Profiling Cops Have History

“Brooklyn seems to be the dumping ground for people who mess up elsewhere,� Miranda says. “You have one guy who doesn’t care that there is racial profiling, you have another guy who helps fudge the numbers.�

(Miranda says Brooklyn commander has history of profiling).

The commanding Police officer involved in the profiling of Black men after a rash of recent burglaries in Brooklyn has a history of alleged targeting—Additionally, his second in command has fudged police crime statistics, The Black Star News has learned.

Deputy Inspector Natale Galatioto, Commanding officer of the Transit Boro Brooklyn was once commander at the 110 precinct. He was accused of promoting random strip-searching of Latino males while there—he was promoted and eventually transferred to Brooklyn where he is accused of recently ordering cops to stop every Black male at a Subway station in Park Slope.

The second in command in Transit Boro, Capt. Manzillo, who reports to Galatioto, allegedly was demoted after it was discovered that he had been fudging CompStat figures, which includes statistic on crime and police activity. He was once a Deputy Inspector at the NYPD.

CompStat is the much-vaunted system of storage of crime statistics and police actions that the City contends has helped reduce crime rates. Critics contend some commanders cook desirable numbers. According to the Police department’s website: “The CompStat Unit generates electronic pin maps of crime locations citywide; analyzes geographical locations of shootings, homicides, and other major crimes; monitors pattern crimes; develops advanced computerized crime tracking methods; and provides briefing/presentation materials for the Police Commissioner. In addition the CompStat Unit gauges the crime-fighting effectiveness of field commands by monitoring: arrest activity, responses to pattern crimes, bias crimes, and the implementation of crime strategies.�

However, the pairing of Capt. Manzillo with Galatioto produced an explosive cocktail, says leader of the Latino Officers Association, Anthony Miranda. “Brooklyn seems to be the dumping ground for people who mess up elsewhere,� Miranda says. “You have one guy who doesn’t care that there is racial profiling, you have another guy who helps fudge the numbers.� The Latino Officers Association and 100 Blacks In Law Enforcement held a protest against the profiling.

A police spokesperson today said the NYPD would not address any specific allegations about the incidents beyond the statement released by the Deputy Commissioner of Public Information, Paul J. Browne: “The allegations are false. The captain appropriately provided the roll call with details of pattern of robberies. These included description of suspects responsible for the robberies over the last two weeks with instructions to search individuals matching the description, on the portion of the subway line where the robberies occurred.�

No other information or variables were taken into consideration, except the color of the men stopped, Miranda contends. Although the suspect behind the robberies was allegedly a male Black, the commanding officer’s order that went out made no distinction about clothing or age—meaning males aged 14 to 40 could be stopped, Miranda charges. “Because the commanding officer was not able to deter the robbery he put a message out that—that message was to stop all male Black males regardless of any other details.� An attempt to directly reach Galatioto and Manzillo for comment this evening was not successful.

Miranda contends the commanding officer’s attitude was that even though the suspect behind the robberies had not been captured “‘I stopped 10,000 male Blacks. This would indicate I’m trying to do something about it.� The officers could than enter the figures into their CompStat figures to show impressive level of activity. “That’s a classic example of racial profiling,� Miranda says. “We have had a pattern where there had been robberies by a male white.  We don’t send out an order that all male whites throughout the City be stopped and arrested.�

Miranda says he has been an advocate for the Police Department changing the way arresting officers fill arrest reports. In the past, officers had to write down the reasons for making an arrest–now they just tick off selected entries. Miranda wants officers to write down reasons for making an arrest and to give a copy to the person arrested. He says the Department is reluctant to embrace such changes—yet introducing the system would reduce the City’s exposure to lawsuits.

“Unless they start racially profiling and arresting white males,� the Department will not consider profiling to be a serious issue, he says. He called it a “violation of the civil rights� of all the Black men who had been victimized by the order in Brooklyn and called for “reparations.� He was not satisfied by NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly’s response that a “misunderstanding� had caused the order and profiling.

Miranda calls the profiling also “lazy investigating.� The ideal move should have been to assign undercover officers in the targeted area to capture the real suspect, he says.

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Separately this evening Police today announced the arrest of a white male in the beating of Michael J. Sandy, a 28-year-old African American male who was later forced onto the Belt Parkway where he was struck by a car Sunday. Police believe Sandy was lured to a location at Plum Beach reportedly frequented by gays. John Fox, 19, was arrested and charged with assault in the first degree, second degree and third robbery, a spokesperson said.

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