A Recent History of NYPD Brutality

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Date: April 1973

On an April morning in 1973, Officer Thomas Shea shot 10-year-old Clifford Glover in Jamaica, Queens, killing him. Shea's defense was that he thought the unarmed child had a gun. Shea was charged with murder and tried in 1974, but was acquitted by a predominantly white jury. However, he was fired by the NYPD the same year.

Date: November 1976

On Thanksgiving Day, 1976, Officer Robert Torsney shot 15-year-old Randolph Evans in the head outside of a Brooklyn housing project. He then got into his vehicle and calmly drove back to the police station, where he was arrested. Torney would later describe the killing as an out-of-body experience. When the case went to trial, Torsney's defense was that he was stricken with a rare form of epilepsy, and Dr. Daniel Schwartz—who had been appointed to examine the "Son of Sam" killer David Berkowitz—declared that Torsney had suffered a psychomotor seizure when he shot Evans. However, Torsney's testimony had nothing to do with Schwartz's diagnosis, as he claimed he killed Evans in self-defense. This is a form of "mini-stroke" that has no indicative signs, and may never return again. The defense worked, and Torsney was acquitted by reason of insanity. He was committed to a mental institution.

In 1978, Torsney was released, as a Brooklyn State Supreme Court said he was no longer a threat to society. He showed no signs of mental illness.

Date: September 1983

19-year-old Michael Stewart was arrested for spray painting grafitti on a wall of the First Avenue subway station in Manhattan. During an altercation with police, Stewart somehow lost consciousness and died. The case was taken to a grand jury in October 1983, but was dismissed seven months later because one of the jurors inexplicably began their own private investigation. In February 1984, a second grand jury indicted three officers with criminally negligent homicide, perjury, and assault; three other officers were indicted for perjury. Despite the testimony of a witness who said that he saw an officer choke Stewart with a nightstick, all six officers were acquitted by an all-white jury in November 1985.

Stewart's family sued the Metropolitan Transit Authority and the officers involved for $40 million. They settled out of court for $1.7 million in 1990.

Date: October 1984

A few days before Halloween in 1984, Eleanor Bumpurs pulled a knife on NYPD officers when she was being evicted from her apartment for not paying her rent. Officer Stephen Sullivan fired two shots from his 12-gauge shotgun; one pellet struck Bumpurs in the hand and the other nine hit her in the chest, killing her. Sullivan was tried and eventually acquitted in 1987, but in 1990, the city put an end to all legal proceedings relating to the case by agreeing to pay the Bumpurs family $200,000.

Date: April 1985

18-year-old high-school senior Mark Davidson was arrested by two NYPD officers for allegedly selling $10 worth of marijuana, then taken to the 106th Precinct in Queens, where he was brutally beaten and tortured with a stun gun. The officers reportedly used the stun gun on Davidson 43 times, and threatened to sustain the torment all night long unless he confessed. Davidson, who had no priors, said he offered the confession because he suffered 43 shocks to his back, buttocks, and stomach; reportedly, the officers threatened to use the stun gun on his genitals.

Sgt. Richard A. Pike and Officer Jeffrey Gilbert were convicted of assault and sentenced to four to six years in prison.

Date: August 1988

The Tompkins Square Park Riot of 1988 began on August 6 and carried over into the wee hours of August 7. The East Village park had been overrun by drug dealers, the homeless, and reckless youth, but the neighborhood could not reach an agreement about what—if anything—could be done. Manhattan Community Board No. 3 decided to adopt a 1 a.m. curfew for the park (it was previously open 24 hours). The trouble officially began with a July 31 curfew protest that resulted in a confrontation between demonstrators and police.

On August 6, a second rally took place, but this time the park became a battlefield. Around 11:30 p.m., protesters entered the park holding signs that read "Gentrification is Class War." Police claim there were as many as 700 people present. By the time the morning came, 38 people—including police and reporters—had been injured. Nine people were arrested, and six cases of police brutality were filed. Though the NYPD claimed that officers did not provoke the incident, several witnesses, including poet and resident Allen Ginsberg, said that they charged the crowd. Captain Gerald McNamara of the 9th Precinct claimed that police only charged the crowd after bottles were thrown at them.

The number of complaints eventually swelled to over 100, and images and video footage of officers beating protesters and other defenseless people with nightsticks made national headlines. New York Police Commissioner Benjamin Ward blamed the precinct for the incident and promptly announced the retirement of Deputy Chief Thomas J. Darcy, who was not present at the scene. The city reviewed the incident and found numerous flaws in the NYPD's actions, including a failure to contact Commissioner Ward or Mayor Koch.

Date: March 1990

David Cotto, 20, was killed inside his family's Brooklyn apartment in Sheepshead Bay after officers fired 11 shots, striking him nine times. Family members initially called the police because Cotto was reportedly holding two knives, threatening to kill himself. When officers arrived on the scene, they found Cotto holding one of the knives to his own throat. Cotto's sister said that he grabbed the knife after running downstairs following a fight that broke out during a card game with Carl Billeci. According to Cotto's sister, he said Billeci was going to "kill him." Police convinced him to drop the knives, but Cotto quickly ran to the kitchen and retrieved two other knives and a fork. When he refused to drop those, Sgt. Vincent Guzzo sprayed mace in his eyes.

