White Riot
October 7, 2021 8:34 AM Subscribe
New York Magazine provides a recounting of the 1992 New York City police riot and its aftermath - an event that both reshaped the politics of the city while slipping into the cultural memory hole. (SLNew York)
The police riot was in response to then-Mayor David Dinkins' proposal to move the police oversight board to being staffed fully by people not connected to the police. The streets surrounding City Hall were flooded with off duty police officers, many of whom had been drinking, and who then harassed civil officials with racist and sexist comments and epithets. While there were people denouncing the riot immediately after, the police unions used their ties to the press to aggressively downplay the riot, aided by Rudy Giuliani - who had participated in the riot, and would use it to boost his campaign for mayor.
The police riot was in response to then-Mayor David Dinkins' proposal to move the police oversight board to being staffed fully by people not connected to the police. The streets surrounding City Hall were flooded with off duty police officers, many of whom had been drinking, and who then harassed civil officials with racist and sexist comments and epithets. While there were people denouncing the riot immediately after, the police unions used their ties to the press to aggressively downplay the riot, aided by Rudy Giuliani - who had participated in the riot, and would use it to boost his campaign for mayor.
"If you don’t respect them, you’ll never have a safe city again."
Also remember the semantic slipperiness of how the authoritarian mindset applies the term respect, changing its meaning halfway through the sentences.
Cops always say things like "I'll treat you with respect only if you treat me with respect." Respect undergoes a drastic semantic shift in the middle. The proper translation is thus: "I'll treat you as a human being only if you treat me as your boss."
posted by tclark at 8:59 AM on October 7, 2021 [85 favorites]
Also remember the semantic slipperiness of how the authoritarian mindset applies the term respect, changing its meaning halfway through the sentences.
Cops always say things like "I'll treat you with respect only if you treat me with respect." Respect undergoes a drastic semantic shift in the middle. The proper translation is thus: "I'll treat you as a human being only if you treat me as your boss."
posted by tclark at 8:59 AM on October 7, 2021 [85 favorites]
Steisel remembered Caruso telling him, “‘If you don’t respect them, you’ll never have a safe city again.’”
This is exactly what the cops are doing in Minneapolis. And the sad part is that, with an election coming up, they may in fact get away with it. The cops will re-establish "safety" but only if you expect their authoritah & don't challenge their right to brutalize with impunity.
posted by jonp72 at 9:00 AM on October 7, 2021 [12 favorites]
This is exactly what the cops are doing in Minneapolis. And the sad part is that, with an election coming up, they may in fact get away with it. The cops will re-establish "safety" but only if you expect their authoritah & don't challenge their right to brutalize with impunity.
posted by jonp72 at 9:00 AM on October 7, 2021 [12 favorites]
I'm very scared when shit finally hits the fan here in America, because it seems the most violent and deranged among us are also the most heavily armed and the most employed in "civil protection" positions where they abuse their power.
I said it at the beginning of the Floyd protests here on MeFi:
If we ever actually defund the cops, if they even get a whiff of it happening beforehand, they will all steal every piece of equipment they can from their precincts, and they will immediately become a terrorist force among our own populace. Truly an American Taliban.
They will absolutely use their violent power as a coercive force. It's disgusting and I've been watching it devolve from hiding it to being open about it and just knowing nothing will happen to them my entire life.
I'm not sure how to solve this problem. There is a significant possibility that the bad guys will win because they're more than happy to crush us under their boot because they don't view us as human to begin with. We're not as well armed, we're more thoughtful, more willing to forgive and consider the idea that humans can change and become better, and these guys are just dedicated to proving us wrong for even trying to make humanity better.
posted by deadaluspark at 9:06 AM on October 7, 2021 [33 favorites]
I said it at the beginning of the Floyd protests here on MeFi:
If we ever actually defund the cops, if they even get a whiff of it happening beforehand, they will all steal every piece of equipment they can from their precincts, and they will immediately become a terrorist force among our own populace. Truly an American Taliban.
They will absolutely use their violent power as a coercive force. It's disgusting and I've been watching it devolve from hiding it to being open about it and just knowing nothing will happen to them my entire life.
I'm not sure how to solve this problem. There is a significant possibility that the bad guys will win because they're more than happy to crush us under their boot because they don't view us as human to begin with. We're not as well armed, we're more thoughtful, more willing to forgive and consider the idea that humans can change and become better, and these guys are just dedicated to proving us wrong for even trying to make humanity better.
posted by deadaluspark at 9:06 AM on October 7, 2021 [33 favorites]
We're not as well armed, we're more thoughtful, more willing to forgive and consider the idea that humans can change and become better, and these guys are just dedicated to proving us wrong for even trying to make humanity better.
