Earlier this month, one of those media meme’s popped up that worth a few seconds of your slack-jawed reaction: The New York Post published an editorial, about how racial profiling by the police was on the wane, on the same day one of its own writers filed a lawsuit against the city for racial profiling. Now, that freelance crime reporter, Leonardo Blair, is out of a job. CONTINUED »
Oh, irony. “On the same day that a New York Post editorial claimed racial profiling was not a growing problem, one of the Post’s own reporters filed suit against the city claiming to be a victim of such profiling.” [E&P] It’s as if the paper’s departments don’t communicate with each other to fine tune their message; this would never happen at Fox News. (The editorial is here; the Post’s own story on the lawsuit, appearing today, is here.) Now if only they could get noted bigot cartoonist Sean Delonas on board and whip together a third opinion.
Two Manhattan nightspots were raided this week as police cracked down on liquor license violations, we hear. 1Oak (from Richie Akiva, Scott Sartiano, Jeffrey Jah, and Ronnie Madra), where Sophia Bush canoodles with costars, and Upstairs (from Danny A., Jordan Harris, and Matthew Isaacs) were both cleared out on Wednesday night for having improper, or non-existent, licenses. They remained closed last night.
* Update: Upstairs reopens and, says one knowledgeable source, 1Oak was never closed.
Unless there is some sort of extreme weather or the subways are messed up, most days are good to live in New York City. Today is definitely not one of them. A judge, citing a “lack of witness credibility”* just acquitted three NYPD detectives of any wrongdoing in the death of 23-year-old Sean Bell, who died after plainclothes cops sprayed his car with 50 bullets as he left a Queens strip club with his friends. He was getting married to the mother of his child later that day.
The website RateMyCop.com, where anyone can review and gossip about any police officer, has yet to clock a single entry for the NYPD. The LAPD, meanwhile, has over 9,400 cops listed. On this, the 17th anniversary of Rodney King’s police beating, shouldn’t we begin holding our men in uniform accountable by posting salacious gossip about them?
As a general rule, police officers get off on exercising their power over street punks like you. Well, next time Mr. Cop tells you to move it, remind him that he has to shave tomorrow.
Newsday reports that NYPD may have the power to run red lights, but not to grow beards:
A Jan. 8 memo clarifies a regulation that says officers are not allowed goatees, chinstrap beards (think Abraham Lincoln) or other “designer beards,” like Mike Piazza’s goatees and creative facial hair when he played for the Mets. … Officers who violate the rule may be written up as committing an infraction or may lose a vacation day.
New York protective agencies are generally pretty anti-body hair. Look at the NYFD calendar. We know those guys are old enough to grow chest hair.
While perusing the New York Daily News on this lazy Friday afternoon, Intern Whitney came across an unintentionally amazing article detailing how 165 police recruits (or 14.6% of the entering class) have already quit, leaving the ‘Impact’ program at risk. ‘And what,’ you might wonder, ‘were their reasons for leaving?’ Not surprisingly, it’s all about the Benjamins—or, lack thereof.
“You get those first paychecks, and suddenly you realize that doing the right thing - protecting your city - doesn’t pay anything,” said a 27-year-old recruit who dropped out after two months for a better-paying job in a shoe store.
“All your patriotism goes out the window when you can’t pay the rent,” the former recruit said.
Translation: Saving lives may be rewarding, but it will never be as lucrative as working at the local Foot Locker. You hear that, Al Bundy? Life just doesn’t get any better than this…
• Rule of thumb, NYPD: Next time you get a complaint about an illegal fireworks display, try not to blame the woman with Down’s Syndrome.
• Remember the good ole’ days when Girls Scouts, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the Encyclopedia Men came to your door? Now, it’s just psychos posing as fireman and drug addicts pretending to be cops.
• New York City male ballet dancer loves the nose candy just as much as the next emaciated coke-head.
• Indian Point is said to have highly trained professional engineers, but we think Homer Simpson’s in charge.
