Who Really Owns The NYPD? Turns Out It's Not Such A Rhetorical Question

[MattSh]

I wrote last week about the multi-million dollar contribution to the NYPD from JPChase, but it turns out the corporate influence goes much deeper than that. Pam Martens, an activist who successfully sued the NYPD after her arrest for handing out leaflets about corruption at Citibank, tells us a lot of things we didn't know about the relationship between the NYPD and Wall Street, and it's jawdropping information:

If you’re a Wall Street behemoth, there are endless opportunities to privatize profits and socialize losses beyond collecting trillions of dollars in bailouts from taxpayers. One of the ingenious methods that has remained below the public’s radar was started by the Rudy Giuliani administration in New York City in 1998. It’s called the Paid Detail Unit and it allows the New York Stock Exchange and Wall Street corporations, including those repeatedly charged with crimes, to order up a flank of New York’s finest with the ease of dialing the deli for a pastrami on rye.

The corporations pay an average of $37 an hour (no medical, no pension benefit, no overtime pay) for a member of the NYPD, with gun, handcuffs and the ability to arrest. The officer is indemnified by the taxpayer, not the corporation.

New York City gets a 10 percent administrative fee on top of the $37 per hour paid to the police. The City’s 2011 budget called for $1,184,000 in Paid Detail fees, meaning private corporations were paying wages of $11.8 million to police participating in the Paid Detail Unit. The program has more than doubled in revenue to the city since 2002.

The taxpayer has paid for the training of the rent-a-cop, his uniform and gun, and will pick up the legal tab for lawsuits stemming from the police personnel following illegal instructions from its corporate master. Lawsuits have already sprung up from the program.

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/who-really-owns-nypd-turns-out-its-no

[villager]

1. There's never been any doubt what cops really are, and whose side they're always on

Hopefully this will clear things up for some people

[gratuitous]

2. Once again

There's nothing the taxpayers can fund that the wealthy can't steal for themselves. On the most favorable terms, of course. I wonder if Rudy will be asked about this ingenious plan at any of the Republican "debates"?

[StandingInLeftField]

3. Off-duty cops have always taken security jobs, but...

I've never heard of a municipality getting a kickback and renting out on-duty officers for work that didn't directly involve the entire community (rally, protest, fair, etc.) Pretty sweet deal...:sarcasm:

edited for ommissions

[FarCenter]

7. My recollection is that there are about twice as many private security personnel as LEOs

Hiring an off-duty law enforcement officer will generally get a better trained guard than hiring one from the local private agencies.

[mod mom]

4. Hope KO, Rachel & others pick this up!

[tk2kewl]

5. Fascism's Finest

x(

[myrna minx]

6. K&R n/t