According to the police report, Cotto lunged at officers, prompting Officers Joseph Galli and Patrick Balsamo to discharge their weapons. Cotto's sister and father maintain that he never lunged at police, that he dropped the knives to rub his burning eyes and staggered blindly towards them. They added that, at one point during the incident, Cotto said he'd rather kill himself than die at the hands of police.

Date: July 1992

24-year-old Jose "Kiko" Garcia was shot and killed by an undercover police officer in the lobby of a Washington Heights apartment building. Police claimed that two officers in an unmarked car chased Garcia because they saw him pulling his jacket over his waist, as if to conceal a weapon. They also said that they recovered a fully-loaded .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver from Garcia and claimed that he fought with Officer Michael O'Keefe after the officer followed him into a building on 162nd Street. Witnesses claimed that officers pushed Garcia into the building, beat him, and then shot him three times.

The incident led to a violent demonstration where furious residents set fires in the street, overturned a car, and threw various objects from apartment windows.

Date: December 1994

31-year-old Laakhraj Dalipram was killed during a shootout between a Queens gunman and the NYPD in Rego Park. The Mount Vernon resident was an innocent bystander who was struck by a bullet fired by police as they pursued the gunman. Although Dalipram had already been shot once in the head by the suspect, it was the bullet from police that killed him. Police originally reported that Dalipram was killed by the gunman, Hsu Wen-ping, who killed three people and wounded four (including two police officers) before being shot to death.

Deputy Police Chief Raymond J. Abruzzi said that Hsu shot Dalipram five times, then dragged him into the passenger's seat of his own vehicle before the officers arrived. However, Deputy Commissioner for Public Information John Miller said that three police bullets may have struck Dalipram, in addition to one bullet from Hsu's weapon. Dalipram's wife, Fareida, said she felt betrayed by police, who had led her to believe that Hsu had killed her husband. She had been critical of police on the night of his murder because she was kept inside of a police vehicle and prevented from seeing her husband's body for over two hours.

She said that she did not learn the facts about her husband's death until it was reported by a television news outlet.

Date: December 1994

Anthony Baez, 29, was killed at Cameron Place in the Bronx following a confrontation with NYPD officers. Baez, a security guard, and his brothers were playing football during the early hours of December 22 when they struck a police vehicle with the ball more than once. They were ordered home by Officer Francis Livoti, but elected to continue with their game, just in the opposition direction. When Baez's brother, David, refused Livoti's direct orders to leave, he was arrested for disorderly conduct. Livoti then attempted to arrest Baez, who was protesting his brother's arrest. A scuffle soon followed, where officers claimed it took four of them to restrain the 270 pound, asthmatic Baez. He was taken to the hospital, where he was declared dead.

According to the New York City Medical Examiner, Baez' official cause of death was asphyxiation caused by "compression of his neck and chest" and acute asthma. Livoti denied using a chokehold; three officers testified that they had not see him use the chokehold, and that Baez was resisting arrest. However, Baez's father and brothers say that Livoti did use a chokehold, and that his body was limp when he was handcuffed.

Livoti was indicted for second degree manslaughter in March 1995, and then re-indicted for criminally negligent homicide in December 1995. His trial began in September 1996; he was acquitted. Unbound by double jeopardy, federal prosecutors stepped in and used the same statute used to convict the officers who beat Rodney King in L.A. in 1991. Livoti was eventually convicted by a Federal court in June 1998 for violating Baez's civil rights. He was sentenced to seven years in a federal prison. He was released in April 2005 after serving six and a half years. After filing a $13 million wrongful death suit against, Baez's widow settled for $3 million in 1998.

Date: July 1996

Gulf War veteran and Yonkers resident Nathaniel Gaines was fatally shot by a New York City Transit Police officer on the Fourth of July. The unarmed Gaines got into an altercation with Paolo Colecchia on the 167th Street subway station platform in the Bronx. Collechia initially reported that Gaines attempted to grab his weapon during the struggle, However, it was eventually revealed that Collechia was aware that Gaines was unarmed during their fight. Gaines had no prior criminal record.

Collechia, who had a history of complaints filed against him, was eventually indicted for manslaughter. He was sentenced to 5 to 15 years in prison.

Date: August 1997

At the time of the attack, 30-year-old Abner Louima had been living in Brooklyn for six years with his wife and child. He was working as a security guard, though he had studied electrical engineering in his native Haiti. He'd never been arrested, and in an series of Pulitzer Prize-winning articles written by Mike McAlary, said he "liked cops" until the events of August 9, 1997. On an early August evening, Louima was at Flatbush nightclub Club Rendez-Vous, when a fight broke out between two women as the club was clearing out. Louima and several other men rushed to intervene. Officers from the NYPD's 70th Precinct responded to the call. Soon, a fight erupted between police and club patrons; Officer Justin Volpe was "sucker punched" and mistakenly believed that Louima was responsible, and so he arrested him for obstructing government administration, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest. During the ride to the police station, officers beat Louima with fists, nightsticks, and hand-held radios. Upon arriving at the police station, Louima was forcibly strip-searched before being shoved into a cell.

