CHOKEHOLDS & RACIAL PROFILING BY COPS SHOULD BE OUTLAWED IN EVERY STATE & DISTRICT OF THIS NATION:
UNTIL CONGRESS ACTS LET THE PEACEFUL PROTESTS.......ECONOMIC BOYCOTTS AND CIVIL LAWSUITS CONTINUE.
Who remembers the RADIO RAHEEM - ERIC GARNER Chokehold Death Scene in SPIKE LEE'S film "Do The Right Thing"??
The practice of COPS using CHOKEHOLDS to subdue Citizens they are trying to ARREST should be completely OUTLAWED in every State by CONGRESS immediately!
RACIAL PROFILING should also be OUTLAWED in every State by CONGRESS.
NO CHOKEHOLDS BY COPS
NO MORE RACIAL PROFILING
Until CONGRESS Acts let the Peaceful Protests........Economic Boycotts and Lawsuits continue!
Video didn’t save the life of Eric Garner, the unarmed black man who died in July from a chokehold applied by a New York City police officer.
And now it appears that video also wasn’t enough to persuade a New York grand jury to indict the officer who helped arrest the 43-year-old Garner on suspicion of selling untaxed cigarettes on Staten Island.
That’s important because prominent public figures, including President Obama, have prescribed cameras as a way to reduce police killings of civilians, reasoning that police will be more careful if they know their actions are being recorded.
There was no video evidence—and no indictment—in the shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old who was shot to death in August by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., in a case that led to violent protests.
The Obama administration said Dec. 1 it will seek $263 million from Congress for community policing, including $75 million to help purchase 50,000 body cameras for law enforcement agencies.
In the case of Eric Garner, a grand jury decided not to bring criminal charges against Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who is seen on video grabbing Garner from behind, putting his arm across his throat, and pulling him to the ground.
Garner can be heard on the video repeatedly saying, “I can’t breathe!” Medical examiners concluded that the police were the primary cause of Garner’s death, with his obesity, asthma, and heart problems cited as additional factors.
The Eric Garner case weakens the argument for cameras but doesn’t knock it out entirely. The main reason for cameras isn’t to give grand juries more information but to cause police officers to behave responsibly in the first place.
The video in the Garner case was captured by a bystander’s cellphone, and it’s not clear that the officers who wrestled Garner to the ground were aware that they were on camera. It’s possible that if the officers themselves had been wearing body cameras they might have treated Garner differently from the start.
The New York City police department’s own guidelines prohibit chokeholds. Panataleo has been stripped of his gun and badge.
The rest of the officers in the arrest have received immunity in the case.
It is among Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly’s prouder legacies:
A majority of the police officers in New York City are now members of minorities, and have been since roughly 2006.
But as the Police Department has attracted an increasingly kaleidoscopic range of nationalities to its ranks in recent years — officers hail from Albania to Yemen — department statistics reveal a decline in new recruits among Black New Yorkers.
The decline comes despite aggressive recruitment efforts in places like central Harlem and the Bronx, where the department regularly assigns friendly recruitment officers to visit.
In 2003, 18 percent of the Police Academy’s 2,108 graduates were Black.
Of the 1,247 recruits who started the academy this summer and will graduate on Friday, Black make up about 10 percent, according to the department.
By contrast, the percentage of Hispanic recruits has remained around 25 percent from 2003 till now, and the percentage of white non-Hispanic recruits has actually risen in recent years, to 57 percent from 52 percent in 2003.
Police Department statistics reveal a decline in new recruits among Black New Yorkers, despite aggressive, brochure-strewn recruitment efforts in places like central Harlem and the Bronx.
There are many possible explanations for the decline, including demographic shifts in the city’s Black population, a rise in the number of new immigrant applicants and possibly the highly publicized reduction of officers’ starting salary midway through the decade. (It was since raised to a base pay of about $42,000.)
The Police Department’s aggressive stop-and-frisk tactics may have played a role as well.
As the percentage of Black recruits to the Police Academy zigzagged downward over the last decade, the number of recorded street stops, mostly in minority neighborhoods, rose higher, sowing distrust of the police.
“I think most people are past saying ‘Oh, don’t be a cop,’ ” said Orayne Williams, 22, a senior at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who is from Flatbush, Brooklyn. “But it still does exist.
People from the community have that mind-set.”
Standing nearby, his friend Parris Bailey cut in.
“I like the stop-and-frisk idea; they need to be able to do their job,” said Ms. Bailey, 21, who lives with her parents in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and counts “Law and Order” among her favorite shows.
But she said she never considered being a police officer.
“Defense attorney,” she said.
Mr. Williams said he was preparing for the Law School Admissions Test, not the police exam.
Police departments often struggle to diversify their ranks, and the New York Police Department has made strides over the last decade.
It is roughly 30 percent Hispanic at the patrol level; it has more than doubled the number of Asian police officers since 2003;
and it is slowly moving toward being majority minority across all ranks.
(About 52 percent of the 34,000-member force was White at the start of 2013;
16 percent was Black.)
By contrast, at the Port Authority Police Department, Blacks make up a small part of each academy class.
Out of 217 graduates in 2012, 13 were Black.
That is up from just four in 2008, the last year of new recruits.
Recruiters for the New York Police Department, who are officers themselves, pitch the job mostly for its benefits:
compensation of over $90,000 after five and one-half years, the option to retire after 22 years with half pay and health care.
The recruiting slogan is:
“Be Proud.”
At the start of the Bloomberg administration, attitudes toward the police in minority neighborhoods softened in anticipation of a shift from the law-and-order approach of Rudolph W. Giuliani and a string of police shootings of Black men.
Under Mr. Kelly, the department pushed to increase diversity while requiring two years of college credit or military service to enter the academy.
Yet critics charge that police behavior in minority neighborhoods over the last decade has hindered efforts to attract Black officers, alienating many young men and sowing broader resentment.
“We had this Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde recruitment strategy that played out in the community,” said State Senator Eric Adams, a retired police officer.