• Hurry, Hurry! Get your New York souvenirs, discount clothing, and pirated movies before Fulton Street shuts down.
Shot outside the Midtown Apple store on Friday when the iPhone was released, the above clip shows the cyclops mascot from Hungrr.com – a relief organization that has its sights set on feeding Hurricane Katrina victims – being harassed by what was claimed to be a Fox News producer type, who can be seen arguing with the orange costume for getting in his shot when he has to go live with a report!
Eventually, the newsie made good on his promise to get the police involved; the NYPD can be seen threaten him with spending some time in jail for meandering about in the same area as thousands of others. Apparently he was “loitering,” or, like, infringing on the freedom of the press in some twisted way. CONTINUED »
Last time we saw NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, he, uh, was skipping showing up late to the Kelly Gang fundraiser at Michael’s. But here he is popping up on our pal LX.TV, with a view that nearly supersedes his chat about police strategy, West 27th Street, race relations, and dealing with the FBI. At nearly 20 minutes, the clip is a bit long, but at the very least it begs the question: When did George Oliphant grow a beard?
• Naomi Campbell: bringing saphron traffic-vests back, makes sanitation work fashionable.
• Three Long Islanders were apprehended on the Triborough Bridge with $4000 worth of coke…because they couldn’t pay the $4.50 toll.
• Cost of imaginary Second Avenue subway project increases by $54 million real dollars.
• “NYU is poisoning the culture of the Village.” Well, obviously.
• Police found 22 pounds of marijuana concealed in a spare tire. More surprising, however, was the 50 grams of coke that was stashed in the love handles/cankle regions.
• Comedy Central bites most generous hand. A Viacom vs. Google turf war? [NYT]
• 60 Minutes hope new flashy colors will attract younger audiences. [TVSquad]
• Cosmo may have its 50 eligible bachelors (half gay), but we’re far more interested in the FICO scores of BusinessWeek’s Top 50 Entrepreneuers. [BW]
• Despite an order of three more scripts, Studio 60 looks to be the next on NBC’s chopping block. How 30 Rock flew under the radar is anyone’s guess. [Fox 411]
• Those NBC Universal cuts, point by point. [Variety]
• Katie Couric disclosed she donated money to Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s disease charity so nobody could bring it up later to bash her for keeping a secret. [Public Eye]
• Demi Moore provocateur and photog Steve Sands files suit against the NYPD for stripping him of his press credentials. A public service, indeed. [Radar]
A NYPD recruitment ad on the W train:
Not the front row ticket most police officers were hoping for:
We can understand why Keith Olbermann is terrified that somebody is trying to kill him. Only because we can just imagine how many people tell him that every day. What else is the Countdown host supposed to think when he opens a letter and a pile of white powder flows out? Unless someone was sending him a pre-weekend party present, that powder could very well be a bio hazardous substance.
The acerbic host of “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” was terrified when he opened a suspicious-looking letter with a California postmark and a batch of white powder poured out. A note inside warned Olbermann, who’s a frequent critic of President Bush’s policies, that it was payback for some of his on-air shtick. The caustic commentator panicked and frantically called 911 at about 12:30 a.m., sources told The Post’s Philip Messing.
Ok, we can understand that reaction. If someone sent us a envelope full of non-cocaine white powder, we’d call the NYPD, too. But if the police rushed over, told us everything was fine, and that the powder was soap, here’s what we would not do: insist on being rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night.
But, Olbermann did just that. He went to the hospital, doctors looked him over, and told him he was fine. Because soap won’t kill you. They just sent him home — and told him to lay off the crazy pills.
POWDER PUFF SPOOKS KEITH [Page Six]
Guesses, anyone, on how long this tabloid has been waiting for an appropriate (read: not terribly offensive) opportunity to use that headline?