The beating continued later, becoming even more inhumane when Volpe took Louima to the bathroom, kicked and squeezed his testicles, and then violently sodomized him with a plunger while Louima's hands were handcuffed behind his back. Louima also suffered broken teeth after being jabbed in the mouth with the handle of the plunger, while being told, "That's your shit, nigger." A witness testified that Volpe strolled through the precinct, chest out, bragging with the blood-and-excrement-stained plunger in hand that he "took a man down tonight." The next day, Louima was taken to the emergency room of the Coney Island Hospital, where officers said his injuries were the result of abnormal homosexual activities. However, ER nurse Magalie Laurent doubted these claims based on the severity of Louima's injuries and called his family and the NYPD's Internal Affairs bureau. Louima was left with severe damage to his bladder and colon, and was hospitalized for two months following the attack.

Louima's assault at the hands of the NYPD sparked local and national anger. Volpe pleaded not guilty to making false statements to police, obstruction of justice, and violation of Louima's civil rights. However, halfway through the trial, he changed his plea to guilty and admitted that he had sodomized Louima and threatened his life.

In December 1999, he was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole, ordered to pay nearly $280,000 in restitution and a $525 fine. Charles Schwarz was convicted in June 2000 for assisting Volpe in the bathroom assault and sentenced to 15 years in prison. Three other officers—Thomas Bruder, Michael Bellomo, and Thomas Wiese—were indicted for trying to cover up the assault. In March 2000, they were convicted along with Schwarz for conspiring to obstruct a federal investigation, but the conviction was reversed in February 2002 by a federal appeals court due to lack of sufficient evidence. Bellomo was found not guilty of trying to cover up the assault of Louima, as well as Volpe's beating of another Haitian immigrant the same evening.

Louima civil suit against the city resulted in an $8.7 million settlement-the largest police brutality settlement in the history of New York City. After legal fees were deducted, Louima walked away wiht $5.8 million. Louima has continued to speak out against police brutality, notably the murder of Sean Bell, and was honored in New York City by the National Action Network on the 10th anniversary of his attack.

Date: February 1999

In one of the most publicized and egregious cases of police brutality, 23-year-old Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo was shot and killed in the Bronx by plainclothes NYPD officers Sean Carroll, Richard Murphy, Edward McMellon, and Kenneth Boss. An astonishing 41 bullets were fired; 19 struck Diallo.

On the morning of February 4, Diallo was standing in front of his building when McMellon, Boss, Murphy, and Carroll drove past. They noted that Diallo matched the description of an armed serial-rapist and approached him (they would later claim that they clearly identified themselves as police). The officers claimed that Diallo ignored their orders to stop and show his hands, and instead ran towards his apartment. Illuminated by only an interior vestibule light, Diallo reached into his pocket and removed his wallet. When police saw him holding an object, Officer Carroll yelled, "Gun!" and the officers opened fire. Officer McMellon fell backward off the stairs, allegedly making the other officers believe that he'd been shot. The other officers continued shooting, burning through 41 bullets.

No weapons were found on Diallo.

In March 1999, all four officers were indicted by a Brox grand jury on charges of second degree murder and reckless endangerment. In December 1999, an appellate court ordered that the trial be moved to Albany, claiming that an alarming level of pretrial press had made it impossible for a fair trial to take place in New York City. In February 2000, all four officers were acquitted of all charges, and the defendant's lawyers blamed Diallo for his own death, claiming that he had prompted a 41-bullet hailstorm by behaving "suspiciously."

The verdict resulted in widespread outrage, leading to protests about racial profiling and police brutality. The fury continued when, in 2001, the United States Department of Justice decided that it would not charge the officers with violating Diallo's civil rights. However, in April 2000, Diallo's mother and stepfather filed a $61 million civil suit against the city, which included $20 million on top of $1 million for each bullet fired. They accepted a $3 million settlement in March 2004. In October 2012, Kenneth Boss, the only officer involved still on the force, was given his gun back after 13 years.

Date: August 1999

31-year-old Gidone Busch, who was mentally disturbed, was shot and killed by NYPD officers in Borough Park, Brooklyn. Busch, who was also suffering from a kidney disease, was wielding a hammer and threatening police at the time of his shooting. The incident became highly controversial due to multiple accounts regarding what transpired. In November 1999, a grand jury declined to indict the four officers involved with the shooting, stating the Busch posed a threat because he threatened them with a hammer that he refused to drop.

Busch's mother, Doris Busch-Boskey, filed a federal suit claiming that her son's civil rights had been violated. In June 2001, the Justice Department decided not to file the charges because they agreed that the officers had not used excessive force. By October of 2003, Busch-Boskey's case against the NYPD made its way to a federal court. However, in November 2003, a jury declared both the city and NYPD not liable for Busch's death. That ruling was overturned by a federal judge in September 2004, and a new trial was ordered because of questions regarding the testimonies of NYPD officers.

Doris Busch-Boskey decided against pursuing another trial in August 2006, finally letting her son rest in peace.

Date: March 2000

The 26-year-old security guard and father of two was killed by an undercover officer who approached Dorismond and his friend as they stood in front of the Distinguished Wakamba Cocktail Lounge in Hell's Kitchen. The officer asked where he and his partners could buy marijuana, and after a struggle Officer Anthony Vasquez shot Dorismond in the chest. Police claimed that Dorismond was angered by the proposition, and alleged that he swung on an officer, attacking him along with his friend, Kevin Kaiser. Vasquez claimed he was coming to the aid of a partner, and that he heard one of the men yell, "Get his gun!," so he identified himself as an officer of the law after drawing his weapon. Vasquez claimed that Dorismond grabbed the gun, causing it to discharge, striking him in the chest.