“I had a conversation with Commissioner Kelly around this,” he added.
“He had to acknowledge that the Police Department is not doing well at recruiting Black men.”
John J. McCarthy, the department’s chief spokesman, pointed to statistics showing the overall diversity of the department and that, since 2010, the percentage of Blacks taking the Police Department exam had remained relatively constant, fluctuating between 17 and 20 percent of all test takers.
Those who pass may not become officers for a variety of reasons, including residency requirements and background checks.
(There is also now a two-and-a-half-year wait between the time an applicant takes the test and enters the academy, possibly dissuading some.)
“Although the N.Y.P.D. is smaller than it was over a decade ago, the agency is more diverse than ever before,” Mr. McCarthy said. “In fact, the N.Y.P.D. is the most diverse police department anywhere in the world.”
The incoming police commissioner, William J. Bratton, had to deal with similar apparent distrust in Los Angeles.
Under his leadership, the department convened focus groups with African-American residents to learn of their concerns before trying aggressive recruiting.
Some said they actively discouraged their children from joining the force.
“One group that was particularly adamant against young Black men joining were mothers who saw their sons, and in some cases their grandsons, jacked around over the years,” said John W. Mack, a former head of the Los Angeles Urban League and then president of that city’s police commission during Mr. Bratton’s tenure there.
“And why would you want your sons to join a police force who was doing that?”
The situation can be frustrating for Black officers in New York.
“This is a great job,” said Detective Yuseff Hamm, the president of the Guardians, a Black fraternal organization that dates from 1942.
“This is a great career.
This is an absolute benefit to the citizens of New York.
But a lot of people don’t look at it that way in the community.”
Detective Hamm said the biggest challenge was attracting new Black recruits who do not already have family members in law enforcement.
Stop-and-frisk, he said, is just one of many concerns. “It comes up in them saying, ‘Is that what I would have to do?’ ” he said.
More often, he said, the department’s educational requirements pose problems.
“It’s necessary, but a hindrance at the same time,” he said.
Census data shows that the number of Blacks who could be eligible to be hired by the Police Department — 21- to 35-year-olds with at least two years of college living in the city or surrounding eligible counties — has increased since 2000.
At the same time, said Susan Weber-Stoeger, a demographer at Queens College, the number represents a smaller percentage of all New Yorkers who fit that criteria.
Outside John Jay College, Mitchell, 21, a Black senior from Canarsie, Brooklyn, said he was in the process of joining the force in 2014.
(He declined to give his last name for fear of violating department rules.)
“All the cops there on Utica Avenue, the white cops, look scared,” he said of a thoroughfare that cuts through some minority areas. “What are you scared of?
Eliminating BLACK Citizens & Eliminating the BLACK Vote!!!
WAKE UP! 21ST CENTURY BLACK AMERICANS ARE BEING REPLACED!!!!
1. Columbia, SC (Columbia has a BLACK Congressman James Clyburn & a BLACK Mayor) 2. Chattanooga, TN (3740 3. Chicago, IL 4. Roanoake, VA 5. Austin, TX 6. Brooklyn, NY (11205, 11206, 11237 & 11238 Zip Codes) 7. Dallas, TX 8. Oklahoma City, OK 9. Washington, DC (20001, 20005 & 20010) 10. Atlanta, GA 11. Denver, CO 12. Charleston, SC 13. Tampa, FL 14. St. Paul, MN 15. St. Louis, MO 16. San Diego, CA 17. Houston, TX 18. Philadelphia, PA 19. Portland, OR
Over at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute's Flypaper blog, Michael J. Petrilli, the institute's executive vice president, has a fascinating list of the "fastest-gentrifying neighborhoods in the United States."
Using change in the white share of the population as an admittedly crude proxy, Petrilli identifies the 25 ZIP codes in the U.S. that saw the largest change in the white share of the population between 2000 and 2010. And, as he notes, some of the cities housing these ZIP codes were a bit surprising to see.
I’m not an expert on gentrification (education policy is my beat) but I was surprised by the list. I expected to see Chicago, Brooklyn, Washington, D.C., and Denver. But Chattanooga? Columbia, SC? Oklahoma City? St. Louis? This is not a phenomenon limited to a few of our great coastal cities. These gentrifying neighborhoods are literally all over the map.
Indeed, Columbia, South Carolina, shows up at the top of this list, with a single ZIP code that recorded 47.1 percent change in the white share of the population. However, it turns out the ZIP code in question – 29202 – is for post office boxes only, so it's unlikely that change is the result of gentrification.
But the location of nearly every other ZIP in the list does show us something: They're pretty much all located in the hearts of their cities' downtowns. These are parts of cities that have seen increased attention from housing developers and both renters and buyers in recent years. With more housing now available in downtowns, their populations are increasing.
The 24011 ZIP in Roanoke, Virginia, for example, ranks fourth on the list (third if you take out the P.O. box-only ZIP from Columbia) and saw a 34.9 percent increase in its share of white people between 2000 and 2010. That ZIP code had a population of 219 people in 2010.
24011 is right in the heart of downtown, according to Sean Luther, president and CEO of the non-profit Downtown Roanoke Incorporated. He says that more and more people are moving to that part of the city, but it's not exactly gentrification so much as simple growth.
"Our ZIP codes have not gone from heavily minority to heavily white, they've gone from zero to people. We're not an example of gentrification so much as the introduction of residents into a downtown area," Luther says. "We were an industrial downtown and have interjected a residential component as part of an overall resurgence of the downtown."
He says that there's been a number of new housing developments opening downtown, bringing the population there to about 1,100 people according to a survey his organization conducted last fall. However, in a survey of the roughly 400 households downtown, 96 percent of respondents were white, and 50 percent had at least a Bachelor's degree. (The survey had a 20 percent response rate.)
