Report Finds NYPD Crime Statistics Are Easily Manipulated

From the NY Times:

A long-awaited report ordered by the police commissioner in New York has found deficiencies in the Police Department’s efforts to detect whether its crime statistics are being manipulated.

 ...

The report was released on Tuesday, more than two years after Mr. Kelly empaneled a committee of former federal prosecutors to review the department’s internal crime-reporting system. 

The committee’s report did not directly address how often such manipulation occurred, but it identified vulnerabilities in the department’s system for auditing the integrity of its crime statistics.

Before each report of a crime is entered into the department’s computer system, relatively few controls exist to prevent officers on the street from refusing to fill out any paperwork or for supervisors to alter paperwork back in the station house, the review found. 

While praising the department on the considerable resources devoted to auditing crime statistics, the committee noted that most of those efforts were directed at identifying “human error” — that is, unintentional mistakes in a police officer’s paperwork. But for “an officer who wishes to manipulate crime reporting,” the report said there were “few other procedures in place that control the various avenues of potential manipulation.” 

...

The 60-page report describes several instances of manipulation in which felony crimes were marked down as misdemeanors. In one instance “a desk officer scratched out the item values in order to bring the total to below the $1,000 threshold for grand larceny,” which is a felony. 

In another instance, police paperwork for lost property “described a complainant who ‘lost property’ following an assault by multiple individuals,” according to the report, which added, “On its face the narrative appears to describe a robbery.” 

In the aggregate, the report found, the effect of such errors, intentional or otherwise, on crime statistics was not negligible. “A close review of the N.Y.P.D.’s statistics and analysis demonstrate that the misclassifications of reports may have an appreciable effect on certain reported crime rates,” the report said. 

The report noted, for instance, that Police Department auditors had already detected an error rate in 2009 suggesting that grand larcenies were undercounted that year by 2,312. The adjusted figures represent a 4.6 percent increase over the figures that the department issued that year. 

I've said this before, I'll say it again:

The NYPD crime statistics under Kelly are as phony as the test scores under Klein.

If there were an independent audit of the NYPD free from Kelly's or Bloomberg's manipulation and influence, they would find every crime category would go up - including homicides.

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Alliance for Quality Education: Cuomo, Lawmakers Get Failing Grade For School Improvement Policies

From the Times-Union:

The labor-backed Alliance for Quality Education released a report today that gives a failing grade to Albany for the way lawmakers have improved New York’s public schools.

Here’s the report  and here is the press release:

The report card found that the state was moving in the right direction in the areas of “Providing Quality Pre-K” and “Creating Community Schools.” However, the report card found that the state is moving in the wrong direction in the areas of “Expanding Learning Time,” “Providing Challenging and Engaging Curriculum,” “Creating a Positive School Climate and Reducing Suspensions,” and “Investing in Equity.” The report card gave the state an “Incomplete” in “Providing Quality Teaching Initiatives,” stating that there is not enough evidence to show whether or not the new teacher evaluation is a step in the right or wrong direction yet. 

“We agree with the Governor, the state should be investing in full-day pre-K, high quality curriculum, teacher mentoring, more time for student learning, and improving low-performing schools by creating community schools,” said Billy Easton, Executive Director of the Alliance for Quality Education. “Now that the state is funding these successful educational strategies for less than two percent of New York students, the next step should be for the state to embrace the reality that we have a moral obligation to make these programs available to students throughout the state.”

The report card finds that, overall, New York State is moving in the wrong direction because it is failing to provide large portions of students with these successful educational opportunities.  New York has created small grant programs in several of these areas, but those programs each serve less than two percent of students in the state.  

“The way that this state is treating my child’s education is just plain wrong,” said Natasha Capers, parent from Brooklyn. “The bare bones of education is unacceptable, and I’m angry that my child has less opportunities to succeed than other children in this state. The state must do its job, so that schools can do their job to give students an equal opportunity to succeed.”

Cuomo, of course, has moved on from education issues and was busy today giving himself a pat on the back for creating yet another blue ribbon state commission - this time on political corruption.

He ought to combine the two initiatives and take a look at some of the corruption at the NYSED over the testing contracts.

For that matter, he might want to get to the bottom of the last NYSED Commissioner, David Steiner, who was treated to junkets via Pearson.

Or the contracts the NYCDOE signed off on.

There is plenty of corruption to take on in education too.

But you can bet neither Cuomo nor his blue ribbon corruption commission will look at that issue.

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Will Bloomberg's Money Bludgeon Matter In City Council Races?