Kaiser claimed that the officers never identified themselves, and that the officer that initially approached them was aggressive and started the fight by hitting Dorismond first. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who was in the middle of a Senate campaign, angered many by releasing Dorismond's sealed juvenile delinquency record. His office defended the decision, claiming that right to privacy ends with an individual's death. Giuliani claimed he released the record to prove that Dorismond was "no altar boy" when, in fact, Dorismond had been an altar boy and had attended the same Catholic school as Giuliani.

In July 2000, a grand jury decided not to indict Vasquez, calling the shooting accidental. However, in March of 2003, the NYPD agreed to pay Dorismond's family a $2.25 million settlement for a suit they filed against the City of New York.

Date: May 2003

Ousmane Zongo, a Burkinabè arts trader who was residing in New York, was accidentally shot and killed during a police raid at a Manhattan warehouse. Police were investigating a CD and DVD pirating operation at the location where Zongo, 43, happened to repair art and musical instruments (ultimately, the location was never linked to the pirating scheme). Disguised as a postal worker, Officer Brian Conroy was monitoring a bin of CDs when he saw Zongo turn on a light. A chase ensued, and when Zongo came to a dead end, Conroy shot him four times, two of the shots hitting him in the back. Zongo left behind a widow and two small children.

Conroy was tried twice for killing Zongo; a mistrial was declared for the manslaughter charges, but he was convicted of criminally negligent homicide, sentenced to 5 years probation and 500 hours of community service. He was also fired from the department. In July 2006, Zongo's family received a $3 million settlement in a suit they filed against the city. They called the money an apology for his death. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said that, in the wake of Zongo's murder, the department reinforced department-wide training for plainclothes officers to ensure that they underwent "rigorous" instruction prior to being deployed.

Date: May 2003

Alberta Spruill died of a heart attack after officers broke down her door and tossed a concussion grenade into her Harlem apartment. The 57-year-old Spruill was on her way to her long-time city government job at the time of the incident, which the NYPD says was triggered by misinformation about guns and drugs inside of the apartment. Commissioner Ray Kelly said the officers were executing a "no-knock search warrant" based on information given to them by a drug dealer who claimed that his supplier stored drugs and guns inside the apartment. The dealer also told them that he had seen people armed inside of the apartment.

Just after the explosion, Spruill was handcuffed, but released when police realized the layout of the apartment was different than what the informant had described. She initially declined medical attention, but informed police that she had a heart condition. An ambulance was requested; on the way to Harlem Hospital Center, she went into cardiac arrest. Commissioner Kelly ordered an investigation of the incident, and reassigned the lieutenant who elected to use the grenade to administrative duties. Kelly added that the informant had not given any previous information to the department and said it was unclear if the officers conducted surveillance of the apartment prior to the raid.

Date: January 2004

Unarmed 19-year-old Timothy Stansbury was shot and killed by Officer Richard S. Neri Jr. as Neri and his partner were patrolling a Bedford-Stuyvesant rooftop. With his gun drawn, Officer Neri approached a rooftop door to check the stairwell. He would later tell a grand jury that he unintentionally fired his weapon when he was startled by Stansbury opening the door. Stansbury, who lived in the adjoining building, died from a single gunshot wound to the chest.

Commissioner Ray Kelly initially said, "At this point, based on the facts we have gathered, there appears to be no justification for the shooting...This is a tragic incident that compels us to take an in-depth look at our tactics and training, both for new and veteran officers." This response from the NYPD was strangely straight-forward, a marked change from from past incidents. Less than a week after the shooting, a grand jury gathered on the day of Stansbury's funeral and on February 17, it elected not to indict Officer Neri on charges of criminally negligent homicide and manslaughter; they instead ruled that the shooting was accidental.

Date: August-September 2004

The campaign tour for the 2004 presidential election was highly-charged, and with the Republican National Convention being held at Madison Square Garden, confrontations between protesters and police seemed inevitable. During the convention's opening weekend, 264 people were arrested in conjunction with the Time's Up! monthly Critical Mass bike ride, which occurs on the final Friday of each month. The event, which typically draws about 1,500, drew between 5,000 and 6,000 riders. Most people who were arrested were charged with disorderly conduct; this marked the first time that the NYPD made a significant amount of arrests during Critical Mass.

The following Monday, local community organization Still We Rise launced a march from Union Square to Madison Square Garden, culminated with a protest in front of the Garden. Later that afternoon, the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign held a rally by the United Nations building and thousands eventually marched to MSG, and a fight broke out between demonstrators and police along the way. Police say that rowdy protesters started the fight, and one protester was accused of attacking an officer who drove his scooter into the crowd. Protesters insist that the officer driving his scooter into the crowd is what incited the altercation. Tear gas was deployed and several people were arrested.