Petrilli also notes that the comparison of ZIP code-based data is also problematic, due to the fact that ZIP codes are regularly altered to meet the Postal Service's needs. So while this may not be the most precise or comprehensive list of gentrification (itself a term not easily defined), this list does offer some helpful information about the demographic shifts in American downtowns. Increasing white populations in these downtown ZIP codes might not necessarily mean gentrification, but it doesn't mean nothing.
A Republican House committee chairman said Tuesday he is prepared to follow through on a contempt vote against Attorney General Eric Holder unless the Justice Department provides Congress with documents on a flawed gun-smuggling probe.
The likelihood of a contempt vote on Wednesday rose after Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Holder failed to reach agreement in a 20-minute meeting at the Capitol.
"If we receive no documents, we'll go forward," Issa told reporters.
Holder told reporters he would not turn over documents on the gun-smuggling probe called Operation Fast and Furious unless Issa agreed to another meeting.
The attorney general said he would explain what is in the materials at that time. Holder wants an assurance from Issa that the transfer of the records would satisfy a subpoena from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that Issa chairs.
"We have offered to make materials available, documents available ... to brief on those documents, to answer any questions that might come up with regard to the documents that we produced," the attorney general said.
"The ball's in their court," Holder said. "We made what we thought was an extraordinary offer."
Issa took a different view: "After this meeting I cannot say that I am optimistic" for avoiding a contempt vote, he said.
Issa spokesman Frederick Hill said that at the meeting, "The attorney general indicated he would only be willing to produce a subset of documents that numbered fewer than 1,300 pages if the committee would first agree that the production of these documents would end the committee's investigation of the Justice Department."
Issa declined the offer.
Holder said he is prepared to turn over material detailing how the department arrived at the conclusion that federal agents engaged in a risky tactic called gun-walking. It resulted in hundreds of weapons purchased at gun shops in Arizona ending up in Mexico, many of them at crime scenes. Initially, the department denied that gun-walking had taken place.
"It's a whole variety of material, and it's consistent with what we have already made available – emails, documents of that nature – that really go into the way in which the department handled itself from February of 2011 until December of 2011," Holder said.
The material "pretty clearly demonstrates that there was no intention to mislead, to deceive," Holder said.
Relying on the gun-walking tactic, federal agents from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives abandoned their usual practice of intercepting all weapons they believed to be illicitly purchased. Instead, the goal of gun-walking was to track such weapons to high-level arms traffickers, who had long eluded prosecution, and to dismantle their networks.
Gun-walking has long been barred by Justice Department policy, but federal agents in Arizona experimented with it in at least two investigations during the George W. Bush administration before Fast and Furious.
These experiments came as the department was under widespread criticism that the old policy of arresting every suspected low-level straw purchaser was still allowing tens of thousands of guns to reach Mexico. A straw purchaser is an illicit buyer of guns for others.
The agents in Arizona lost track of many of the weapons in Operation Fast and Furious. Two of the guns that "walked" in the operation were found at the scene of the slaying of U.S. border agent Brian Terry.
Issa's committee has been investigating Fast and Furious for the past year and a half. Holder says the Justice Department has already turned over 7,600 pages of documents.
Issa said he was willing to postpone Wednesday's contempt vote if the attorney general first provided the documents the panel still seeks.
In addition to Holder and Issa, the participants in the meeting were Deputy Attorney General James Cole; Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on Issa's committee.
The New York governor's proposal to decriminalize the public possession of marijuana is drawing high praise from politicians and police, black and Hispanic activists and backers of pot legalization.
"It is a step in the right direction," said the Rev. Al Sharpton, a prominent African-American political activist.
But some voices issued warnings about the proposal, with one group, the Drug Free American Foundation, arguing that it is not the time "to be backing off the marijuana law."
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveiled the proposal Monday and said the law would end a double standard that has disproportionately hurt black and Hispanic youth.
In 1977, New York's legislature reduced the penalty for possessing 25 grams or less of marijuana to a non-criminal violation carrying a fine of no more than $100 for first-time offenders, as long as the marijuana was in private possession and not in public view.
If the marijuana is out and viewable in public -- as it might be when someone is asked to empty his or her pockets during a police "stop and frisk" -- it becomes a Class B misdemeanor and can lead to arrests and jail.
The "stop and frisk" policy allows police to stop and search anyone they deem suspicious.
In 2011, more than 50,000 arrests were made for small amounts of marijuana, the governor's office said. Half of those arrested were under 25 years old, and 82% were black or Latino. Less than 10% were ever convicted of a crime.
Selling and smoking or burning marijuana is still a crime, and Cuomo is not suggesting changing that.
"If you possess marijuana privately, it is a violation. If you show it in public, it's a crime. It's incongruous. It's inconsistent the way it has been enforced," Cuomo said in Albany on Monday.
As a result, thousands of young people have wound up "with a permanent stain on their record for something that would otherwise be a violation.
The charge makes it difficult for them to find a job," Cuomo said.
His proposal won praise from legislators, police, the Manhattan district attorney and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Some say the proposal is counterproductive.
David G. Evans, special adviser to the Drug Free America Foundation and a criminal defense lawyer in New Jersey, said the group is "very very concerned with this latest development."
"This can be seen by the young people as approving the use of marijuana, and they will most likely use marijuana. Marijuana of today is much more addictive and much more potent, and it poses health and criminal problems."
New York State Assemblyman Brian Kolb, a Republican, said he doubts legislators will back the proposal because of "pushback" from the community. He argues that marijuana possession is a federal crime, and "it does not make sense to pass guidelines at the state level that contradicts federal laws."
"This is a wrong message to send across the country," he said. "This should be a decision at the federal level to be interpreted for all the 50 states."
He said the Food and Drug Administration should make sure the plan follows the proper protocol. "This is not a states-rights issue. This is a drug issue. In this case, this is a controlled-substance issue," he said.
But Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, said the proposal would address police abuse.
"We have been convinced, given the data, that Stop and Frisk does not alleviate crime but instead increases the racial profiling exposure of mostly young Blacks and Hispanics," he said in a statement.
Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the NORML Foundation, which supports legalizing marijuana, said he expects legislators to "faithfully embrace" the proposal.
He also said the proposal is "a political no-brainer" because most Americans will someday back "marijuana possession in small amounts." He said Cuomo, who might one day might have presidential aspirations, is positioning himself as the "marijuana law reformer."
Lester Grinspoon, a psychiatrist, retired professor at Harvard University and expert on drug policy, said Cuomo's move is "a step on the way of what is inevitable."
"Adults should be allowed to use marijuana responsibly, in much the way we use alcohol," he said. "It's not just because it's a civil liberties issue. It is very important to furthering marijuana as a medicine."
He said marijuana has been used in the treatment of cancer, multiple sclerosis, AIDS and glaucoma.
Robert MacCoun, professor of law and public policy at the University of California at Berkeley, said a dozen states have decriminalized small amounts, usually up to an ounce for a first-time possession, and most of the legal changes took place in the 1970s.
An expert on marijuana laws, MacCoun said the "decriminalization label has mattered less and less" over time.
"First, the other 38 states have become less and less likely to send convicted marijuana possession felons to prison. Second, states that have 'decriminalized' -- like New York -- still make lots of arrests for marijuana.
Few of those arrested will end up in prison, but they may do a short jail stint."
And echoing concerns about the stain of an arrest for marijuana, he said, "there is a lasting effect on their records, which hurts their employability."
MacCoun said the "big change" over the past 10 years "is the partial legalization of medical marijuana in many states."
"Recent polls suggest that roughly half of American voters now support some form of legalization; if current trends continue, I think we'll see a state legalize marijuana soon, perhaps even this November. But there will be a thorny conflict with federal laws that prohibit marijuana," he said.
He points out that medical marijuana or decriminalization can't be confused with "true legalization." He called decriminalization a "sensible reform" and not a "risky" legal change.
"Marijuana possession sanctions have almost no measurable effect on levels of marijuana use. So it is not clear whether any valid purpose is being served by all the marijuana arrests in New York, and people of color are much more likely to be arrested even though they are not more likely to be marijuana users," he said.
"Legalization is more complicated, because the steep drop in prices would be difficult to offset with a sustainable tax, and so consumption would probably increase."
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said, "the human costs to each defendant charged with a misdemeanor are serious."
"The simple and fair change proposed by Gov. Cuomo will help us redirect significant resources to the most violent criminals and serious crime problems, and, frankly, it is the right thing to do."
The governor's office said 94% of arrests for small amounts of marijuana in the state are in New York City, and Bloomberg, the New York Police Department and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly have come under fire in recent years for the department's "stop and frisk" policy.
Last year, Kelly issued a policy order directing officers to issue violations, rather than misdemeanors, for small amounts of marijuana discovered during street searches. On Monday, Bloomberg issued a statement in support of Cuomo's comments.
"The governor's proposal today is consistent with the commissioner's directive and strikes the right balance by ensuring that the NYPD will continue to have the tools it needs to maintain public safety -- including making arrests for selling or smoking marijuana," he said. "Thanks to the NYPD, our city has come a long way from the days when marijuana was routinely sold and smoked on our streets without repercussions."
Kelly said Monday, "I was asked to respond to criticism by some members of the (City) Council that the Police Department was making 'too many' arrests for small amounts of marijuana. And my response to them was, 'Well, your option is to go to Albany and get the law changed.' Better that than having New York City police officers turn a blind eye to the law as it was written, and as it is still written."
And, with the backing of the mayor and the governor, it's hard to fathom any significant opposition to the proposal will arise, said Peter Moscow, an associate professor in the Department of Law and Police Science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
For Decades after 6-year-old Etan Patz Disappeared while walking home ALONE from School, NYPD & the Feds were fixated on a BLACK Handy Man named Othniel Miller.
In fact Mr. Miller's life was made a Living Hell by NYPD, Etan's Family & the Feds even though they had NOT one shred of Evidence against this Man.
Why?
Just Because He was BLACK!
And while the Feds, NYPD & Etan's Parents were fixated on Othniel Miller, the REAL Killer Pedro Hernandez, remained FREE for 33 Years!
This is another logical reason why NYPD needs to STOP Racially Profiling BLACK Men!
Now that the case of Etan Patz a WHITE, Jewish Child, has been Solved Will Feds & NYPD use the SAME resources & time to help solve the cases of New York City's BLACK Missing Children?
Investigators looking into the disappearance of Etan Patz began focusing recently on a handyman after a review of old case files showed that a concrete floor in a building in SoHo where he once had a workshop — and that was on the route Etan took when he disappeared — had looked uneven or was not all the same color, a person briefed on the case said on Friday.
The explanation the handyman, Othniel Miller, gave shortly after Etan disappeared 33 years ago — that work had been done beneath the floor — led investigators to conduct a new round of interviews in recent weeks that led to the search and excavation of Mr. Miller’s old work space this week, the person said.
Mr. Miller was not initially a suspect, the person said, in part because he told investigators that he had not been in SoHo the morning of May 25, 1979, when Etan vanished while walking from his home to a school bus stop.
“He said he wasn’t there; he had some sort of alibi, and it sort of checked out,” said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing. That alibi was supported in part by a coworker, the person said.
On Friday, Mr. Miller, 75, hired a criminal defense lawyer who, after meeting with Mr. Miller and his relatives for more than an hour, said that his client had had nothing to do with Etan’s disappearance.
The lawyer, Michael C. Farkas, said his client did not deserve the scrutiny brought on by his long-ago connection to the basement of the building that investigators began searching on Thursday.
“He had no involvement with what happened to this beautiful young boy,” Mr. Farkas said. “Mr. Miller has cooperated with this investigation for over 30 years, and he will continue to cooperate to the best of his ability.”
Mr. Farkas, who said he had not yet spoken with investigators, added: “We do not know at this time why he is now a suspect as opposed to sometime in the past.”
