=>
string(31) "Every Mother's Son: Film Update"
["post_excerpt"]=>
string(155) "The Every Mother's Son filmmakers provide this update on police-community relations in New York City since Mayor Bloomberg entered office in January, 2002."
["post_status"]=>
string(7) "publish"
["comment_status"]=>
string(4) "open"
["ping_status"]=>
string(6) "closed"
["post_password"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_name"]=>
string(11) "film-update"
["to_ping"]=>
string(0) ""
["pinged"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_modified"]=>
string(19) "2016-06-21 12:58:33"
["post_modified_gmt"]=>
string(19) "2016-06-21 16:58:33"
["post_content_filtered"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_parent"]=>
int(0)
["guid"]=>
string(56) "http://www.pbs.org/pov/index.php/2004/08/17/film-update/"
["menu_order"]=>
int(0)
["post_type"]=>
string(4) "post"
["post_mime_type"]=>
string(0) ""
["comment_count"]=>
string(1) "0"
["filter"]=>
string(3) "raw"
}
["queried_object_id"]=>
int(522)
["request"]=>
string(480) "SELECT wp_posts.* FROM wp_posts JOIN wp_term_relationships ON wp_posts.ID = wp_term_relationships.object_id JOIN wp_term_taxonomy ON wp_term_relationships.term_taxonomy_id = wp_term_taxonomy.term_taxonomy_id AND wp_term_taxonomy.taxonomy = 'pov_film' JOIN wp_terms ON wp_term_taxonomy.term_id = wp_terms.term_id WHERE 1=1 AND wp_posts.post_name = 'film-update' AND wp_posts.post_type = 'post'
AND wp_terms.slug = 'everymothersson'
ORDER BY wp_posts.post_date DESC "
["posts"]=>
&array(1) {
[0]=>
object(WP_Post)#7138 (24) {
["ID"]=>
int(522)
["post_author"]=>
string(1) "1"
["post_date"]=>
string(19) "2004-01-20 18:45:00"
["post_date_gmt"]=>
string(19) "2004-01-20 23:45:00"
["post_content"]=>
string(15364) "
According to the Stolen Lives Project, 44 people have been killed by law enforcement in the five boroughs of New York City since Mayor Bloomberg took office in January of 2002. Whether these shootings were justifiable can only be determined through the courts and is not clear at this time.
Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly address security concerns on August 1, 2004. (Courtesy: Mayor Bloomberg's website, Photo by Kimberlee Hewitt.)
In all but one of the shootings, the police officer involved was not indicted.
In 2002 and 2003, rates of violent crime continued to decrease citywide.
Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly disbanded the Street Crime Unit in early 2002, and many feel there has been a steady transition away from some of the hardball tactics of the Giuliani era that inflamed neighborhoods in northern Manhattan, central Brooklyn and the Bronx.
The current administration put most Street Crimes Unit detectives back into local precincts. Smaller firearms units, with far fewer officers and detectives, now go after illegal gun dealers. Today, most street-level enforcement is the responsibility of local precincts and of Operation Impact, a program that suppresses street crime by flooding troubled neighborhoods with uniformed rookie officers and setting up visible, accessible command-post trailers. The program also includes meetings with residents and merchants, and a clear explanation of strategy and tactics. (Andrew White, Center for New York City Affairs, New School University)
After a 66 percent increase in misdemeanor arrests from 1993 to 1998, the level of arrests and pretrial detentions for such minor crimes as turnstile-hopping and public drinking has declined. While misdemeanor arrests remain high compared to the early 1990's, they dropped by more than 20 percent in Manhattan between 1998 and 2003, with the largest decline coming during Mr. Kelly's first year in office.
In January 2002, Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly launched Operation Clean Sweep, a direct and comprehensive quality of life enforcement program designed to respond to reports of an increase in quality of life offenses in the weeks after the September 11th attacks. The program targets quality of life violations reported to precincts and the NYPD's quality of life hotline, aggressively combating low-level offenders. To date, the initiative has generated more than 20,000 arrests and 209,000 summonses throughout the five boroughs.