Then we fight to the very last. Either we eliminate them and make a better world for the survivors, or they win and have to live in the rubble of what's left.
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:13 AM on October 7, 2021 [5 favorites]
Then we fight to the very last. Either we eliminate them and make a better world for the survivors, or they win and have to live in the rubble of what's left.
posted by Faint of Butt at 9:13 AM on October 7, 2021 [5 favorites]
I hadn't heard about this before...thanks for posting.
I do remember how chilling it was to read about an unruly mob of police gathering at a New York courthouse to protest a ticket fixing prosecution back in 2011. That picture at the top with the literal Nuremberg defense written on their protest signs still makes my blood run cold.
posted by msbrauer at 9:22 AM on October 7, 2021 [11 favorites]
I do remember how chilling it was to read about an unruly mob of police gathering at a New York courthouse to protest a ticket fixing prosecution back in 2011. That picture at the top with the literal Nuremberg defense written on their protest signs still makes my blood run cold.
posted by msbrauer at 9:22 AM on October 7, 2021 [11 favorites]
We're having a police riot in Portland right now. It just involves seldom seeing them, 911 taking eight minutes to pick up, and our best response to a formerly quiet neighborhood that has been experiencing nightly gun violence being the traffic commissioner ordering deployment of orange barrels to make getaways harder.
Basically they're just sort of acting out Rorshach's monologue from Watchmen, except instead of saying "No" they just come around after some dude has driven his car into the park across the street, beaten a woman senseless, then driven off and say "one thing people are doing is writing their legislators and telling them to give us more money." They don't ask for plates or descriptions.
I think it's having their desired effect, so honestly, living through it right now ... having friends who hear the gunfire every night and having had multiple encounters with the police acting out this strategy, reading people on /r/portland with whom this strategy is plainly working ... it's more frightening than any violent prepper disaster fantasy about the shit hitting the fan or whatever.
It's encouraging more talk about people arming themselves, making more people angrily resistant to any talk of police reform because they are frightened over the violence and lawlessness that is being allowed to play out, and encouraging more people to talk in the most dehumanizing and violent terms about even petty crime/criminals.
posted by mph at 11:43 AM on October 7, 2021 [14 favorites]
Basically they're just sort of acting out Rorshach's monologue from Watchmen, except instead of saying "No" they just come around after some dude has driven his car into the park across the street, beaten a woman senseless, then driven off and say "one thing people are doing is writing their legislators and telling them to give us more money." They don't ask for plates or descriptions.
I think it's having their desired effect, so honestly, living through it right now ... having friends who hear the gunfire every night and having had multiple encounters with the police acting out this strategy, reading people on /r/portland with whom this strategy is plainly working ... it's more frightening than any violent prepper disaster fantasy about the shit hitting the fan or whatever.
It's encouraging more talk about people arming themselves, making more people angrily resistant to any talk of police reform because they are frightened over the violence and lawlessness that is being allowed to play out, and encouraging more people to talk in the most dehumanizing and violent terms about even petty crime/criminals.
posted by mph at 11:43 AM on October 7, 2021 [14 favorites]
To give you an idea how memory-holed this incident is, I was living in South Jersey in 1992, and moved to the city the following year, and I have no recollection of this. I don’t even remember news coverage of it after the fact. (TBF, 1992 was a bit of a blank spot in my memory as my mom died in June and I spent much of the year at my parents’ in Seattle.)
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 11:58 AM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 11:58 AM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]
This seems like it explains all the plaudits that Giuliani got for being a great mayor. Maintain racist policing, be lauded.
posted by clawsoon at 12:04 PM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by clawsoon at 12:04 PM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]
This one article is far more comprehensive than I remember ANY of the coverage at the time being.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:14 PM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:14 PM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]
> Basically they're just sort of acting out Rorshach's monologue from Watchmen, except instead of saying "No" they just come around after some dude has driven his car into the park across the street, beaten a woman senseless, then driven off and say "one thing people are doing is writing their legislators and telling them to give us more money." They don't ask for plates or descriptions.