After Etan disappeared, investigators focused on a pedophile, Jose A. Ramos, who has been the prime suspect since then, although he has never been charged. He is currently imprisoned for another crime.
At the site of Mr. Miller’s old workshop, a phalanx of investigators, utility workers and others continued a painstaking excavation of the 806-square-foot basement below 127B Prince Street, at the corner of Wooster Street, just half a block west of the loft where Etan lived 33 years ago, and where his parents, Stan and Julie, still reside.
Using jackhammers and pickaxes, they split the 13-by-62-foot space into quadrants and began their work along the northern wall, breaking up separate sections of poured concrete flooring, between two and six inches thick, spread over a relatively flat area of dirt, officials said. Outfitted in ear muffs, dust masks, safety glasses and gloves, agents from a Federal Bureau of Investigation evidence response team and New York City police officers formed a bucket brigade, handing larger chunks of concrete along an assembly line leading out of the basement, upstairs and into a large garbage bin on the street.
Smaller chunks of broken concrete and debris were put in pails and passed along in the same way, officials said.
The investigators also planned to dig down four or five feet into the earth, or until it appeared undisturbed; shine sophisticated X-ray machines onto the cinder-block walls of the basement; and spray the area with a chemical that could expose bloodstains or other aberrations.
Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, reopened the case in 2010, and the SoHo excavation represents the most extensive effort since then to find clues. But Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly warned against expecting a quick solution.
“I think what it indicates is that a lot of careful work is going to be done,” Mr. Kelly said after an event at 1 Police Plaza on Friday. “Precise, detailed, deliberative work is going to be done, as opposed to characterizing it as being something that should lead to optimism.”
Stephen Kuzma, 78, the manager of the building on Prince Street, said he had lived on the fourth floor since the 1970s and recalled Mr. Miller pouring cement for a new bathroom on his floor as well as doing work in the basement. But he did not remember when that work was done.
“He was a nice fellow,” Mr. Kuzma said of Mr. Miller, who now lives in Brooklyn, adding that he could not recall seeing Mr. Miller with any children and that he had never seen Etan.
Mr. Kuzma said that he was in the basement recently when an F.B.I. agent took a cadaver-sniffing dog there, and that he was told to restrict access to the space. The dog, which was in the basement about three weeks ago, indicated the possibility of remains.
Before that, Mr. Kelly said, special odor-absorbing pads that had been placed in the basement for four days were sniffed by a dog, whose response indicated “some positive reaction.” Those developments led the authorities to seek a search warrant.
A spokesman for the New York F.B.I. office, Timothy Flannelly, said the scent detected in the basement did not mean that evidence would be found. “There are no guarantees,” he said. “We’re cautiously optimistic that we’ll find evidence.”
It was during the initial investigation 33 years ago that investigators first focused on the Prince Street basement, Mr. Kelly said.
“It’s along the route that Etan took to leave his house and go to the bus,” he said, “so it’s a logical place to look.”
Mr. Kelly said he could not speculate on why the basement floor was not dug up soon after the boy vanished, and he declined to discuss “any people who we’re talking to or any possible suspects.”
In the past, Mr. Miller had invited the police to examine the basement and had suggested they could tear up the floor if they paid to replace it, according to a person involved in the initial investigation.
According to a law enforcement official, as F.B.I. agents questioned Mr. Miller recently, they raised the possibility of Etan having been buried in the basement, and Mr. Miller blurted out, “What if the body was moved?”
Outside Mr. Miller’s home in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, his lawyer, Mr. Farkas, said he came from a “wonderful family.”
“Mr. Miller is as disturbed about all this as much as all of us New Yorkers are,” he said.
The handyman who allegedly gave long-missing Etan Patz a dollar before he disappeared 33 years ago is accused of abusing his own niece, according to a report.
Othniel Miller's niece said he molested her when she was 12, according to the Daily News, which cited law enforcement sources. The News also reported that Miller's ex-wife told investigators the same thing. That is partly why the FBI and police tore apart the basement of 127 Prince Street in SoHo looking for the remains of Patz, who was 6 years old when he vanished.
Miller, 75, had a basement workshop at 127 Prince Street in 1979 and knew Etan. Long-time suspect Jose Ramos also worked for Miller back then doing handy work.
Miller, who lives in a basement apartment the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, has cooperated with investigation. He put up a sign saying he won't talk to media and instead reporters have to talk to his lawyer.
So we did.
Michale Farkas, Miller's lawyer, said it is "outrageous" that good man's name is being dragged through the mud because of accusations from nameless and faceless people.
So far there has been no evidence from the search of 127 Prince Street connected to Patz.
Unless dirt or partitions sent to the FBI Quantico, Virginia, lab reveals something, the long search for Patz will have to on.
A civil court ruled that Ramos was responsible for Etan's disappearance. Ramos is prison for molesting minors. He will be released from prison in November after serving 20 years.
Pedro Hernandez, a former Manhattan stock clerk who once lived in the same neighborhood as Etan Patz, was arrested Thursday in connection with his death, more than three decades after the 6-year-old went missing.
A then-19-year-old Hernandez allegedly lured Patz to a store with the promise of a soda, choked him in the basement and then disposed of the body using a plastic bag, placing it in the trash about a block and a half away, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters.
"Detectives believe in the credibility of the statement," Kelly said, referring to the man's earlier confession. Authorities were alerted to the suspect by a tip. Hernandez, who had been working in construction until an injury sidelined him, is expected to be charged with second-degree murder, Kelly said.
The suspect is expected to make an initial appearance in court Friday, with the district attorney's office formally filing paperwork.
He has no prior criminal record and is the father of a teenage girl, Kelly said. The boy's disappearance exactly 33 years ago on Friday helped spawn a national movement to raise awareness of missing children, which involved a then-novel approach of splashing an image of the child's face across thousands of milk cartons.
According to police, in the years following Etan's disappearance, Hernandez told a family member and others that he had "done a bad thing" and killed a child in New York. He voluntarily left New Jersey on Wednesday night with detectives to travel to Manhattan and the building, currently an optical business.
