What a surprise!
It was revealed last week that a narcotics detective from the New York Police Department engaged in planting drugs on suspects to boost their arrest numbers in a commonly known practice called “flaking.”
Stephen Anderson is the detective who is blowing the whistle on his NYPD comrades, saying that he and many of his NYPD brothers planted drugs on innocent people as a quick and easy way to boost arrest numbers.
Adding to that revelation, another NYPD officer is facing federal time for violating the civil-rights of a black man from Staten Island who he falsely arrested.
Michael Daragjati is the officer who purposely arrested a black man, then told an associate “Another n*gger fried, no big deal.” All the while the F.B.I had his phones and text messages on surveillance.
Let’s begin with Anderson first. He explained while testifying in Brooklyn’s Supreme Court last week:
“It was something I was seeing a lot of, whether it was from supervisors or undercover and even investigators, it’s almost like you have no emotion with it, that they attach the bodies to it, they’re going to be out of jail tomorrow anyway; nothing is going to happen to them anyway.”
Is anyone surprised by this revelation? I’m certainly not, I’ve seen with my own eyes NYPD officers drop a bag of weed next to friends of mine and lock them up, claiming it belonged to them. This is nothing new; Brooklyn and Queens are where many of the arrests happen.
This hasn’t been a stellar year for the NYPD, multiple shootings over Labor Day Weekend, rape cases and the current Occupy Wall Street demonstrations haven’t shown New York’s finest in the best light.
This is a question of conviction. NYPD cops are sworn officers of the law and they are supposed to protect, serve and uphold it.
What we see here is not only bad judgment, but a lapse in moral principles. I applaud Anderson for bringing the truth to light, but that doesn’t excuse his behavior.
Anderson won’t go down as another Frank Serpico, the 1970s cop who exposed corruption in many NYPD precincts. No, he’ll go down as being, and I hate using this word, a snitch.
As for officer Daragjati, there is no forgiveness, he just perpetuated the stereotype that the NYPD is racist and shouldn’t be trusted.
This is yet another example of why many don’t speak to the cops, for fear of being labeled a snitch. It’s a vicious cycle of trust that the NYPD needs to clean up fast. And if they don’t, more cases like those of Anderson and Daragjati will emerge and more innocent people will be locked up.
–S.G.