The 2004 RNC also saw "Guantanamo on the Hudson," a phrase coined by a lawyer who was detained along with 1,000 other people in conditions allegedly similar to those on Guantanamo Bay. After closing a street that adjoined Union Square where protests were taking place, police arrested both demonstrators and innocent bystanders. People were ordered to either present identification or face arrest, and those arrested were not immediately informed of the charges against them. Detainees were taken to the Hudson Pier Depot at Pier 57 where they complained of atrocious conditions; the area was dirty, and reportedly contaminated with oil and asbestos. "Prisoners" suffered from poor ventilation, as well as rashes and chemical burns. A former Morgan Stanley vice president was arrested while riding her bicycle, and a 15-year-old diabetic girl arrested on her way to the movies. Up to 30 or 40 people were reportedly held in small pens.

Many people were held for over 24 hours for petty charges, and it took a judge threatening to fine the city for every extra hour a prisoner was held for some to be released.The New York Times claimed that several NYPD officers were assigned to infiltrate protests and start confrontations, and that some officers travelled as far as Europe to spy on potential protesters.

Date: November 2006

In one of the most tragic instances of police brutality in the past decade, a group of men were shot at over fifty times by a group of undercover and plainclothes police officers in Queens. One of the men, 23-year-old Sean Bell, was killed. Two of Bell's friends, Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman, were severely wounded. Bell and his friends had been out celebrating at Jamaica strip club Club Kalua; the follow day, Bell was to be wed. An undercover police officer reportedly witnessed Bell get into an argument inside of the strip club, and someone allegedly yelled, "Yo, get my gun." Painclothes officer Gescard Isnora followed the men to their car fearing a confrontation, and Isnora says he identified himself as an officer, ordering Bell and friends to stop the vehicle, but Bell reportedly drove off, grazing Isnora's leg. As he pulled off, Bell's vehicle crashed into an unmarked police minivan. Isnora says he thought he saw Guzman reach for a gun, prompting him to yell, "Gun!," to other officers before they all opened fire. No gun was found.

Guzman says that officers never identified themselves, and it was also reported that police gave Bell no warning before sending a barrage of bullets his way. Isnora says that he saw a fourth man in the car who fled when shots were fired who may have had a weapon. Jean Nelson was speculated to be this fourth passenger, but he has denied being present and possessing a firearm. However, in the moments immediately following the shooting, there was no mention of a fourth passenger, nor did police search for one. Bell was shot 4 times; Guzman somehow managed to survive 19 gunshots, and Benefield was shot 3 times. Bell's killing drew thousands of protesters during the following weekend, which continued into the following week. Mayor Bloomberg called the shooting "unacceptable" and "inexplicable," saying that it appeared as though excessive force was used. NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly put all five of the officers on administrative leave and stripped them of their weapons.

In March 2007, three of the five officers were indicted by a grand jury—Officers Gescard Isnora, Michael Oliver, and Detective Marc Cooper. Isnora and Oliver were charged with manslaughter, reckless endangerment, and assault, and Cooper was charged with reckless endangerment. In April 2008, all three officers were acquitted. The defendants asked that Justice Arthur J. Cooperman make a decision rather than a jury, and he ruled that police had reason to fear that a weapon may have been in Bell's vehicle that night. He added that many of the prosecution's witnesses, including the two other victims, provided testimonies that "didn't make sense." However, in May 2010, U.S. District Judge Sterling Johnson, Jr. lifted a stay on the civil lawsuit filed by Nicole Paultre Bell against the city. A settlement was reached that July, with the city agreeing to pay Bell's family $3.25 million. Guzman, who now has to walk with a cane and has 4 bullets still inside of his body, was given $3 million, while Trent Benefield was given $900,000. Sean Bell's life was worth much more than $7 million. In May of 2012, Isnora was fired, and both Oliver and Cooper were forced into retirement along with their superior, Lt. Gary Napoli. Bell's fiancée called it "little justice."

Date: October 2007

On Halloween 2007, two NYPD officers decided they would teach 14-year-old Rayshawn Moreno a lesson for throwing eggs at cars by driving him to a swamp, taking his shirt and shoes, and leaving him there. Officers Richard Danese and Thomas Elliassen say they came back to pick him up, but couldn't find him. Moreno was forced to walk barefoot along railroad tracks for about a mile before happening upon a shopping center.

Danese and Elliassen were indicted for unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a minor, but managed to plead down to disorderly conduct because Moreno refused to testify. Danese and Elliassen paid $5,000 each and the city agreed to pay $140,000 to Moreno; both men were allowed to remain on the force.

Date: October 2008

Tattoo artist and alleged gang member Michael Mineo was reportedly smoking marijuana at the BMT Brighton Line station in Prospect Park when he was approached by three police officers. Mineo ran into the subway station and hopped the turnstile, but was apprehended. Police say they didn't find any drugs on Mineo, so they issued him a summons for disorderly conduct and released him. However, Mineo claimed that after he was in custody, Officer Richard Kern pulled down his pants and shoved a police radio antenna into his anus. He would later say that it was a baton. Mineo was hospitalized twice with what were described as "rectal tears." A week after the incident, Mineo's attorney's filed a lawsuit against the city of New York on his behalf. Kern was charged with aggravated sexual assault and faced up to 25 years in prison if convicted. Fellow officers Alex Cruz and Andrew Morales were accused of covering up the attack.