The NYPD launched several anti-gun initiatives in 2002. The NYPD expanded its Firearms Investigations Unit, created the Bronx Gun Investigation Unit, engaged in a new initiative with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to bring more federal gun cases, and began tracing illegal firearms to source states to identify the traffickers for federal prosecution. In 2003, Operation Gun Stop led to 379 arrests (up from 273 in 2002) and the seizure of 186 guns, and Operation Cash for Guns captured 2,219 guns (432 more than in 2002).
There has been no substantial change in the structure, composition or enforcement capability of the Civilian Complaint Review Board. In a 2003 report, the New York Civil Rights Coalition harshly criticized the Mayor's choice of executive director of the Civilian Complaint Review Board. At that time, the incumbent was acting director of CCRB and the subject of a whistleblower's accusation that investigations on her watch were "biased" in favor of cops. Despite these criticisms, the CCRB board's mayoral and police commissioner appointees "lined up" against the City Council's appointees to hire her anyway, though she "had no public reputation as a fierce fighter of police misconduct or as a person who engages the communities of color about the problems associated with police-community tensions." (New York Civil Liberties Coalition, 2/24/03)
In September of 2003, an Albany Supreme Court Justice struck down the 48-hour police department regulation concerning the questioning of officers, deeming it unconstitutional. The regulation gave police officers two days to remain silent before they could be questioned by the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau regarding incidents of misconduct. Justice Edward Sheridan ruled that the 48-hour provision must be removed from the NYPD contract with the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association (PBA), which expires next year. (Amsterdam News, 9/25/03)
Across the city, 5,581 people issued complaints about New York police last year, a 21 percent increase from 2002 and the highest number since 1995, according to a report by the Civilian Complaint Review Board released last month, as reported in Newsday.
Overall, public opinion of Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has been positive; in January of 2004 the Commissioner had an approval rating of 70 percent (New York Times, January 20, 2004).
In 1998, Iris Baez founded the Anthony Baez Community & Parents Against Police Brutality Foundation, which is dedicated to assisting families confronted with police violence. The mission of the foundation covers education, human rights, constitutional rights, community awareness of police brutality and community involvement.
The Foundation is in the process of developing a "First Aid" kit containing information on what to do when a family member or friend is confronted by police misconduct and/or brutality. The kit will address questions like:
How to find legal counsel
How to log/date all information
How to make a complaint to the Civilian Complaint Review Board Complaint
How to obtain an independent autopsy
How to organize community and local representatives to support your case
Recently, Iris made the decision to work on the inside. In 2000, Iris was nominated to be a member of the Civilians Complaint Review Board. Mayor Giuliani rejected this nomination stating that Iris Baez would not be objective in her ability to evaluate the conduct of a police officer.
In 2003, Iris ran for City Council on the Democratic/Green Party Ticket. Due to redistricting, the signed petitions she needed to run were rejected by the city. She hopes to run again in the future and win.
Current Family Life
After raising 6 children and 5 adopted children, Iris and her husband Ramon continue to make a commitment to young people in their home in the Bronx. Today they are raising six foster children. Mixed into her busy schedule, Iris travels around the country speaking to groups about the need for police reform.
Judge Sterling Johnson, Jr. of United States District Court in Brooklyn overturned a jury verdict that had cleared the city of liability in the 1999 police shooting of Gidone Busch. The judge said that leaving the verdict in place "would result in a miscarriage of justice." Now Doris Busch Boskey and her family are free to pursue a new trial seeking damages from the city for the shooting.
