After NYPD officials warned about a unit’s aggressive policing, the mayor boosted the team led by his allies. “The unit effectively reported directly to City Hall,” a former police official said.

In the fall of 2022, the New York Police Department began posting videos online to promote one of its latest initiatives: the Community Response Team, an elite unit formed under the city’s new mayor, Eric Adams.

Punctuated by dramatic music and quick cuts, the first video, dubbed “True Blue NYPD Finest,” (warning, instagram link) looked like the TV show “Cops.” Officers run and shout as they chase people joyriding on motorbikes and ATVs.

One points a Taser at a motorcyclist and his passenger. Others tackle a rider, pinning him to the ground. Still others chase a motorbike onto the sidewalk, endangering nearby pedestrians.

Within the NYPD, department officials were disturbed by what they saw. “I threw red flags,” said Matthew Pontillo, a former chief who noted what he called “constitutional concerns” in the footage. But Pontillo and two former department executives say that when they raised the videos and the officers’ conduct with one of the unit’s leaders, he pushed back and complained to an unlikely party: the mayor himself.

  • Jiggle_PhysicsEnglish
    2·
    8 hours ago

    This isn’t just the NYPD either. This is a problem across the whole country. I mean, fuck, multiple police forces have been shown to have operated CIA-esque “black sites”. Eric Adam’s is an authoritarian, corrupt, piece of shit, but this is business as usual for a lot of the country.