In November 2008, transit cop Kevin Maloney told a grand jury that Kern violated Mineo with a police baton, and other witnesses testified that they saw Mineo's bare buttocks and heard him scream, "Don't shove a walkie talkie up my ass!" The trial for Mineo's $440 million case began in January of 2010, and it was a zoo. A juror was dismissed during deliberations for misinforming other jurors about past accusations against Kern. Back in 2007, the city paid half-a-million dollars to settle to excessive force lawsuits filed against Kern. Kern, who called the claim "a complete lie," was cleared of any wrongdoing. All three officers were found not guilty, as the defense used the testimony of a doctor who said that Mineo's injuries were not consistent with the assault he described. Some jurors were convinced that Mineo was simply out to get paid, and though they agreed that police did something wrong when they arrested him, they also agreed that it wasn't sodomy. All of this, despite Maloney's testimony.

The NYPD was criticized for not taking Mineo's claims seriously, and for allowing the three officers to remain on duty for nearly three weeks following the incident.

Date: October 2008

In a story straight out of a film, Officer Jorge Arbaje-Diaz was discovered to be working for a gang that stole millions of dollars worth of cocaine from drug dealers and resold it on the streets. The 30-year-old Arbaje-Diaz, known as "Shorty," joined the force in 2005. During his three years on the force, he reportedly took part in violent crimes including holding victims' heads under water to get information about drugs, and threatening to squeeze their testicles with pliers. The crew that Arbaje-Diaz was a part of would carefully select victims, then flash their badges and pull them over using their lights and sirens. They reportedly stole 750 kilos of cocaine worth an estimated $20 million, and $4 million in cash. Authorities also recovered another 70 kilos of cocaine and 20 guns.

The robberies that Arbaje-Diaz took part in resulted in $200,000 in drugs and several thousands of dollars in cash. In at least one of the robberies, Arbaje-Diaz wore his full uniform—badge, gun, handcuffs, and all. Arbaje-Diaz was indicted for his role in at least 100 robberies in the Bronx, Queens, and Upper Manhattan. However, police say the gang was also active in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Florida. In 2011, Arbaje-Diaz was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Date: December 2008

In December 2008, on-duty officers Kenneth Moreno and Franklin Matta were charged with raping a woman that they had been dispatched to aid. The woman had become very drunk after celebrating a promotion and upcoming move to California. A cab driver called 911 for assistance after removing the woman from his taxi; Moreno and Matta were sent to help. During her testimony, the woman said that when she awoke in her room, she was being raped by the 43-year-old Moreno. Moreno told the court that, despite fighting off the woman's drunken advances, he ended up in her bed, but did not have sex with her. Matta, 29, was accused of acting as a lookout. He says that he wasn't sure what happened in the woman's room because he was asleep on her couch, but didn't think Moreno raped her because that wasn't his character. The woman subsequently sued the city for $57 million.

The was no DNA evidence collected, and experts were unable to decide whether an internal mark discovered during the examination of the victim was the result of rape. The trial revealed that Moreno and Matta had returned to the woman's apartment three times—they claimed it was to check on her—without alerting superiors, and that 17-year veteran Moreno had created an excuse for a visit by placing a bogus phone call to 911 about a homeless man sleeping in the lobby of a nearby building. In a controversial ruling, both Moreno and Matta were acquitted, igniting protests. However, both were terminated after being charged with official misconduct, which Commissioner Kelly called a "violation of the officer's oath of office." Both Moreno and Matta were convicted; Moreno was sentenced to a year in jail and Matta 60 days. They turned themselves in on December 20, 2012.

Date: May 2010

Adrian Schoolcraft, a former NYPD officer, released secret recordings of police misconduct that he made on duty to The Village Voice. Schoolcraft claimed that the tapes illustrated the corruption that was rampant within the city's 81st Police Precinct in Brooklyn; the recordings were later published in a series of stories called "The NYPD Tapes." Schoolcraft's recordings revealed that officers held citizens without charges in order to satisfy quotas, and also neglected to report serious crimes such as rape to give the illusion that the department was reducing the crime rate.

Schoolcraft claims that after the department learned of his whistleblowing, they forcibly removed him from his home and conspired with Jamaica Hospital Center to have him remanded to the psychiatric ward to discredit his claims. The NYPD suggested that Schoolcraft showed signs of being an emotionally disturbed person, and Jamaica Hospital Center personnel conducted their own assesment and determined that Schoolcraft's admission was, in fact, justified. Schoolcraft filed a $50 million lawsuit against the NYPD in 2010 claiming that the department and hospital colluded against him without any medical justification for his decision to expose the practices of the 81st Police Precinct. Schoolcraft's ordeal earned him the friendship of Frank Serpico, who blew the whistle on NYPD corruption over 40 years ago. Serpico says that Schoolcraft's experiences have striking parallels to his own.

Date: October 2010

Most targets of the NYPD's highly controversial stop-and-frisk program are male and minorities, which makes this case exceptional. Back in October 2010, Jaime Rutkowski was slammed to the pavement before being arrested by NYPD officers for smoking a joint outside of a Manhattan nightclub. Rutkowski was at her cousin's bachelorette party on the Lower East Side when she stepped outside for a moment. In a segment from the documentary The War on Weed, she says she screamed for help because she thought she was being attacked; she wasn't even aware that she had been tackled by a police officer. She was arrested and charged with marijuana possession.