Doris Busch Boskey was quoted in the New York Times as saying, "Somehow, finally, maybe justice will be done. People will see that my son was not lunging, was not attacking." (Excerpted in part from New York Times article, September 10, 2004)
August 2004
Doris Busch Boskey is waiting for a decision from the Civilian Complaint Review Board concerning her case. She continues to speak out about the cover-up, evidence tampering and demonization that went on in Gary's case. In addition, she is working to promote better screening and training of police officers, especially in the use of patience and verbal communication as opposed to the use of physical force and tools like pepperspray. She is working to publish a book of Gary's poetry, which he finished and designed just weeks before he was killed.
Representative Jerrold Nadler (NY-D) has tried to get the Justice Department to reopen the case 3 times. First in June of 2001 when they refused to prosecute, then in June of 2003 when it was discovered that they had determined that Gary was not moving forward or lunging when he was shot. The Justice Department also determined that there was a possibility that the officers colluded to coordinate their story, and they sent a letter to Internal Affairs and asked them to investigate. Their investigation consisted of asking the officers if they colluded and they said they didn't.
In November, 2003, Doris Busch Boskey lost a civil suit she had brought against the city. During the four-week trial, with one juror literally sleeping his way through the proceedings and another hardly bothering to conceal his ties to the police, the courthouse seats were empty most of the time.
City attorneys repeatedly charged in open court that the residents of tight-knit Boro Park had conspired to deny the police version of what happened. Why residents of the conservative, police friendly neighborhood would take it into their heads to contradict police was never explained.
The city further alleged that potential witnesses had been intimidated by Doris Busch. It seems this is a trait that runs in families. Gary Busch scared beefy, well-armed cops, whereas thin, sixty-something Doris Busch could terrify whole neighborhoods. But according to one witness, if there was any intimidation it came from police, whom he was nervous about contradicting in open court.
Shortly after the trial, the city announced plans to sue the Busch family for several hundred thousand dollars in legal costs — an astonishing insult to pile onto this injury.*
Representative Nadler again asked the Justice Department to reopen the case. There is also a motion to set aside the verdict, and that decision is still pending.
* Last three paragraphs excerpted from an article by Harvey Blume in HEEB magazine (July 2004). Used with permission.
Kadiatou Diallo is the founder of the Amadou Diallo Foundation, dedicated to the promotion of racial healing through educational programs. She has worked closely with members of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care to improve relations between the police and the community. She has worked with politicians in an effort to pass state and federal racial profiling laws.
Wheeler Avenue, the street where Amadou lived and was killed, was renamed Amadou Diallo Place on February 4, 2003, the fourth anniversary of his death.
In 2003 Kadiatou published her autobiography, My Heart Will Cross This Ocean: My Story, My Son, Amadou.
Mrs. Diallo has received e-mails and letters from all over the world. This is an excerpt from a postcard she received from a woman in Africa after the settlement January 2004:
"I am a young woman from Burkina Faso and I admire you for being a mother and a courageous woman. I know that your effort has rooted and I wish for it to reach the size of this giant tree, the Baobab Tree on the front of this postcard, to reach to millions and millions of people a million times because people all over the world should know that this great country of liberty and all the promise it inspires to people is also a giant country of injustice." — Mai Sakara
And this from a writing student at Manhattan Community College:
"Every woman on this earth should read this story to be inspired by this young girl who has become a woman of strength and dignity. Amadou came to this earth for a mission and that is to touch the human spirit. He did not come to last for long, and his mission was accomplished." — Wore Ndiaye
In 2005, Kadiatou will build a 20-classroom school in Labe, Guinea to bring computer access to students. She continues to lecture throughout the country, donating all of the proceeds to the Amadou Diallo Foundation.
"
["post_title"]=>
string(31) "Every Mother's Son: Film Update"
["post_excerpt"]=>
string(155) "The Every Mother's Son filmmakers provide this update on police-community relations in New York City since Mayor Bloomberg entered office in January, 2002."