Kelly described the suspect as remorseful. "The detectives thought it was a feeling of relief on his part."
The commissioner said it is unlikely police will find Etan's remains. The Patz family apparently does not know Hernandez, Kelly said
In her book detailing the investigation, author Lisa Cohen describes the plan Etan had the day he went missing. Just prior to his disappearance, according to the book, Patz told his parents that he planned to stop at a store to buy a soda with a dollar that he'd earned by helping a neighborhood carpenter.
The carpenter, Othniel Miller, 75, had met Etan the day
In her book detailing the investigation, author Lisa Cohen describes the plan Etan had the day he went missing. Just prior to his disappearance, according to the book, Patz told his parents that he planned to stop at a store to buy a soda with a dollar that he'd earned by helping a neighborhood carpenter.
The carpenter, Othniel Miller, 75, had met Etan the day before and was recently the focus of media attention when investigators announced they were again questioning him.
"Mr. Miller is relieved by these developments, as he was not involved in any way with Etan Patz's disappearance," said Miller's attorney Michael C. Farkas. "At the same time, Mr. Miller is very pleased that those responsible for this heinous crime may be brought to justice, and the Patz family may finally have the closure they deserve."
But a separate law enforcement source said Thursday that Hernandez's claims were being treated with "a healthy dose of skepticism." Investigators have not uncovered any forensic evidence linking Hernandez to the case, Kelly added.
The New Jersey resident, who had once lived and worked in the same Manhattan neighborhood where the Patz family lives, was picked up Wednesday in his home state.
Hernandez's name "came up more than once while interviewing others recently," said a law enforcement source, who added that authorities had been familiar with him years ago.
Renewed attention over the Patz case sprung up last month when investigators scoured Miller's SoHo basement, where Etan had been seen a day before he went missing. But their search produced no apparent clues.
The tipster contacted authorities months ago after news coverage of their renewed search. That contact, at least in part, prompted investigators to question Hernandez. A spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney's office, which reopened the case in 2010, declined to comment on the recent development.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg added that there's "still a lot more investigating to do."
"To his credit, District Attorney Cy Vance reopened (the investigation) in hopes not only of bringing justice, but also offering some closure to Etan's parents," the mayor told reporters Thursday. "And as a father, I just can not imagine what they've gone through."
Etan went missing on May 25, 1979, a block from his home in the Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo. It was the first time that he had walked to his school bus stop by himself.
His mother, Julie, learned after her son failed to return home that he hadn't been in classes that day. After calling the school and Etan's friends, she then called police.
The boy was officially declared dead in 2001 as part of a lawsuit filed by his family against a drifter, Jose Antonio Ramos, a convicted child molester acquainted with Etan's babysitter.
A judge found Ramos responsible for the boy's death and ordered him to pay the family $2 million -- money the Patz family has never received.
Though Ramos was considered a key focus of the investigation for years, he has never been charged in the case. He is serving a 20-year prison sentence in Pennsylvania for molesting another boy and is set to be released this year.
A source has previously said investigators wanted to expand the pool of possible suspects beyond Ramos.
Parents Stan and Julie Patz still live in their SoHo home and have not commented on the new developments.
Cohen, author of "After Etan: The Missing Child Case That Held America Captive," told CNN earlier that "the family's been living through this for 33 years. They've had many moments like this. They've learned how to deal with it."
Just weeks after Etan disappeared, an attacker abducted the first of more than 20 children to be kidnapped and killed in Atlanta. A suspect in that case was arrested two years later.
In 1984, Congress passed the Missing Children's Assistance Act, which led to the creation of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. President Ronald Reagan named May 25, the day Etan went missing, as National Missing Children's Day.
New York City hasn't experienced a big hurricane since 1938 and if some of the current models are accurate the impact could be catastrophic.
A simulation done by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows what a Category 2 hurricane could do to a tunnel linking Brooklyn and Manhattan. Donald Cresitello with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers mapped out some worse-case scenarios.
"If a storm were to occur, it could be catastrophic, given the population density in the Northeast," Cresitello said.
National Hurricane Center computer models and comprehensive studies are chilling. If the worst-case scenarios come true, the impact could be devastating.
Water would be pushed into lower Manhattan, steadily rising. Seawater would pour through the Holland and Brooklyn Battery tunnels.
JFK airport would go under an astounding 20 feet of water. The famous Fulton Ferry boat landing in Brooklyn, a popular spot for young couples to take wedding pictures, could also end up under water. Wall Street could find itself in deep water - about 7 feet. The subway system could also be knocked out.
Coastal geologist Nick Coch, himself a New Yorker, says that a major hurricane could have catastrophic effects.
"Because the most dangerous thing in New York is the New Yorker," he said. "And the New Yorker thinks they've been tested by everything, but very few New Yorkers have been in the eye of a hurricane and know how uncontrollable the energy is."
For years, Coch has been sounding the alarm about how vulnerable New York City is because of its topography. He says storm surges could trigger massive flooding in low-lying areas, particularly lower Manhattan – even if the city is spared a direct hit.
'There's going to be glass all over the street, glass flying through the air," he said.
One study puts economic losses from a Category 3 hurricane at $100 billion.
"Metropolitan areas have high population density and very expensive properties," Jeanne Salvatore of the Insurance Information Institute told CNN. "So you throw a hurricane into that scenario, and the results can be really catastrophic."
There is a plan in place, if necessary, to move 2.3 million people out of coastal zones. But how many will go? Dolores Orr, head of the community board in Rockaway, says that could be a problem.
"For those that were raised here, I hear them today talking that they're not going anywhere," she said. "And that's a concern."
Steve and Debbie O'Sullivan and their three children live in Rockaway Beach in Queens, New York, a tranquil place with a wide and beautiful shoreline. They didn't worry about hurricanes, until Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005.
"We never really understood, you know, the greater impact of it," Steve Sullivan said. "We never had a great fear. We used to play out in them."