• Big surprise here: cops in NYC acting not very helpful. [Gawker]
• Oh, so that’s why everyone is so out of it today — the Le Cirque party was last night. [NYP]
• Well, we have a vampira in our schools, so naturally the next logical freak would be a burglar who passes out in coffins. [MSNBC]
• Ladies, leave your man at home. Fifth Avenue is going to be packed with more computer nerds than ever thought possible. Ok, the real reason to go is for the free computers. [Gothamist]
• What’s the latest in gun technology? Glocks disguised as cell phones. Great, lets get one for Naomi Campbell shall we? [NYT]
• Rich New Yorkers stick everyone else with over $11 million of their own sick spouses’ medical bills. What economic gap? [NYP]
• Strikes are all the rage. First the transit workers, then the garbage men, and now the only folks protecting residents from their local crazies. [NYP, NYT]
• Protestors in swimsuits and men in rabbit costumes go together like MySpace and pedophiles at the Easter Day Parade. [NYDN]
• Wal-Mart will beg, plead, lie, and steal to convince the New York City Council to let them in. [NY Sun]
• NYPD puts up 500 security cameras to monitor crime and terrorism. Dunkin’ Donuts sales expected to raise. [NYT]
• Cats top the news yet again, except this time we’re interested. A man who hated his neighbor’s feline kidnapped it and had it euthanized. Sans permission, natch.. [NYT]
• Even without any wildlife, our fair city is the 11th worst place for people with allergies. [AMNY]
• Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie enjoyed their first “official public appearance as a couple. And by “public” we mean avoiding the red carpet and slipping inside through a back door. [Star]
• Us Weekly is claiming firsties on Christina Aguilera’s marriage to music exec Jordan Bratman. The weekend wedding in Napa was absolutely start studded — Sharon Stone was there, and so was Aguilera’s manager Irving Azoff! Paparazzi frenzy, narrowly avoided. [Us Weekly]
• So desperate to get on The Ellen Degeneres Show, ex-Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown hired a choreagrapher and cameraman to tape her dancing to Andrew Lloyd Webber, which will make a great reel at the next Cosmo lunch. [Gatecrasher]
• If Nelly is going to drop $10,000 at a strip club, he can certainly afford to drop $10,000 on charity. Hooray for guilty consciouses. [Page Six]
• Jay-Z is putting the finishing touches on his Tribeca penthouse, which he had to fight to buy last year thanks to wary tenants. But it was worth the fight: He’ll be able to escape his Time Warner Center pad, which counts girlfriend Beyonce’s mom Tina as a neighbor. [R&M]
• The NYPD might not know who Peter Braunstein is, but they do know he’s been caught. You know, except he’s hasn’t. [Gatecrasher]
• Kelly Osbourne is furious at Stavros Niarchos for ruining her 21st birthday bash in Vegas by pulling the sprinkler lever. Oh the irony of Kelly calling Stavros a stupid rich kid with too much money. [Page Six]
• Some say CBGB’s is moving to the Hard Rock Hotel in Times Square, but owner Hilly Kristal wouldn’t know about it. Either way, we walked past it one night this weekend — and the crowd that spilled out onto the sidewalk didn’t exactly indicate an eviction notice. [Lowdown]
• Nick Lachey + porn star = Tabloid heaven. [Page Six]
• Surprise: Whacked out Joaquin Phoenix skipped another Walk The Line event. [Page Six]
Police were hot on the trail of alleged firefighting rapist Peter Braunstein — until their big lead expired. Literally. The fuzz had been tailing the former WWD journo thanks to a MetroCard he purchased with a credit card, which let them track each swipe. (Yes, even suspected rapists don’t jump the turnstile.)
But for some reason not entirely explained, it takes hours for that swipe to be tracked back to the correct station. So unless Braunstein stuck around to listen “Smells Like Teen Spirit” hammered out on a stack of buckets (and the “Seven Nation Army” encore), they were out of luck.
But the 5-0 do know this: Braunstein is only traveling in daylight. And, as you might know, that’s the portion of the day when the sun is shining, which somehow the NYPD, we’re sure, will flip into a reason that tracking Peter is even more difficult.
Editorial Director