["post_status"]=>
string(7) "publish"
["comment_status"]=>
string(4) "open"
["ping_status"]=>
string(6) "closed"
["post_password"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_name"]=>
string(11) "film-update"
["to_ping"]=>
string(0) ""
["pinged"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_modified"]=>
string(19) "2016-06-21 12:58:33"
["post_modified_gmt"]=>
string(19) "2016-06-21 16:58:33"
["post_content_filtered"]=>
string(0) ""
["post_parent"]=>
int(0)
["guid"]=>
string(56) "http://www.pbs.org/pov/index.php/2004/08/17/film-update/"
["menu_order"]=>
int(0)
["post_type"]=>
string(4) "post"
["post_mime_type"]=>
string(0) ""
["comment_count"]=>
string(1) "0"
["filter"]=>
string(3) "raw"
}
}
["post_count"]=>
int(1)
["current_post"]=>
int(-1)
["in_the_loop"]=>
bool(false)
["post"]=>
object(WP_Post)#7138 (24) {
["ID"]=>
int(522)
["post_author"]=>
string(1) "1"
["post_date"]=>
string(19) "2004-01-20 18:45:00"
["post_date_gmt"]=>
string(19) "2004-01-20 23:45:00"
["post_content"]=>
string(15364) "
According to the Stolen Lives Project, 44 people have been killed by law enforcement in the five boroughs of New York City since Mayor Bloomberg took office in January of 2002. Whether these shootings were justifiable can only be determined through the courts and is not clear at this time.
Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly address security concerns on August 1, 2004. (Courtesy: Mayor Bloomberg's website, Photo by Kimberlee Hewitt.)
In all but one of the shootings, the police officer involved was not indicted.
In 2002 and 2003, rates of violent crime continued to decrease citywide.
Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly disbanded the Street Crime Unit in early 2002, and many feel there has been a steady transition away from some of the hardball tactics of the Giuliani era that inflamed neighborhoods in northern Manhattan, central Brooklyn and the Bronx.
The current administration put most Street Crimes Unit detectives back into local precincts. Smaller firearms units, with far fewer officers and detectives, now go after illegal gun dealers. Today, most street-level enforcement is the responsibility of local precincts and of Operation Impact, a program that suppresses street crime by flooding troubled neighborhoods with uniformed rookie officers and setting up visible, accessible command-post trailers. The program also includes meetings with residents and merchants, and a clear explanation of strategy and tactics. (Andrew White, Center for New York City Affairs, New School University)
After a 66 percent increase in misdemeanor arrests from 1993 to 1998, the level of arrests and pretrial detentions for such minor crimes as turnstile-hopping and public drinking has declined. While misdemeanor arrests remain high compared to the early 1990's, they dropped by more than 20 percent in Manhattan between 1998 and 2003, with the largest decline coming during Mr. Kelly's first year in office.
In January 2002, Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly launched Operation Clean Sweep, a direct and comprehensive quality of life enforcement program designed to respond to reports of an increase in quality of life offenses in the weeks after the September 11th attacks. The program targets quality of life violations reported to precincts and the NYPD's quality of life hotline, aggressively combating low-level offenders. To date, the initiative has generated more than 20,000 arrests and 209,000 summonses throughout the five boroughs.
The NYPD launched several anti-gun initiatives in 2002. The NYPD expanded its Firearms Investigations Unit, created the Bronx Gun Investigation Unit, engaged in a new initiative with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to bring more federal gun cases, and began tracing illegal firearms to source states to identify the traffickers for federal prosecution. In 2003, Operation Gun Stop led to 379 arrests (up from 273 in 2002) and the seizure of 186 guns, and Operation Cash for Guns captured 2,219 guns (432 more than in 2002).