The O'Sullivans, whose house sits just one block from the ocean, with the Atlantic on one side and Jamaica Bay on the other, are stocking up on hurricane supplies.
For the O'Sullivans, being prepared just makes sense; even in New York, where hurricanes are as unheard of as the Yankees not making the playoffs.
However, Coch says most New Yorkers need to remember that a Category 3 hurricane made landfall in 1938 on the eastern edge of Long Island in Southampton in 1938. The "Long Island Express" caused widespread damage, even about 70 miles to the west in New York City.
"It made Shinecock Bay a branch of the ocean," he said.
"[It's] the New Yorkers," Coch said. "Because they don't listen. You can always tell a New Yorker, but you can't tell them very much."
An 8-year-old's grisly murder would shock any community, but there's an added layer of astonishment in this neighborhood because the alleged killer appears to hail from the same close-knit religious community as the victim.
On Thursday, New York police charged a 35-year-old man with the killing of Leiby Kletzky, an Orthodox Jewish boy, after officers found human remains in the man's refrigerator and a trash bin.
The alleged killer also appears to be an Orthodox Jew who lived relatively nearby to Kletzky, according to community members.
"You can't possibly describe how tragic this is and how upset people are this boy was murdered by a person living in the community, who shares his religion and his neighborhood," said Ezra Friedlander, who lives in Borough Park, the neighborhood where Kletzky went missing on Monday.
On Thursday, Levi Aron was arraigned on first degree murder and kidnapping charges in Brooklyn in connection with Kletzky's death.
"It would have been extremely scary if a terrorist would have come into the community and killed a boy, but when it's one of your own you feel even more vulnerable," said Friedlander, a public relations executive who represents many Orthodox Jewish clients.
"The level of fear that mothers and fathers and children here are experiencing is something that I never witnessed before," he said.
Kletzky was supposed to meet his parents after walking seven blocks from his summer day camp, but became lost and asked the suspect for directions, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.
Menachem Freed, a 37-year-old Orthodox Jew whose 9-year-old son was Kletzky's classmate, said the community prides itself on its faith-based unity.
Borough Park is composed mostly of Hasidic Jews and non-Hasidic ultra-Orthodox Jews of Eastern European descent.
"We all believe in the same ideas," Freed said, standing outside his son's preschool, where he showed up Thursday to help children deal with the murder.
On Monday night, Freed and his family had joined with other Orthodox Jews from the neighborhood to search for Kletzky.
The neighborhood's Jewish security patrol force - called the shomrim - searched for the boy through the night.
Working from surveillance video that showed Aron entering a dentist's office Monday while Kletzky waited for him across the street for seven minutes, police arrived at Aron's residence at 2:40 a.m. Wednesday to ask about the boy's whereabouts.
The suspect pointed them to the kitchen, where blood was visible on the freezer handle. Inside the refrigerator was a cutting board with three blood-spattered carving knives, Kelly said.
"A lot of people were saying that they would think differently about what they would allow their children to do," said Josh Nathan-Kazis, a staff writer for the Jewish newspaper The Forward, who is covering neighborhood reaction to Kletzky's murder.
"When you're there, it feels like a small town: Everybody knows each other," said Nathan-Kazis, describing Borough Park. "The fact that the alleged perpetrator was more or less from the same community, it's like they don't know who to trust."
There are questions about how active Aron was in the Jewish community, but pictures of him that have surfaced show him in traditional Orthodox Jewish dress.
Still, Nathan-Kazis said that rumors had begun emerging in Borough Park's Orthodox community that portrayed Aron as something of an outsider.
One such rumor suggested that Aron is a Sephardic Jew - meaning of Spanish of North African descent - unlike most Borough Park Jews, who are Ashkenazi, or of Eastern European descent.
"You could see the community struggling with the fact that the suspect is Jewish and lived nearby and at the same time protect a sense of safety in the community," Nathan-Kazis said.
Thousands of Orthodox Jews turned out for Kletzky's funeral on Wednesday.
On Thursday, community members organized an effort to initiate a Torah scroll in Kletzky's name.
"It's an extremely lofty way to elevate someone's memory," Friedlander said of the scroll. "Not every person has a Torah in their name."
So Today Accused Sexual Predator Dominique Strauss-Kahn Was Released From House Arrest During A Hearing In An Manhattan Courtroom.
I'm Not Surprised.
Considering How The French Press Published His Accuser's Name In Several Articles, DSK's International Influence, His Wife's Money & The LIES Of An Incarcerated Felon, The News Of DSK's Release Did NOT Surprise Me.
Of Course DSK's People & The NYPD Are Going To Try & Make DSK's BLACK Accuser Appear To Be A Lying, Money Hungry Slut.
After All She's Just A Hardworking, Low Income, BLACK Woman From New Guinea (An African Country) Who Came To AmeriKKKa Seeking A Better Life For She & Her Daughter.
Who Would Believe That SHE (A Hardworking, Low Income, BLACK Woman From New Guinea) Were Actually Raped By A WHITE, Prominent Man Of DSK's Status?
I Mean Its Okay For An Attractive, Young, WHITE Woman To Kill Her 2-year-old Child, Become A Celebrity, (i.e., Casey Anthony) & Possibly Walk Free But How Dare A Hardworking, Low Income, BLACK Woman From New Guinea Accuse A Prominent, WHITE Man Like DSK Of Sexual Assault?
To Make Matters Worse, For Manhattan Prosecutors To Accept The Testimony Of An Incarcerated Felon Who Would Probably Say Anything For An Early Release Deal, Is Preposterous!
Now As It Relates To DSK's Accuser Not Being Honest When Asked About A Previous Rape Charge On Her Asylum Application, Since English Is NOT Her Native Language When She Was Being Interrogated Was There An Interpreter Or Translator Present?
If NOT Then DSK's Accuser Civil Rights Were Clearly Violated!
However, I Warned You This Kind Of Thing Was Going To Happen.
