NYPD's fortunate son

 

NY Daily News

The son of a former NYPD police commissioner is being moved to a detective squad — just 18 months after stepping out of the Police Academy, the Daily News has learned.

An internal department memo shared with The News notes that Police Officer Richard Shea, the son of Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, will be transferred from patrol to the 23rd Precinct detective squad, effective Monday.

After some training, Officer Shea will be promoted to detective third grade in 18 months, the department said. The bump will come three years after he graduated the academy.

“This is what #Nepotism looks like,” tweeted John Macari, a trustee for the National Coalition of Front Line Workers. “No disrespect to this kid, but it’s a failure in ‘leadership.’”

Officer Shea, 23, has been walking the beat in the 23rd Precinct, which covers East Harlem, since graduating the academy on May 5, 2021.

The move didn’t sit well with rank-and-file NYPD officers who believe Shea’s father helped pave the way.

“He has done absolutely nothing to deserve that shield,” said one NYPD detective, who wished not to be named. “To go upstairs with zero experience is a smack in the face to everyone who wants to be a detective. There are far more cops with years of experience that should be upstairs.”

Hmm, nobody is going to mention how this promotion happened while NYPD commissioner (in name only) Sewell is in Puerto Rico for the SOMOS conference? Sounds like Shea thinks the streets are not safe for his son to patrol them.

NYPD commissioner condemns the city's policy for sheltering homeless people in hotels

 

NY Post

NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea on Wednesday blamed the city’s homeless shelter system for playing a part in the brutal beatdown of an Asian woman — saying parolees don’t get the help they need to not reoffend.

The city’s top cop would not say whether Brandon Elliot — the 38-year-old brute who was caught-on-camera allegedly assaulting the 65-year-old victim on Monday — should have been let out on parole.

Elliot had been sprung on lifetime parole in 2019 after serving about 17 years for murdering his mother in 2002.

“That’s a question more for the parole board,” Shea said on PIX 11. “But what I would say is, people pay their debt to society. They’ve got to be given second chances.

He added that he has a “different perspective” as police commissioner — as he blasted the lack of resources at the city’s homeless shelters, where Elliot had been staying when he was busted for the broad-daylight attack.

“When you’re releasing people from prison and you’re putting them in homeless shelters, you’re asking for trouble,” Shea said. “There’s got to be a safety net and there’s got to be resources for them.”

He added, “Releasing people and putting them in homeless shelters — I’ve been harping on this for years now — and I think you just shake your head and say, ‘What could possibly go wrong?’ And this is what goes wrong. It just never should happene

Man who kicked and stomped a 65-year-old Asian woman served time for killing his mother and lived in a nearby hotel shelter

 

 

NY Daily News

 An elderly woman walking through Hells Kitchen became the latest victim of an unprovoked anti-Asian attack, in a brutal, caught-on-video assault.

Cops have charged a man out on parole for killing his mother with the caught-on-video stomping of a 65-year-old Asian woman outside a luxury Manhattan building, a hate crime that shocked the city, officials said Tuesday.

Brandon Elliot, 38, was charged with assault as a hate crime and other charges at 1:10 a.m. Wednesday after cops received numerous Crime Stoppers tips, authorities said.

“This was a horrific, horrific attack,” NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea told PIX11 Wednesday. “(The victim) has very significant injuries and she has a long recovery ahead of her.”

In 2002 Elliot, then 19, was arrested for fatally stabbing his mother three times in the chest in front of his sister, who was 5, in the Bronx. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

He was released on supervised release and lifetime parole just 16 months ago.

Elliot was nabbed for the hate crime at the Four Points by Sheraton, a hotel-turned-homeless-shelter on W. 40th St. — just a few blocks from where he allegedly attacked his victim, according to cops. Elliot has been living at the hotel, which the city has been using to house homeless men.

Subway crime? What subway crime; de Blasio lies in front of his police commissioner's face

 

NY Post

 Mayor de Blasio on Thursday waved aside New Yorkers’ fears over a recent spate of shocking subway crimes — including the concerns of NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea, claiming that the top cop never sounded the alarm, as he sat just feet away.

The denial of reality came in the wake of several high-profile crimes on the rails, including a straphanger being randomly shoved onto the tracks this week in what Shea said has become “too common” an occurrence.

Shea went on to say in a Wednesday NY1 interview that part of the problem was cops being restricted in interacting with the mentally ill in the subway system since the city’s push to use trained workers, not the Finest, for such calls — though not to de Blasio’s recollection.

“Any suggestion that the NYPD can’t do what it needs to do to stop an incident like that in the subways is absolutely false, and the commissioner never said that,” de Blasio chided CBS 2 reporter Marcia Kramer, who broached the subject during a City Hall briefing Thursday. “Don’t put words in his mouth, with all due respect.”

After a brief response from Shea — who did not address the mental illness issue, instead vowing increased NYPD visibility underground as a deterrent — Kramer fired back by directly quoting the commissioner’s Wednesday remarks.