At the same time, the police didn't realize that Rutkowski was a Type-1 diabetic. Her blood sugar levels were elevated due to the high-stress scenario, and at the station police confiscated the blood sugar meter she used to determine how much insulin needed to be injected into her body. Three hours after Rutkowski was taken into custody, police finally called an ambulance, and emergency responders soon learned that her blood sugar had risen to four times the normal level. According to her attorney, Joel Berger, she could've went into a shock, slipped into a coma and died. Rutkowski was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center and released.

Rutkowski was charged with a class B misdemeanor and a judge gave her an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, meaning she was not subject to a fine and her case would be dropped and sealed within a year. In other words, the life-threatening ordeal was a complete waste of time. Rutkowski and her lawyer filed a civil suit against the city and the officers involved, and was awarded $125,000 in July 2011.

Date: June 2011

Nathaniel Carter claims that he was arrested in Crown Heights for drinking alcohol in public (a fact he denies), and was then taken to the rear of the precinct house where he was beaten and abused. Carter claims that officers used the drawstring of his pants to strangle his penis. Following his release, Carter said he called 911. At Kings County Hospital Center, he was treated for lacerations to his penis. In June 2012, Carter filed a lawsuit against the City of New York claiming that he was arrested of false pretenses, imprisoned unjustly and assaulted.

Date: June 2011

The stop-and-frisk program is an NYPD practice where officers are permitted to stop and question anyone if they have reason to believe they have committed, are committing, or are about to commit a crime. If the officer feels that he/she or anyone else is in danger, they have permission to frisk the individual for weapons. Of the nearly 700,000 New Yorkers stopped in 2011, NYPD statistics show that only 1 out of 5 were guilty of any sort of crime. Many have questioned whether or not these stops are based on justifiable suspicion. The program has also been criticized for targeting African-American and Latino males.

In October, a Harlem teenager named Alvin was at the center of a stop-and-frisk controversy after The Nation released a clip that the teen recorded last June. One of the few known stop-and-frisk recordings, it details how Alvin was stopped by the three plainclothes officers for simply "looking back" at them. Officers can be heard asking Alvin, "You want me to smack you?," and explaining that they had accosted him "for being a fucking mutt." At one point during the recording, a cop pins Alvin's arm behind his back and says, "I'm gonna break your fuckin' arm, then I'm gonna punch you in the fuckin' face." Police proceeded to grab him by his bookbag and threw him down a hill. Alvin, who says he got the idea to record the ordeal from his activist stepfather, added that he thought police were trying to make him react so they could make an easy arrest.

Date: June 2011

Five people—Louis Pena, Gabriel Diaz, Cynthia Rosa, James W. Ayala, and Jade Everett—were arrested after a brawl with police outside of Lower East Side nightclub Tammany Hall following the album release party of Smif-N-Wessun and Pete Rock's collaborative album, Monumental. Supporters of the "Monumental Five" claim that the officers present were simply there to bust heads. However, the NYPD says that officers responded because of reports of overcrowding inside of Tammany Hall and the eventual fight. The NYPD also claims that five officers suffered injuries ranging from a broken front tooth to a broken nose. The NYPD says they were called by security at the venue, who needed assistance to deal with a crowd of over two-dozen people who were throwing beer bottles, a sandwich board and anything else that they could get their hands on at each other" according to spokesman Paul Browne. A website created for the Monumental 5 says that the event was peaceful inside, but potential guests were denied entry by club security and management. An argument followed, but bouncers settled it peacefully. However, within30 minutes, 15 to 20 officers from the 7th Precinct arrived, but then left to join fellow officers near the exit.

Officers who had just left Tammany Hall reportedly put on black gloves. Around the same time, more officers arrived, and Pete Rock's wife Shara McHayle is quoted as saying they were met by a "sea" of "gloved up" and "aggressive" officers. That's where McHayle says they saw a guest being brutally assaulted by as many as 10 officers. McHayle added that police ordered everyone to "move the fuck back" before pushing her and her daughter to the ground when they didn't move fast enough. Everett, McHayle's daughter, reportedly demanded police move away from her mother, and was arrested and charged with assaulting an officer, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. While in custody, Everett and Rosa reportedly began their menstrual cycles, but were denied access to feminine hygiene projects for over 24 hours. All five were hit with a myriad of charges, including assault, rioting, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and obstruction of governmental administration.

Date: September 2011-July 2012

With the fall of 2011 came Occupy Wall Street, a grassroots protest movement against social and political greed, corruption, and inequality influenced by the financial services sector. The movement began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York's financial district. Though the movement was criticized for lacking focus and being a public eyesore, it quickly became one of the year's biggest stories, in particular the relationship between police officers and demonstrators, which was often volatile. NYU, Fordham, Harvard, and Stanford universities were all involved in an eight-month study of these interactions and determined that protesters had been abused and had their civil rights violated by the NYPD. This past July, the report, entitled Suppressing Protest: Human Rights Violations in the U.S. Response to Occupy Wall Street, was released.

