An Unnecessary Death in New York

Police Killing Highlights Flaws of 'Zero Tolerance'

Der Spiegel
Ullrich Fichtner

In midtown Manhattan, police officers shot and killed an African-American man in August after he had walked across Times Square waving a kitchen knife. His last moments tell the story of a broken law enforcement system in New York City.

Darrius Kennedy's date with death begins at 3 p.m., in front of the Stars & Stripes of the neon American flag in New York City's Times Square. Kennedy, a sturdy man with long Rasta braids, is wearing a white shirt with cut-off sleeves, faded jeans and light-colored shoes, and he is skipping backwards toward Seventh Avenue, waving an IKEA kitchen knife. He is going to die, a pedestrian shouts: "They're going to kill you, brother!"

First a policewoman and then four or five other officers pursue Kennedy with their 9mm Glock service weapons, with a trigger pull of 12 pounds, held in both hands. Kennedy backs off from the officers, heading south into the eternal twilight of the streets of Manhattan. He has four-and-a-half minutes left to live.

Officers quickly seal off Seventh Avenue using police tape, and the first squad cars come hurtling down the avenues, their sirens howling. Pedestrians stumble through the blurred images documented by tourists running toward what they see as an adventure, whipping out their smartphones and cameras, hoping to capture a manhunt on video, while Kennedy continues to skip down the streets.

A Classic American Divide

The discussion that takes place in the aftermath of the shooting will divide cleanly along age-old American lines. Some will make snap judgments, in web forums, letters to the editor and call-in radio programs. "Gotcha!" they'll write, "another bites the dust," and "he deserved it." They'll lionize the police officers, calling them "New York's finest," praising their efforts to provide security in the big city. They'll ridicule the victim, calling him a crazy, knife-wielding pothead -- a foolish African American.

Others will ask anxious questions. They'll wonder whether, in this troubled America, it's even possible to just mourn, even if only for a day. They'll want to know why a few dozen police officers couldn't deal with someone like Kennedy in other ways. Why is it, one man asks, that escaped zoo animals are immobilized with tranquilizer darts, while a human being in New York is simply and ruthlessly shot to death in broad daylight?

Kennedy's sister will be quoted as saying that her brother was a talented musician, a man who undoubtedly had his problems, and yet, she will say: "They could have shot him in the leg." His aunt says that her nephew was a "loner," and that people are spreading all kinds of lies about him. She insists that he was a good man, and that he wasn't a bum.

Kennedy has picked a grotesque backdrop for his death. His short journey begins on brightly lit and eternally noisy Times Square, near the Minskoff Theater and ABC television headquarters, where huge electronic billboards advertise Broadway musicals like "The Lion King" and "Mary Poppins," as well as some of the world's most recognizable brand names, like Coca-Cola, Samsung and Heineken. News headlines flicker across illuminated panels as big as tennis courts.

Times Square, diagonally sliced in half by Broadway, sees an average of 1.6 million pedestrians a day. It's Aug. 11, a Saturday. The streets are devoid of office workers but filled with the usual weekend crowds. Day laborers dressed in Mickey Mouse and Elmo costumes stand at intersections, where tourists photograph them in return for pocket change, the "Naked Cowboy" is singing and playing his guitar and steam rises from the carts of food vendors. Kennedy and his pursuers gradually move south along the avenue, from 44th to 43rd to 42nd Street, Kennedy hopping along in front of them, making small, bouncy jumping moves like a cornered boxer, while the police officers, tense and vigilant, cautiously follow him at a distance.

No Police Reports in New York

A few hours later, New York Police Chief Raymond Kelly says that the police response was "by the book." Mayor Michael Bloomberg says: "He had a knife and he was going after people." But the videos uploaded to YouTube, and there are many of them, don't seem to support the statements made by the mayor and Kelly. They also don't show the police officers trying to subdue Kennedy with pepper spray, which they claimed they did four to six times.

CIA agent in police triggers probe

GulfNews

Differing explanations offered on posting in department amid fears of domestic spying

New York Council members Daniel Drumm and Robert Jackson
listen as NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly testifies
before the public safety committee.

Washington: Working inside the New York Police Department is one of the CIA's most experienced clandestine operatives. He arrived in July as the special assistant to the deputy commissioner of intelligence. While his title is clear, his job responsibilities are not.
 
Federal and city officials have offered differing explanations for why this top CIA officer was assigned to a municipal police department since AP revealed the assignment in August.

The CIA is prohibited from spying domestically, and its unusual partnership with the New York Police Department (NYPD) has troubled top lawmakers and prompted an internal investigation.

The last time a CIA officer worked so closely with the NYPD, beginning in the months after the 9/11 attacks, he became the architect of aggressive police programmes that monitored Muslim neighbourhoods.

With that earlier help from this CIA official, the police put entire communities under a microscope based on ethnicity rather than allegations of wrongdoing, according to the AP investigation.

It was an extraordinary collaboration that at times troubled some senior CIA officials and may have stretched the bounds of how the CIA is allowed to operate in the United States.
The arrangement surrounding the newly arrived CIA officer, who was at the centre of one of the worst US intelligence fiascos in recent history, has been portrayed differently from that of his predecessor.

When first asked by the AP, a senior US official described the posting as a sabbatical, a programme aimed at giving the man in New York more management training.

