FEDS ITCHING FOR OVERSIGHT OF NYPD

An expected court ruling against its stop-and-frisks will require oversight of NYPD by a federal monitor

The lawsuit challenging NYPD’s stop-and-frisk tactics has been tried and is now awaiting a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin.

The Huffigton Post reports that Judge Scheindlin “is not being asked to ban the tactic, which has already been found to be legal. Her options are to leave it as is or order reforms, which appear likely since she's ruled previously on related cases that changes are needed.”

I fully expect Judge Scheindlin, no friend of stop-and-frisks, to rule against NYPD. An adverse ruling will require the appointment of a federal monitor to oversee NYPD’s field op0erations. President Obama supports a monitor and Eric Holder has said the Justice Department is ready to put a monitor in place.

BLOOMBERG SLAMS OBAMA’S SUPPORT OF MONITOR FOR NYPD STOP-AND-FRISK
By Sally Goldenberg

New York Post
June 13, 2012

Mayor Bloomberg today slammed the Obama administration for its support of a monitor to oversee the NYPD’s controversial stop-and-frisk policies.

The mayor, in Long Island City to discuss Department of Buildings responses to major storms, teed off on feds for their late-night response to an ongoing court battle.

Department of Justice Civil Rights Division lawyers wrote to Manhattan federal court at 11 p.m. yesterday said they took no side in the ongoing battle over the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy.

But if a Manhattan federal judge rules that the city and NYPD need to reform the system, feds said a monitor should be appointed.

“We think that a monitor would be even more disruptive than an IG,” an inspector general as recommended by the city council, Bloomberg said.

“It just makes no sense whatsoever, when lives are on the line, to try to change the rules and hamper the police department from doing their job.”

Bloomberg praised the NYPD, saying Big Apple crime has been steady decreasing as a result of the department’s hard work.

The mayor said oversight efforts in Philadelphia have hampered crime fighting there.

“Crime did go up,” he said. “It’s very hard to say … [whether] one thing is responsible for the other.”