There has been no substantial change in the structure, composition or enforcement capability of the Civilian Complaint Review Board. In a 2003 report, the New York Civil Rights Coalition harshly criticized the Mayor's choice of executive director of the Civilian Complaint Review Board. At that time, the incumbent was acting director of CCRB and the subject of a whistleblower's accusation that investigations on her watch were "biased" in favor of cops. Despite these criticisms, the CCRB board's mayoral and police commissioner appointees "lined up" against the City Council's appointees to hire her anyway, though she "had no public reputation as a fierce fighter of police misconduct or as a person who engages the communities of color about the problems associated with police-community tensions." (New York Civil Liberties Coalition, 2/24/03)
In September of 2003, an Albany Supreme Court Justice struck down the 48-hour police department regulation concerning the questioning of officers, deeming it unconstitutional. The regulation gave police officers two days to remain silent before they could be questioned by the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau regarding incidents of misconduct. Justice Edward Sheridan ruled that the 48-hour provision must be removed from the NYPD contract with the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association (PBA), which expires next year. (Amsterdam News, 9/25/03)
Across the city, 5,581 people issued complaints about New York police last year, a 21 percent increase from 2002 and the highest number since 1995, according to a report by the Civilian Complaint Review Board released last month, as reported in Newsday.
Overall, public opinion of Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has been positive; in January of 2004 the Commissioner had an approval rating of 70 percent (New York Times, January 20, 2004).
In 1998, Iris Baez founded the Anthony Baez Community & Parents Against Police Brutality Foundation, which is dedicated to assisting families confronted with police violence. The mission of the foundation covers education, human rights, constitutional rights, community awareness of police brutality and community involvement.
The Foundation is in the process of developing a "First Aid" kit containing information on what to do when a family member or friend is confronted by police misconduct and/or brutality. The kit will address questions like:
How to find legal counsel
How to log/date all information
How to make a complaint to the Civilian Complaint Review Board Complaint
How to obtain an independent autopsy
How to organize community and local representatives to support your case
Recently, Iris made the decision to work on the inside. In 2000, Iris was nominated to be a member of the Civilians Complaint Review Board. Mayor Giuliani rejected this nomination stating that Iris Baez would not be objective in her ability to evaluate the conduct of a police officer.
In 2003, Iris ran for City Council on the Democratic/Green Party Ticket. Due to redistricting, the signed petitions she needed to run were rejected by the city. She hopes to run again in the future and win.
Current Family Life
After raising 6 children and 5 adopted children, Iris and her husband Ramon continue to make a commitment to young people in their home in the Bronx. Today they are raising six foster children. Mixed into her busy schedule, Iris travels around the country speaking to groups about the need for police reform.
Judge Sterling Johnson, Jr. of United States District Court in Brooklyn overturned a jury verdict that had cleared the city of liability in the 1999 police shooting of Gidone Busch. The judge said that leaving the verdict in place "would result in a miscarriage of justice." Now Doris Busch Boskey and her family are free to pursue a new trial seeking damages from the city for the shooting.
Doris Busch Boskey was quoted in the New York Times as saying, "Somehow, finally, maybe justice will be done. People will see that my son was not lunging, was not attacking." (Excerpted in part from New York Times article, September 10, 2004)
August 2004
Doris Busch Boskey is waiting for a decision from the Civilian Complaint Review Board concerning her case. She continues to speak out about the cover-up, evidence tampering and demonization that went on in Gary's case. In addition, she is working to promote better screening and training of police officers, especially in the use of patience and verbal communication as opposed to the use of physical force and tools like pepperspray. She is working to publish a book of Gary's poetry, which he finished and designed just weeks before he was killed.
Representative Jerrold Nadler (NY-D) has tried to get the Justice Department to reopen the case 3 times. First in June of 2001 when they refused to prosecute, then in June of 2003 when it was discovered that they had determined that Gary was not moving forward or lunging when he was shot. The Justice Department also determined that there was a possibility that the officers colluded to coordinate their story, and they sent a letter to Internal Affairs and asked them to investigate. Their investigation consisted of asking the officers if they colluded and they said they didn't.
In November, 2003, Doris Busch Boskey lost a civil suit she had brought against the city. During the four-week trial, with one juror literally sleeping his way through the proceedings and another hardly bothering to conceal his ties to the police, the courthouse seats were empty most of the time.
