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March 19, 2010
Your Crime Questions Answered
The Local [Fort Greene/Clinton Hill]
by Dene Chen
Actually, no; the answers to our questions have only led to more questions.
Just when you thought the whole saga of Atlantic Yards couldn't get any more ridiculous, we get the commanding officer of the NYPD's 88th Precinct fibbing about the number of officers deployed to guard Bruce Ratner's "Green Zone" during the ceremonial groundbreaking last week.
So we went to the 88th Precinct Community Council meeting last night and, as promised, brought your questions with us. The Q&A session was with Deputy Inspector Anthony Tasso.
...A representative from Census 2010 present at the meeting asked if the large volume of police present during the Atlantic Yards groundbreaking last Thursday affected the 88th Precinct’s operations. Deputy Inspector Tasso explained that with big media events where dignitaries like Governor David Paterson are present, various precincts organize a security detail ahead of time.
“We take a little bit from everyone,” he said, reporting that the total number of police present at the groundbreaking from all precincts was 32. [emphasis, ours]
32? Were there officers present who aren't attached to a particular precinct? Maybe Deputy Inspector Tasso meant "320" or "132" or "3 cops for every 2 protestors." Because anyone who was present last Thursday knows that there were far more than 32 officers present. There are at least 27 officers in police uniform visible in the photo below by Adrian Kinloch, and that doesn't count three spotters on the roof of the Atlantic Center mall, three more on the roof of 636 Pacific Street, at least one in the helicopter hovering overhead, countless more officers manning the vehicle entrance to the "Green Zone" at Pacific and 6th Avenue, many more guarding the pedestrian entrance to the "Green Zone" at Atlantic Avenue and Fort Greene Place, at least one from the NYPD Counter Terrorism team (yes, really) and many more who couldn't fit into the frame of the photo. And surely there were some undercover cops who were surely among the protestors.
Another photo, below, from Matty's Picture Blog shows at least 29 officers in uniform (click to enlarge).
Somehow we doubt that all 27 officers in Kinloch's photo are the same officers who appear in Matty's photo.
Jonathan Barkey, too, has several photos of the massive police presence in his Barclays Arena Groundbreaking photo set.
Once again, we are compelled to ask: if Atlantic Yards is such a great project, and will do so much good for Brooklyn, why does everyone have to lie about it — including something as silly and easily refutable as a gross understatement of the police deployment at the groundbreaking?
Posted by eric at March 19, 2010 12:21 PM