Once Again Rich, WHITE Males Win!
Oh! And One More Thing.....
If You Want To Accuse Me Of Playing The "Race Card" Be My Guest!
A smiling Dominique Strauss-Kahn was freed with no bail Friday in a stunning reversal of fortune as prosecutors declined to drop attempted rape charges against the French bigwig.
The accused sexual predator, due back in court July 18, walked out of court with his biggest legal victory since his May 14 arrest for assaulting a midtown Manhattan hotel maid.
Strauss-Kahn held hands with his wife, who stood by him from the start, and flashed a smile while leaving the courtroom. He declined to address a media horde at the Manhattan courthouse.
"This is a giant step," said defense attorney Benjamin Brafman after his client's triumph. "The next step will lead to a complete dismissal of the charges."
With sources saying the case was collapsing amid a series of lies by the accuser, prosecutors acknowledged their witness had "substantial credibility issues."
But prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said the case against the defendant would continue.
"The fact of a sexual encounter was and is corroborated by forensic evidence," she said.
The 62-year-old former head of the International Monetary Fund will be freed from his house arrest in a $50-000-a-month lower Manhattan townhouse.
His $1 million cash bail and $5 million bond will be returned under a deal with prosecutors, and he is permitted to travel anywhere in the U.S under the agreement, said noted attorney Brafman.
Prosecutors held onto his passport, keeping Strauss-Kahn from traveling to France.
Strauss-Kahn, accompanied by his television newswoman wife Anne Sinclair, departed for court in a black Lexus SUV about 40 minutes before his scheduled hearing.
Asked if he felt vindicated, the accused sexual predator turned to face reporters but said nothing. Strauss-Kahn's wealthy wife had posted the huge payout to spring him from Rikers Island.
Strauss-Kahn wore a calm, almost serene look as he headed inside the courthouse with Sinclair and a security guard. He wore a black suit with a light blue tie.
Brafman was smiling too as he joined his white-haired client for the hearing.
The prosecution of Strauss-Kahn is in jeopardy of falling apart because the hotel maid who accused him was caught in a web of lies, sources said.
The Bronx chambermaid's credibility crumbled as investigators linked her to a network of crooks and found that she had multiple bank accounts stuffed with a total of almost $100,000 in dirty cash, sources said Thursday night.
Prosecutors now believe there was little truth in anything the native of Guinea native told them since the NYPD yanked the one-time contender for the French presidency off a plane at Kennedy Airport on May 14, the sources said.
A horde of media joined the simply curious outside the courthouse where Strauss-Kahn was due at 11:30 a.m.
"I hope he will not be guilty for the image of France," said French tourist Jean Mark Beauchet, 62. "It changed the political scenario in France. He would have won the election."
Hells Kitchen resident Willa Streeter said she was there to support Strauss-Kahn.
"I feel bad how they handled this case," she said. "They took him to Rikers Island with all those murderers."
A phalanx of photographers lined either side of the courthouse entrance awaiting Strauss-Kahn, who will make the short ride to court from the Tribeca townhouse where he was held under armed guard.
Strauss-Kahn has reason for optimism: There even appears to be a smoking gun exposing his accuser.
Less than a day after Strauss-Kahn's arrest, the woman had a telephone conversation with an incarcerated "high-end, profitable drug dealer," said one source with knowledge of the imperiled case.
During the jailhouse chat, the maid discussed how she could cash in by accusing the political and financial titan. The damning talk was caught on tape.
"The DA's office has concluded she materially misled the grand jury," said a source close to the case. "The case has gone to hell. It's a wreck."
A perjury charge against the accuser is a possibility - but what actually happened in the hotel room may forver remain a he-said-she-said, the sources said.
Prosecutors were expected Friday to give the judge a letter outlining "four to five" different examples of credibility issues on the maid's part, a law-enforcement source said.
"The end is going to be soon - whether it's this week or next week, the case is not sustainable," the source said.
Prosecutors still believe Strauss-Kahn and the accuser had a sexual encounter - possibly even one of a forcible nature, a police source said. But the maid's shattered credibility makes even a misdemeanor charge against him seem like a tough sell.
The stunning revelation, first reported Thursday by the New York Times, is a major blow to the NYPD and first-term Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. DA's office.
It will also inevitably fuel pre-existing speculation that Strauss-Kahn was set up by political enemies - claims prosecutors have previously said are without merit.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne, the department's top spokesman, declined comment. A spokesman for the DA's office also refused comment.
The well-placed source said the NYPD rushed to judgment after it learned Strauss-Kahn, 62, was headed to the airport to catch a Paris-bound flight after allegedly fondling the maid at his $3,000-a-night suite at the Sofitel hotel near Times Square. France does not have an extradition policy with the United States.
"They jumped the gun here because he was getting on a plane," the source said. "That is the explanation."
From the moment the criminal charges made headlines, Strauss-Kahn's legal team beat the bushes, sources said. They learned that she told investigators that her application for asylum included a previous rape - but the papers held no such claim, another cop source said.
The defense team also learned she was paying hundreds of bucks a month for several phone bills, but told authorities she had only one phone, that source said.
In late May, Strauss-Kahn's lawyers sent a letter to prosecutors saying they had evidence that shot holes in the case. Prosecutors fired back telling them to turn over the goods, the sources said.
Prosecutors have scoffed at the notion Strauss-Kahn's defense team spoon-fed them info about the maid's shady background, sources said.
Defense lawyers "knew by the second or third day she was not who she claimed to be," one source said.
The maid had a jailhouse chat with a man who had been busted with more than 400 pounds of marijuana, the sources said. He and a handful of others had made several cash deposits - adding up to about $100,000 - into "sophisticated bank accounts" set up for the maid.
The maid has told authorities she knew little about the big-money deposits, the sources said.
"She's complicit in those activities," the source said. "She's a rainmaker. She's in with a crew that makes illegal money."
Welcome to the BLACK POLITICAL BUZZ Blog. (Established 2008)
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