City attorneys repeatedly charged in open court that the residents of tight-knit Boro Park had conspired to deny the police version of what happened. Why residents of the conservative, police friendly neighborhood would take it into their heads to contradict police was never explained.
The city further alleged that potential witnesses had been intimidated by Doris Busch. It seems this is a trait that runs in families. Gary Busch scared beefy, well-armed cops, whereas thin, sixty-something Doris Busch could terrify whole neighborhoods. But according to one witness, if there was any intimidation it came from police, whom he was nervous about contradicting in open court.
Shortly after the trial, the city announced plans to sue the Busch family for several hundred thousand dollars in legal costs — an astonishing insult to pile onto this injury.*
Representative Nadler again asked the Justice Department to reopen the case. There is also a motion to set aside the verdict, and that decision is still pending.
* Last three paragraphs excerpted from an article by Harvey Blume in HEEB magazine (July 2004). Used with permission.
Kadiatou Diallo is the founder of the Amadou Diallo Foundation, dedicated to the promotion of racial healing through educational programs. She has worked closely with members of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care to improve relations between the police and the community. She has worked with politicians in an effort to pass state and federal racial profiling laws.
Wheeler Avenue, the street where Amadou lived and was killed, was renamed Amadou Diallo Place on February 4, 2003, the fourth anniversary of his death.
In 2003 Kadiatou published her autobiography, My Heart Will Cross This Ocean: My Story, My Son, Amadou.
Mrs. Diallo has received e-mails and letters from all over the world. This is an excerpt from a postcard she received from a woman in Africa after the settlement January 2004:
"I am a young woman from Burkina Faso and I admire you for being a mother and a courageous woman. I know that your effort has rooted and I wish for it to reach the size of this giant tree, the Baobab Tree on the front of this postcard, to reach to millions and millions of people a million times because people all over the world should know that this great country of liberty and all the promise it inspires to people is also a giant country of injustice." — Mai Sakara
And this from a writing student at Manhattan Community College:
"Every woman on this earth should read this story to be inspired by this young girl who has become a woman of strength and dignity. Amadou came to this earth for a mission and that is to touch the human spirit. He did not come to last for long, and his mission was accomplished." — Wore Ndiaye
In 2005, Kadiatou will build a 20-classroom school in Labe, Guinea to bring computer access to students. She continues to lecture throughout the country, donating all of the proceeds to the Amadou Diallo Foundation.
According to the Stolen Lives Project, 44 people have been killed by law enforcement in the five boroughs of New York City since Mayor Bloomberg took office in January of 2002. Whether these shootings were justifiable can only be determined through the courts and is not clear at this time.
Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly address security concerns on August 1, 2004. (Courtesy: Mayor Bloomberg's website, Photo by Kimberlee Hewitt.)
In all but one of the shootings, the police officer involved was not indicted.
In 2002 and 2003, rates of violent crime continued to decrease citywide.
Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly disbanded the Street Crime Unit in early 2002, and many feel there has been a steady transition away from some of the hardball tactics of the Giuliani era that inflamed neighborhoods in northern Manhattan, central Brooklyn and the Bronx.
The current administration put most Street Crimes Unit detectives back into local precincts. Smaller firearms units, with far fewer officers and detectives, now go after illegal gun dealers. Today, most street-level enforcement is the responsibility of local precincts and of Operation Impact, a program that suppresses street crime by flooding troubled neighborhoods with uniformed rookie officers and setting up visible, accessible command-post trailers. The program also includes meetings with residents and merchants, and a clear explanation of strategy and tactics. (Andrew White, Center for New York City Affairs, New School University)
After a 66 percent increase in misdemeanor arrests from 1993 to 1998, the level of arrests and pretrial detentions for such minor crimes as turnstile-hopping and public drinking has declined. While misdemeanor arrests remain high compared to the early 1990's, they dropped by more than 20 percent in Manhattan between 1998 and 2003, with the largest decline coming during Mr. Kelly's first year in office.
