The secret files : Bill de Blasio, the NYPD, and the broken promises of police reform

The secret files Bill de Blasio, the NYPD, and the broken promises of police reform

Michael Hayes

Book - 2022

In 2018, reporter Michael Hayes uncovered a major story about how the NYPD was not only turning a blind eye to police misconduct, but also allowing hundreds of officers with severe misconduct charges to remain on the force. In the aftermath of that story, then-Mayor Bill de Blasio attempted to reform the department only to abandon his plans. While de Blasio may have suffered a political setback, it's New Yorkers who are the true victims of this failure to deliver accountability and transparency. The state has a law that specifically prevents the public from learning about concealed police records. New Yorkers are increasingly distrustful of the police after witnessing their loved ones being targeted, brutalized, and murdered with near ...impunity. Hayes takes readers inside decades of police corruption and controversial laws, chronicling the stories of the families and activists who have had enough. He makes a compelling case for the limits of reform in the aftermath of the major Black Lives Matter rallies following the murder of George Floyd and growing calls to defund the police."--

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Subjects
De Blasio, Bill, > 1961-
New York (N.Y.). > Police Department.
Police misconduct > New York (State) > New York.
Racism in law enforcement > New York (State) > New York.
Police corruption.
Police misconduct.
Racism in law enforcement.
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Criminology.
New York (State) > New York.
Published
New York : Kingston Imperial 2022.
Language
English
Main Author
Michael Hayes (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
393 pages ; 22 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781954220447
  • 1. The assassination of Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos
  • 2. Police Unions and a History of Tension
  • 3. Bill de Blasio and a New Era of Broken Windows Policing
  • 4. "Not a big deal. We were effecting a lawful arrest": the police killing of Eric Garner
  • 5. "They killed Marley!": the police killing of Bronx teenager Ramarley Graham
  • 6. Who was Officer Daniel Pantaleo?: the fight over Civil Rights Law 50-a
  • 7. He's stabbing me! Shoot him!": the police killing of Mohamed Bah
  • 8. Three shots in East New York: the police killing of Delrawn Small
  • 9. A legal saga for families: the trials of Ramarley Graham, Mohamed Bah and Delrawn Small's killers
  • 10. "Anything besides an empty hand there, I'm shooting him.": How the cops who killed Miguel Richards were protected
  • 11. The NYPD files stashed at the library: two civil rights advocates and thousands of secret police disciplinary records
  • 12. Pantaleo on trial: the long awaited disciplinary decision
  • 13. Melee in Mott Haven: a new wave of protests and a brutal crackdown by the NYPD
  • 14. The end of the police secrecy law: repealing Civil Rights Law 50-a
  • 15. The fight for justice after the George Floyd protests
  • 16. The election of Mayor Eric Adams: a new administration moves away from police accountability
  • 17. How an era of fighting ended in disappointment for the families of loved ones killed by the NYPD
  • Author's Notes
  • Notes: Chapter 1
  • Notes: Chapter 2
  • Notes: Chapter 3
  • Notes: Chapter 4
  • Notes: Chapter 5
  • Notes: Chapter 6
  • Notes: Chapter 7
  • Notes: Chapter 8
  • Notes: Chapter 9
  • Notes: Chapter 10
  • Notes: Chapter 11
  • Notes: Chapter 12
  • Notes: Chapter 13
  • Notes: Chapter 14
  • Notes: Chapter 15
  • Notes: Chapter 16
  • Notes: Chapter 17
  • Index
Review by Kirkus Book Review

An investigative report on longtime efforts by the NYPD to resist reforms against abuse and for better accountability. As the mayor of New York from 2014 to 2021, Bill de Blasio spent a considerable amount of time trying to put an end to the NYPD's long-standing "stop and frisk" policy, both "illegal and biased." As investigative journalist Hayes writes, de Blasio "had staked his campaign on transforming the NYPD into a police agency that was more accountable to the public." Just before Christmas in 2014, two officers were killed in Brooklyn, and the NYPD dug in its heels even more. De Blasio was placed in a dilemma: He couldn't simply look past the police given his progressive base, and he was mindful of what happened to David Dinkins, one of his predecessors, when Dinkins tried to initiate similar reforms. De Blasio was serious about his efforts. When he landed on the City Council, he introduced legislation that expanded the purview of the Civilian Complaint Review Board--and again the NYPD resisted. The numbers speak for themselves. As Hayes observes, one report revealed that 83% of all people stopped by police were Black and Hispanic, far out of proportion to their share of the populace. Internal NYPD records indicate, furthermore, that of more than 2,000 complaints of racial profiling, none was "substantiated," and only 12% of the complaints of abuse or misconduct brought before the CCRB ended in disciplinary action. Emboldened by the law-and-order fundamentalism of former mayor Rudy Giuliani, the NYPD continued to thwart de Blasio and has been rewarded by his successor, Eric Adams, a former NYPD officer whose new anti-gun unit was found to be "mostly pulling over suspects in cars for minor infractions including tinted windows, drug possession and bogus license plates." Those suspects, naturally, were mostly Black or brown. A compelling case for top-to-bottom police reform, beginning with genuine self-policing. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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