“It’s not easy but we need to talk about it because, at the same time we’re saying, take the police out of mental health illness,” Shea said Wednesday. “In appropriate circumstances we support that, but there’s got to be follow up. This person is a danger, unfortunately, and he’s not alone.”

De Blasio then tried to dismiss the line of questioning as fearmongering.

“We can talk about facts and encourage the people to understand the facts, or we can just create fear for the sake of fear,” he said. “We choose the former. We choose to tell people that the NYPD is out there every day, protecting their safety, that subways have been made much safer over time.

deBlasio and the NYPD lie about court's role in the rise in shootings, and continue to lie about it.

NY Post

They’re starting to run out of excuses.

The mayor and police have repeatedly blamed a coronavirus-related court shutdown for the explosion of gun violence rocking the city — but firearms cases are making their way through the criminal justice system at the same rate as last year, a Post investigation shows.

The revelations come after The Post showed that the NYPD’s own data did not support those claims that bail reform and early prison releases over coronavirus were driving the spike.

“It’s a combination of things — bail reform, COVID releases from prison, court shutdown, which has Rikers [Island] at half of where they were,” Chief of Department Terence Monahan said in a July 6 press briefing, seeking to explain the 70-percent rise in shootings this year. Commissioner Dermot Shea and Mayor de Blasio have also blamed court closure for the uptick, with Shea calling the tie “indisputable” on Monday.

But the data tells another story.

In December 2019, as the city officials touted a record-breaking low in shootings, there were 2,285 open gun cases in Gotham with 13 percent of suspects awaiting trial, according to an analysis by The Post.

In July 2020, with shootings skyrocketing to 1990s-like levels, the courts had 2,181 open firearms cases and 10 percent in lockup — or 104 fewer pending gun cases, the data shows.

Additionally, of the 1,957 people facing gun charges out on the streets in July — which is 27 fewer than in December — only 2 percent, or 39 people, were busted again for a firearm, according to the data obtained by The Post.

There were also more gun and murder arraignments from April to June compared to October through December last year, with 819 over the three-month period this year compared to 642 last year, court data shows.

NY Post

The buck continues to stop everywhere but on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s desk.

Hizzoner once again attacked the messenger Thursday rather than address a new Post article that found firearms cases are going through the criminal justice system at the same rate as last year — refuting his claims that a coronavirus-related court shutdown is most responsible for this summer’s surge in shootings

“I have not seen The Post article and I don’t always get accuracy from that publication,” de Blasio sniffed during a virtual City Hall press briefing when asked about the damning piece by a Wall Street Journal reporter.

In December 2019, there were 2,285 open gun cases in Gotham with 13 percent of suspects awaiting trial, according to the Post analysis based on NYPD and court data. In July 2020, the courts had 2,181 open firearms cases and 10 percent in lockup — or 104 fewer pending gun cases, the data shows.

There were also more gun and murder arraignments from April to June compared to October through December last year, with 819 over the three-month period this year compared to 642 last year, court data shows.

De Blasio tried to discredit those numbers — before realizing they came from his own police department.

“Anyone can try and manipulate a statistic,” he said.

When the Journal reporter pointed out the data were NYPD statistics, de Blasio refused to back down.

“It’s a publication that historically has provided inaccurate information. It may be accurate statistics in this case, but I’m just not going to be gentle about the point that when there is a history of inaccuracy and an axe to grind it’s worth saying,” de Blasio fumed at The Post, rather than addressing the issue at hand.

“There is no one claiming the court system is functioning as normal. There’s just no one doing it,” de Blasio flailed.

NYPD is not being transparent enough to cops about the growing cases sickened by the virus in the department

NY Post

Officers are furious that the NYPD isn’t even telling its own members about who has tested positive for coronavirus — with cops in one precinct only finding out their bosses were out sick when they read it in The Post.

“You shouldn’t have to find out through the news,” one police source said, complaining about officers in Lower Manhattan’s 1st Precinct not being told about the positive case and sick cops last week.

“Their bosses went out sick and they didn’t even tell them. If there are 31 cops out sick in a precinct with 500 cops, there’s a lot more who are infected. They all have contact with their supervisors.”

More than 3,200 cops were home ill Wednesday — more than three times the average number for this time of year — according to Police Commissioner Dermot Shea, who said the number of confirmed cases also ticked up but did not provide a number. Shea said Tuesday evening that 211 members of the NYPD had contracted COVID-19.

As the virus spreads through the force, police sources told The Post the only way cops are finding out about positive cases is when sick cops personally reach out.

But even then, sources said, they aren’t getting tested — despite working in close quarters and continued public interactions, which could cause further spread as health officials have ordered social distancing.

“Guys have pregnant wives and older parents at home. You can test a basketball team … you should be able to test the NYPD and the FDNY,” one source said.