Jarrod: A recent New York Times headline sums it up well: “Facing Protests Over Use of Force, Police Respond With More Force.” Even as America’s cult of cop worship implodes before our eyes, it is clear that many cops across the country have no interest in playing nice for the cameras. Rayshard Brooks was murdered […]
Fireworks
As the murder of George Floyd set the streets alight, revelers in New York City lit up the night skies with volleys of fireworks smuggled in from out of state. The celebration seemed fitting — the people had risen up, the Minneapolis precinct burned. Apparently overnight, the police had lost their legitimacy in the eyes […]
When the PBA Defends Bad Cops
I wrote the following letter to the editor of The Irish Echo in 2000. Patrick Lynch, the current President of the NYC Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association (PBA), had just been elected to his first term. Suffice it to say that he has continued acting in a despicable tradition, so what I wrote then still stands. Pictured […]
Bill de Blasio: The Most Decrepit Mayor in America
In the wake of days of intense protests against the murder of George Floyd on the streets of New York City, Bill de Blasio, a failed presidential candidate and now infamous bungler of the city’s response to the COVID 19 virus epidemic,[1] has joined the chorus, led by Donald Trump, that violence is the work […]
Losing Kathy: Slow Violence and Social Service Work in New York City
One of my last conversations at Ladders Services was with the Medical Examiner’s office after I heard Kathy had died.* My cubicle was in a cellar with an open floor plan, shared with other cubicles, and my boss and I agreed that I should call the Medical Examiner from a room with a door. Privacy. […]
Stick-up on Rikers Island
It started with the phones. A few minutes before 9:30 on Saturday morning, mid-conversation with wives, children, friends, and lawyers, the lines all went dead. This was March 22nd. Visits had been suspended a week prior, so the phones had become our only real link to the outside world. Of course, the underlying frustration had […]