More money not to prevent, deter or solve crimes but to stockpile guns and ammunition.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:03 PM on October 7, 2021 [5 favorites]
More money not to prevent, deter or solve crimes but to stockpile guns and ammunition.
posted by The Card Cheat at 1:03 PM on October 7, 2021 [5 favorites]
Let me be the first to quote those great thinkers, Le Tigre: Fuck you, Giuliani! You're such a fucking jerk!
posted by dame at 1:09 PM on October 7, 2021 [9 favorites]
posted by dame at 1:09 PM on October 7, 2021 [9 favorites]
We are fully engulfed in a police riot in Los Angeles (city and county, which is not only gang-ridden but collaborating with ICE despite being told not to), and I don't see how that ever ends. Every day is a new memory hole.
posted by Lyn Never at 1:59 PM on October 7, 2021
posted by Lyn Never at 1:59 PM on October 7, 2021
Lahmias describes the Crown Heights riot in a weirdly passive way that reminds me of descriptions of police shootings:
The violence reinforced the divide between Blacks and Jews in Crown Heights; the police failure paradoxically made the Jewish community more reliant on police protection; and the ongoing riot made the mayor look bad. Lahmias goes on to quote police mocking the reporter Jimmy Breslin (who had been attacked in Crown Heights) and asking him how he liked having a Black Mayor. It’s clear that they were happy to identify a victim, a year later, and weaponise their own failure against him.
Brad deLong says that the Cossacks work for the Czar, but the real history of the Cossacks is that although at many points they did work for the Czar, they kept being suppressed because the Cossacks primarily work for themselves. I wish Lahmias had drawn the connection between the events she describes because they’re not isolated: it’s a pattern in which the police manage and participate in communal violence in order to maintain their position.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:03 PM on October 7, 2021 [11 favorites]
In August 1991, a riot broke out between the Black and Jewish residents of Crown Heights. A young boy and a young Jewish man were killed, stores were destroyed, and many were injured. It took police days to restore order.This is the 20th anniversary of those riots, and you can find a recent article about them in the WSJ [archive]. Her flat (and misleading) description misses the fact that this was a pogrom and absolves the police of any responsibility for failing to control it. It didn’t “take” the police days to restore order in Crown Heights: they took days to restore order. There’s a difference.
The violence reinforced the divide between Blacks and Jews in Crown Heights; the police failure paradoxically made the Jewish community more reliant on police protection; and the ongoing riot made the mayor look bad. Lahmias goes on to quote police mocking the reporter Jimmy Breslin (who had been attacked in Crown Heights) and asking him how he liked having a Black Mayor. It’s clear that they were happy to identify a victim, a year later, and weaponise their own failure against him.
Brad deLong says that the Cossacks work for the Czar, but the real history of the Cossacks is that although at many points they did work for the Czar, they kept being suppressed because the Cossacks primarily work for themselves. I wish Lahmias had drawn the connection between the events she describes because they’re not isolated: it’s a pattern in which the police manage and participate in communal violence in order to maintain their position.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:03 PM on October 7, 2021 [11 favorites]
"Dinkins was uptown attending a funeral"
The funeral was for Congressman Ted Weiss, an extraordinary fellow who represented NYC in the House from '77-'92. Here's his H.Res. 370 from 1985, an attempt to impeach Reagan for "the high crime or misdemeanor of ordering the invasion of Grenada in violation of the Constitution of the United States, and other high crimes and misdemeanors ancillary thereto."
There's a link in the article to Dinkins appointee Milton Mollen's obit, but if you'd like to read the final report of the 1992-1994 Mollen Commission (aka "The City of New York Commission to Investigate Allegations of Police Corruption and the Anti-Corruption Procedures of the Police Department"), the PBA's excuse for the ''protest" at City Hall, it's archived here and John Jay's Lloyd Sealy Library has related materials.
posted by Iris Gambol at 4:56 PM on October 7, 2021 [3 favorites]
The funeral was for Congressman Ted Weiss, an extraordinary fellow who represented NYC in the House from '77-'92. Here's his H.Res. 370 from 1985, an attempt to impeach Reagan for "the high crime or misdemeanor of ordering the invasion of Grenada in violation of the Constitution of the United States, and other high crimes and misdemeanors ancillary thereto."
There's a link in the article to Dinkins appointee Milton Mollen's obit, but if you'd like to read the final report of the 1992-1994 Mollen Commission (aka "The City of New York Commission to Investigate Allegations of Police Corruption and the Anti-Corruption Procedures of the Police Department"), the PBA's excuse for the ''protest" at City Hall, it's archived here and John Jay's Lloyd Sealy Library has related materials.
posted by Iris Gambol at 4:56 PM on October 7, 2021 [3 favorites]
Speaking of NYC police unions... Earlier this week, the FBI raided the Manhattan headquarters of the Sergeants Benevolent Association (second-largest NYC police union with 13K members, fifth largest police union in the country; has a $264 million retirement fund) as well as the Port Washington home of its president since 2002, Ed Mullins. He was asked to resign, and did (NBC). Gothamist: Mullins is currently facing an internal NYPD misconduct investigation for making bigoted and profane statements on Twitter and for posting the arrest record of Mayor Bill de Blasio's daughter last year. [It had her home address.] He has also faced criticism for circulating an explicitly racist video to the union's members.