Technical information

Testifying at City Hall recently, New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the CIA operative provides his officers "with information, usually coming from perhaps overseas". He said the CIA operative provides "technical information" to the NYPD but "doesn't have access to any of our investigative files".

Flashback: NYPD confirms CIA officer works at department

CBS

New York's police commissioner confirmed Thursday that a CIA officer is  working out of police headquarters there, after an Associated Press  investigation revealed an unusual partnership with the CIA that has  blurred the line between foreign and domestic spying. But he and the CIA  said the spy agency's role at the department is an advisory one.

Speaking  to reporters in New York, commissioner Raymond Kelly acknowledged that  the CIA trains NYPD officers on "trade craft issues," meaning espionage  techniques, and advises police about events happening overseas. Kelly  also said he was unaware of any other U.S. police department with a  similar relationship with the CIA.

"They are involved in  providing us with information, usually coming from perhaps overseas and  providing it to us for, you know, just for our purposes," Kelly said.

CIA  spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood said the agency does not spy inside the  United States and also described the relationship with the CIA as  collaborative.

"Our cooperation, in coordination with the Federal  Bureau of Investigation, is exactly what the American people deserve  and have come to expect following 9/11," she said.

A months-long  investigation by the AP, published Wednesday, revealed that the NYPD has  dispatched teams of undercover officers, known as "rakers," into  minority neighborhoods as part of a human mapping program, according to  officials directly involved in the program. They've monitored daily life  in bookstores, bars, cafes and nightclubs. Police have also used  informants, known as "mosque crawlers," to monitor sermons, even when  there's no evidence of wrongdoing. NYPD officials have scrutinized imams  and gathered intelligence on cab drivers and food cart vendors, jobs  often done by Muslims.

Many of the operations were built with  help from the CIA, which is prohibited from spying on Americans but was  instrumental in transforming the NYPD's intelligence unit after the  September 2001 terror attacks.

The NYPD denied that it trolls  ethnic neighborhoods and said it only follows leads. The mayor on  Thursday defended the police department's efforts.

"In the end  the NYPD's first job is prevention, and I think they've done a very good  job of that," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said when asked  about the police practices. "The law is pretty clear about what's the  requirement, and I think they've followed the law."

The  disclosures about the NYPD's activities provoked exasperation in the  city's Muslim neighborhoods, where government officials have sought to  build relationships in Muslim communities and pledged to ensure that  Muslims aren't targeted for discrimination.

"The NYPD's  credibility is bankrupt in our communities," Fahd Ahmed, legal and  policy director of the Desis Rising Up & Moving group, said in a  statement Thursday. "We need accountability, transparency and an  overhaul of tactics and policies."

Government outreach programs  have operated in Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Minneapolis, Portland,  Ore., and Washington — all cities with large Muslim communities — even  as law enforcement around the country has stepped up investigative  efforts to stave off attacks.

NYPD confirms CIA officer works at department

CBS

New York's police commissioner confirmed Thursday that a CIA officer is working out of police headquarters there, after an Associated Press investigation revealed an unusual partnership with the CIA that has blurred the line between foreign and domestic spying. But he and the CIA said the spy agency's role at the department is an advisory one.

Speaking to reporters in New York, commissioner Raymond Kelly acknowledged that the CIA trains NYPD officers on "trade craft issues," meaning espionage techniques, and advises police about events happening overseas. Kelly also said he was unaware of any other U.S. police department with a similar relationship with the CIA.

"They are involved in providing us with information, usually coming from perhaps overseas and providing it to us for, you know, just for our purposes," Kelly said.

CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood said the agency does not spy inside the United States and also described the relationship with the CIA as collaborative.

"Our cooperation, in coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is exactly what the American people deserve and have come to expect following 9/11," she said.

A months-long investigation by the AP, published Wednesday, revealed that the NYPD has dispatched teams of undercover officers, known as "rakers," into minority neighborhoods as part of a human mapping program, according to officials directly involved in the program. They've monitored daily life in bookstores, bars, cafes and nightclubs. Police have also used informants, known as "mosque crawlers," to monitor sermons, even when there's no evidence of wrongdoing. NYPD officials have scrutinized imams and gathered intelligence on cab drivers and food cart vendors, jobs often done by Muslims.

Many of the operations were built with help from the CIA, which is prohibited from spying on Americans but was instrumental in transforming the NYPD's intelligence unit after the September 2001 terror attacks.

The NYPD denied that it trolls ethnic neighborhoods and said it only follows leads. The mayor on Thursday defended the police department's efforts.

"In the end the NYPD's first job is prevention, and I think they've done a very good job of that," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said when asked about the police practices. "The law is pretty clear about what's the requirement, and I think they've followed the law."

The disclosures about the NYPD's activities provoked exasperation in the city's Muslim neighborhoods, where government officials have sought to build relationships in Muslim communities and pledged to ensure that Muslims aren't targeted for discrimination.

"The NYPD's credibility is bankrupt in our communities," Fahd Ahmed, legal and policy director of the Desis Rising Up & Moving group, said in a statement Thursday. "We need accountability, transparency and an overhaul of tactics and policies."

Government outreach programs have operated in Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Minneapolis, Portland, Ore., and Washington — all cities with large Muslim communities — even as law enforcement around the country has stepped up investigative efforts to stave off attacks.