NYPD whistle-blowers testify at stop-frisk trial

[Baitball Blogger]

NEW YORK (AP) — After Officer Pedro Serrano decided to testify in federal court about what he sees as wrongdoing within the New York Police Department, a rat sticker appeared on his locker.

That was the least of his problems.

Serrano claims he's been harassed, micromanaged and eventually transferred to a different precinct and put on the overnight shift.

"It hasn't been a picnic," he said in an interview this week. "They have their methods of dealing with someone like me."

Serrano and other whistle-blowers took the stand in a civil rights case challenging some of the 5 million streets stops made by police in the past decade using a tactic known as stop and frisk. They believe illegal quotas are behind some wrongful stops of black and Hispanic men.

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/us?guid=20130428/8fe768e1-5367-4808-8cfb-37f1c0d9aa5d

[Comrade Grumpy]

1. I don't know about a police state, but this is certainly police statish.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. That cannot be true.

Its Bloomie's private army, and as some here proclaim, he is a saint.

[Baitball Blogger]

3. This quote probably does a better job of explaining the situation.

But starting with legendary whistle-blower Frank Serpico in the 1970s, corruption scandals large and small have exposed a clannish culture that critics say encourages police officers to turn a blind eye to wrongdoing and never question authority — or else face harassment by peers and punishment by superiors

[Baitball Blogger]

4. kick