In January 2002, Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly launched Operation Clean Sweep, a direct and comprehensive quality of life enforcement program designed to respond to reports of an increase in quality of life offenses in the weeks after the September 11th attacks. The program targets quality of life violations reported to precincts and the NYPD's quality of life hotline, aggressively combating low-level offenders. To date, the initiative has generated more than 20,000 arrests and 209,000 summonses throughout the five boroughs.
The NYPD launched several anti-gun initiatives in 2002. The NYPD expanded its Firearms Investigations Unit, created the Bronx Gun Investigation Unit, engaged in a new initiative with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to bring more federal gun cases, and began tracing illegal firearms to source states to identify the traffickers for federal prosecution. In 2003, Operation Gun Stop led to 379 arrests (up from 273 in 2002) and the seizure of 186 guns, and Operation Cash for Guns captured 2,219 guns (432 more than in 2002).
There has been no substantial change in the structure, composition or enforcement capability of the Civilian Complaint Review Board. In a 2003 report, the New York Civil Rights Coalition harshly criticized the Mayor's choice of executive director of the Civilian Complaint Review Board. At that time, the incumbent was acting director of CCRB and the subject of a whistleblower's accusation that investigations on her watch were "biased" in favor of cops. Despite these criticisms, the CCRB board's mayoral and police commissioner appointees "lined up" against the City Council's appointees to hire her anyway, though she "had no public reputation as a fierce fighter of police misconduct or as a person who engages the communities of color about the problems associated with police-community tensions." (New York Civil Liberties Coalition, 2/24/03)
In September of 2003, an Albany Supreme Court Justice struck down the 48-hour police department regulation concerning the questioning of officers, deeming it unconstitutional. The regulation gave police officers two days to remain silent before they could be questioned by the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau regarding incidents of misconduct. Justice Edward Sheridan ruled that the 48-hour provision must be removed from the NYPD contract with the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association (PBA), which expires next year. (Amsterdam News, 9/25/03)
Across the city, 5,581 people issued complaints about New York police last year, a 21 percent increase from 2002 and the highest number since 1995, according to a report by the Civilian Complaint Review Board released last month, as reported in Newsday.
Overall, public opinion of Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has been positive; in January of 2004 the Commissioner had an approval rating of 70 percent (New York Times, January 20, 2004).
In 1998, Iris Baez founded the Anthony Baez Community & Parents Against Police Brutality Foundation, which is dedicated to assisting families confronted with police violence. The mission of the foundation covers education, human rights, constitutional rights, community awareness of police brutality and community involvement.
The Foundation is in the process of developing a "First Aid" kit containing information on what to do when a family member or friend is confronted by police misconduct and/or brutality. The kit will address questions like:
How to find legal counsel
How to log/date all information
How to make a complaint to the Civilian Complaint Review Board Complaint
How to obtain an independent autopsy
How to organize community and local representatives to support your case
Recently, Iris made the decision to work on the inside. In 2000, Iris was nominated to be a member of the Civilians Complaint Review Board. Mayor Giuliani rejected this nomination stating that Iris Baez would not be objective in her ability to evaluate the conduct of a police officer.
In 2003, Iris ran for City Council on the Democratic/Green Party Ticket. Due to redistricting, the signed petitions she needed to run were rejected by the city. She hopes to run again in the future and win.
Current Family Life
After raising 6 children and 5 adopted children, Iris and her husband Ramon continue to make a commitment to young people in their home in the Bronx. Today they are raising six foster children. Mixed into her busy schedule, Iris travels around the country speaking to groups about the need for police reform.
Judge Sterling Johnson, Jr. of United States District Court in Brooklyn overturned a jury verdict that had cleared the city of liability in the 1999 police shooting of Gidone Busch. The judge said that leaving the verdict in place "would result in a miscarriage of justice." Now Doris Busch Boskey and her family are free to pursue a new trial seeking damages from the city for the shooting.