The misconduct investigation started in February; this June, via the Daily News: Police union boss Ed Mullins says the NYPD is trying to muzzle him for his roguish Twitter rhetoric. Mullins, the president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, asked a federal court Monday to issue an order stopping the department from conducting disciplinary probes in its alleged campaign of retaliation over his outspoken opinions. Claiming a First Amendment right to speak out on behalf of the union, Mullins claims he was within his rights, for example, when he called Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) a “first class whore,” dubbed former city Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot “a b---- with blood on her hands” [...] Mullins’ lawsuit seeks the same order for the Civilian Complaint Review Board, and claims both his and his son’s phone records have been subpoenaed. The current, "all-civilian" incarnation of the Review Board started under Dinkins in 1993, and is the largest civilian oversight agency in the country. Search thousands of civilian complaints against New York City Police Officers, 1985-2020; Summaries of Serious Incidents.
Former Sergeants Union Boss Ed Mullins Placed on Modified Duty by NYPD After FBI Raids: Sources (NBC, today) A senior NYPD official also said that Mullins is using up his remaining time that he has accrued and taking vacation days, and will submit paperwork for retirement in the near future. Mullins joined the police force in 1982, was Detective Mullins by 1992, and made sergeant the following year.
One source with knowledge of the probe tells NY1 that the FBI and federal prosecutors in Manhattan are looking into possible mismanagement of funds.
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:22 PM on October 7, 2021 [4 favorites]
The misconduct investigation started in February; this June, via the Daily News: Police union boss Ed Mullins says the NYPD is trying to muzzle him for his roguish Twitter rhetoric. Mullins, the president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association, asked a federal court Monday to issue an order stopping the department from conducting disciplinary probes in its alleged campaign of retaliation over his outspoken opinions. Claiming a First Amendment right to speak out on behalf of the union, Mullins claims he was within his rights, for example, when he called Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) a “first class whore,” dubbed former city Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot “a b---- with blood on her hands” [...] Mullins’ lawsuit seeks the same order for the Civilian Complaint Review Board, and claims both his and his son’s phone records have been subpoenaed. The current, "all-civilian" incarnation of the Review Board started under Dinkins in 1993, and is the largest civilian oversight agency in the country. Search thousands of civilian complaints against New York City Police Officers, 1985-2020; Summaries of Serious Incidents.
Former Sergeants Union Boss Ed Mullins Placed on Modified Duty by NYPD After FBI Raids: Sources (NBC, today) A senior NYPD official also said that Mullins is using up his remaining time that he has accrued and taking vacation days, and will submit paperwork for retirement in the near future. Mullins joined the police force in 1982, was Detective Mullins by 1992, and made sergeant the following year.
One source with knowledge of the probe tells NY1 that the FBI and federal prosecutors in Manhattan are looking into possible mismanagement of funds.
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:22 PM on October 7, 2021 [4 favorites]
Huh. The timing is right, and I was working in Manhattan at the time, just wandering around exploring the city when I came across an overturned police car, traces of tear gas, and other debris from some sort of fracas, but couldn't find anything concrete in the news to determine the cause. I guess this might have been it.
posted by Blackanvil at 12:08 AM on October 8, 2021
posted by Blackanvil at 12:08 AM on October 8, 2021
Faint of Butt: “Then we fight to the very last. Either we eliminate them and make a better world for the survivors, or they win and have to live in the rubble of what's left.”
“Indeed. It’s not fight or leave, or war or peace. It’s war, and you fight or lose. And as much as you may not like fighting, you’re really not going to like losing.”— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) August 20, 2021posted by ob1quixote at 6:43 AM on October 8, 2021 [3 favorites]Liberal Democracy Is Worth a Fight“@anneapplebaum is right. This is the ugly reality. If you want civilization to survive in a world full of predatory thugs, you must be willing to kill them and able to do so.”— Claire Berlinski. (@ClaireBerlinski) August 20, 2021
Not all battles can be won with language, arguments, conferences, or diplomacy.
By Anne Applebaum
The Atlantic
August 20, 2021
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Huh. It's like the cops are some sort of protection racket or something.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:47 AM on October 7, 2021 [60 favorites]