One of the most memorable showdowns between protesters and police occurred on the Brooklyn Bridge on October 1. A large group planned to march across the bridge. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said that protesters were told to stay on the sidewalk and not block the street, and were arrested when they did. The confrontation resulted in 700 arrests. A group of protesters filed a civil suit against the city, claiming that police lured them onto the bridge and trapped them. In June 2012, a judge decided that the NYPD had not given protesters sufficient warning about the consequences of entering the roadway.

Another noteworthy OWS incident involved an officer driving a scooter into a crowd that included legal observers and journalists. The scooter ran over a legal observer's leg.

In another incident, a member of the study's research team reported witnessing a protester lying on the ground, complaining of a dislocated shoulder. Initially the officer at hand chose not to arrest him. Soon after another group of officers rushed in and arrested the injured man in an aggressive fashion. When he screamed in pain about his injury, he was called a "liar" by officers.

Retired New York Supreme Court Judge Karen Smith, who was acting as a legal observer during the raucous eviction of Occupy Wall Street from Zuccotti Park, says she witnessed an officer slam a woman to the ground "out of nowhere" before hitting her in the head. Smith says she told the officer to handcuff the woman if she had done something wrong, but it was unnecessary to be so violent. Smith says the cop asked her multiple times if she wanted to "get arrested" even after she identified herself.

Date: November 2011

On the evening of November 14, Luis Solivan was returning to his parents apartment in the Bronx after purchasing cigarettes when a police vehicle made a U-turn toward him. Solivan claims he fled out of fear, and police chased him right into his parent's home. Solivan was eventually arrested, but not before officers claimed that he punched both of them and grabbed their radios when they attempted to call for backup. The criminal complaint also accused Solivan of trying—unsuccessfully—to remove one of the officer's guns from his holster.

Solivan, who was awaiting trial for an attempted murder charge stemming from a 2010 fight, was taken into the hallway after being taken into custody and had his head slammed into the wall. He was detained for an hour at the 46th Precinct station, where a lawsuit alleges that he was taken into a bathroom and beaten by officers. A trip to St. Barnabas Hospital revealed injuries to his nose and face, specifically "blunt head injury."

The initial chase of Solivan was captured by security cameras, and an acquaintance filmed as much of the incident as possible through an apartment window. The footage, which contradicted the police's account of what happened, was shown to a grand jury, leading to a dismissal of the case against Solivan. In September 2012, Solivan's attorney filed a civil rights lawsuit against the officers for brutally beating Solivan while he was handcuffed.

Date: January 2012

On January 26, 19-year-old Jateik Reid was beaten by four NYPD officers during an arrest for alleged possession of drugs. The incident, which was captured on video, showed police pummeling the Bronx teen. Officers can be seen kicking him and striking him with a baton while he is sprawled on the sidewalk. One officer also appeared to threaten the person who taped the ordeal with pepper spray. Police attempted to justify their attack by saying that Reid punched and headbutted one of the officers. Seven charges against Reid—including drug possession, assault, and harassment—were dropped after the Bronx district attorney's office admitted that they could not prove that Reid resisted arrest, or did anything police claimed that he did to justify their actions.

NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly called the video "disturbing" and placed the officers involved on desk duty, but they were not immediately investigated.

Date: February 2012

18-year-old Ramarley Graham was shot and killed by an NYPD officer inside of his grandmother's Bronx apartment early last year. Police stormed into the apartment and Officer Richard Haste shot the unarmed Graham in the chest as he was trying to flush a bag of marijuana down the toilet. Police did not have a warrant to enter the home. The NYPD claimed that members of a narcotics street team saw a gun in Graham's waistband as he left a convenience store, and that he fled towards his home when two plainclothes officers ordered him to stop. Police followed and entered the apartment, and investigators claim that Haste's partner says that Haste identified himself as a police officer, ordered Graham to "show his hands," and then yelled, "Gun, gun," before opening fire. However, Graham's grandmother says that officers never announced themselves and that Haste said nothing before shooting Graham.

The New York Daily News claimed that Haste had not been trained for street-level narcotics work, nor was he trained for plainclothes work. Haste and his supervisor were relieved of their weapons and placed on restricted duty.

Date: August 2012

The New York Times and NYPD went to war after an experienced photojournalist was assaulted and charged with obstructing government administration and violently resisting arrest while covering the arrest of a 16-year-old girl in the Bronx. Robert Stolarik, 43, was covering the arrest in the Concourse section of the Bronx when he beaten, handcuffed, and taken to jail. According to the NYPD, Stolarik had been ordered to leave the scene, and "inadvertently" hit an officer with his camera. Stolarik was forced to the ground and handcuffs were applied; Stolarik says he suffered bruises and scrapes while being struck with his own camera in retaliation. The police report states that he "violently resisted being handcuffed." Naturally, Stolarik offered a different account, and told The Village Voice he was taken down and dragged by officers. The Times claimed to have video of the incident, which they say featured the photographer face down on the sidewalk below a pile of "about six officers." A spokeswoman for the publication says that, in the view of the newspaper, Stolarik wasn't doing anything more than what they had paid him to do.

A $9,000 camera was not immediately returned to Stolarik, and lawyers for the National Press Photographers Association say they were still waiting for the NYPD to release $18,000 worth of equipment taken as evidence, in addition to Stolarik's press credentials. The equipment was returned a few weeks later, and Stolarik says that he does not plan to file charges against the NYPD. He simply wants the charges against him to be dropped.