Doris Busch Boskey was quoted in the New York Times as saying, "Somehow, finally, maybe justice will be done. People will see that my son was not lunging, was not attacking." (Excerpted in part from New York Times article, September 10, 2004)
August 2004
Doris Busch Boskey is waiting for a decision from the Civilian Complaint Review Board concerning her case. She continues to speak out about the cover-up, evidence tampering and demonization that went on in Gary's case. In addition, she is working to promote better screening and training of police officers, especially in the use of patience and verbal communication as opposed to the use of physical force and tools like pepperspray. She is working to publish a book of Gary's poetry, which he finished and designed just weeks before he was killed.
Representative Jerrold Nadler (NY-D) has tried to get the Justice Department to reopen the case 3 times. First in June of 2001 when they refused to prosecute, then in June of 2003 when it was discovered that they had determined that Gary was not moving forward or lunging when he was shot. The Justice Department also determined that there was a possibility that the officers colluded to coordinate their story, and they sent a letter to Internal Affairs and asked them to investigate. Their investigation consisted of asking the officers if they colluded and they said they didn't.
In November, 2003, Doris Busch Boskey lost a civil suit she had brought against the city. During the four-week trial, with one juror literally sleeping his way through the proceedings and another hardly bothering to conceal his ties to the police, the courthouse seats were empty most of the time.
City attorneys repeatedly charged in open court that the residents of tight-knit Boro Park had conspired to deny the police version of what happened. Why residents of the conservative, police friendly neighborhood would take it into their heads to contradict police was never explained.
The city further alleged that potential witnesses had been intimidated by Doris Busch. It seems this is a trait that runs in families. Gary Busch scared beefy, well-armed cops, whereas thin, sixty-something Doris Busch could terrify whole neighborhoods. But according to one witness, if there was any intimidation it came from police, whom he was nervous about contradicting in open court.
Shortly after the trial, the city announced plans to sue the Busch family for several hundred thousand dollars in legal costs — an astonishing insult to pile onto this injury.*
Representative Nadler again asked the Justice Department to reopen the case. There is also a motion to set aside the verdict, and that decision is still pending.
* Last three paragraphs excerpted from an article by Harvey Blume in HEEB magazine (July 2004). Used with permission.
Kadiatou Diallo is the founder of the Amadou Diallo Foundation, dedicated to the promotion of racial healing through educational programs. She has worked closely with members of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care to improve relations between the police and the community. She has worked with politicians in an effort to pass state and federal racial profiling laws.
Wheeler Avenue, the street where Amadou lived and was killed, was renamed Amadou Diallo Place on February 4, 2003, the fourth anniversary of his death.
In 2003 Kadiatou published her autobiography, My Heart Will Cross This Ocean: My Story, My Son, Amadou.
Mrs. Diallo has received e-mails and letters from all over the world. This is an excerpt from a postcard she received from a woman in Africa after the settlement January 2004:
"I am a young woman from Burkina Faso and I admire you for being a mother and a courageous woman. I know that your effort has rooted and I wish for it to reach the size of this giant tree, the Baobab Tree on the front of this postcard, to reach to millions and millions of people a million times because people all over the world should know that this great country of liberty and all the promise it inspires to people is also a giant country of injustice." — Mai Sakara
And this from a writing student at Manhattan Community College:
"Every woman on this earth should read this story to be inspired by this young girl who has become a woman of strength and dignity. Amadou came to this earth for a mission and that is to touch the human spirit. He did not come to last for long, and his mission was accomplished." — Wore Ndiaye
In 2005, Kadiatou will build a 20-classroom school in Labe, Guinea to bring computer access to students. She continues to lecture throughout the country, donating all of the proceeds to the Amadou Diallo Foundation.
In 1998, Iris Baez founded the Anthony Baez Community & Parents Against Police Brutality Foundation, which is dedicated to assisting families confronted with police violence. The mission of the foundation covers education, human rights, constitutional rights, community awareness of police brutality and community involvement.
September 10, 2004
Kadiatou Diallo is the founder of the