Kristen Meriwether in The Epoch Times says no:

NEW YORK—Mayor Michael Bloomberg has money to spend this election season, and he is taking notes as to who opposed him on the stop-and-frisk legislation, eyeing up which Council member he can get to rescind their vote. Controversial legislation, which would prohibit biased-based profiling, passed in the wee hours of June 27, with just enough votes to override the mayor’s veto.

Following a report in The New York Post that his super PAC, Independent USA, would try and influence local elections, the mayor beat around the bush on Monday as to what exactly he would do.

“We should all support candidates we agree with,” the mayor said at a press conference in the Bronx on July 1. “We will see what I am going to do.”

...

The mayor, a self-made billionaire, may have a seemingly-endless war chest, but considering the slate of local races this year, his attempt at changing the outcomes of local elections based on this issue may fall flat.

...

“There may be a handful of races he could influence. What he has going in his favor is, it does not take too many votes to turn a primary,” said Bruce Berg, associate professor of political science at Fordham University. “The question is, do you have two viable candidates, and do they disagree on this issue?”

It does not appear Bloomberg would find a viable candidate in the Council races that he could support. Of the 34 Council members who voted in favor of Intro 1080, 23 are up for reelection, according to DecideNYC.com, which keeps tabs on all the local races. Seven of those races are unopposed.

Of the opposed races, only three are deemed highly competitive: Council member Inez Dickens, who is facing Vince Morgan in Harlem; Council member Steve Levin in Brooklyn, who is facing attacks from Stephen Pierson who has tied Levin to disgraced Assemblyman Vito Lopez; Council member Melissa Mark-Viverito in District 8 (whose new district lines created quite the fury), who faces a tough primary with seven opponents.

Mark-Viverito, who is Latina, and Dickens, who is African American, spoke passionately in favor of the bills at the Council hearing on June 26, and are very unlikely to turn over their votes even with pressure.

Levin, who is white, is a highly popular council member. His alleged ties to Lopez may do some damage, but not nearly the amount of damage switching his vote would bring.

Five council members are running for other local positions. Council members Gale Brewer, Robert Jackson, and Jessica Lappin are all facing Julie Menin, Chair of Community Board 1, for Manhattan Borough President. It is highly unlikely Bloomberg would be able to leverage any of the candidates against each other, considering they all voted the same way.

Council member Latitia James is running a tight race for Public Advocate with Senator Daniel Squadron, who is leading in the fundraising, and Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code. James, who is African American, has been an outspoken critic of stop-and-frisk and a sponsor of Intro 1080. It would be unlikely she would change her vote at this point.

Bloomberg's PAC was successful nationally last election cycle, backing 19 winning candidates to 7 losing candidates.

Here's hoping that Meriweather is right and he is not very successful at turning any races here.

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GOP Candidate Lhota Wants To Hear From Women "Disrespected" By Anthony Weiner

From The Jewish Daily Forward:

GOP mayoral candidate Joe Lhota says he wants women who have dated Weiner or have been “disrespected” by the disgraced Congressman-turned-wannabe mayor to come forward with their horror stories.

“I hope [women] will come to the right conclusion after enough women come out and talk about what it was like to be with him and date him and things like that,” Lhota said on “The Andrea Tantaros Show” on the Talk Radio Network, according to the New York Post.

“New York women have to decide for themselves if this is someone who has the character to be mayor,” he added.

Weiner’s spokeswoman said he wouldn’t respond to Lhota’s attack, the Post said.

“Anthony is too busy talking about the future of the middle class and those struggling to make it to respond to Mr. Lhota’s mud throwing,” campaign spokeswoman Barbara Morgan said.

Couple of things to say here:

First, it's interesting that the guy who last year challenged a 77 year old man to a fist fight at an MTA board meeting is concerned enough about Weiner's behavior that he wants to hear from women who have been "disrespected" by the former congressman.

Second, what exactly is the strategy here? 

Is the Lhota campaign launching a preemptive strike against Weiner now because theyy're worried Weiner would be the toughest candidate for him to face in the general election?

Are they worried that the conservative/middle of the road policies Weiner is pushing will take some of the juice out of Lhota's "pro-growth" campaign?

I dunno, if I were Lhota, I would lay low for now and let the Dem candidates beat up on Weiner during the summer (and via some surrogates, they're starting to do just that), wait to see who makes the runoff and then, if Weiner emerges in the general, start the "Weiner is a Sexting, Lying Sleaze" campaign in late September.

But for whatever reason, the Lhota campaign is going after Weiner now.

Anybody out there have any idea why?

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NYC Parents Union/DC 37 Local 372 Take On Anthony Weiner

Daily Politics has posted two different stories in the last 24 hours detailing how the NYC Parents Union and DC Council Local 372 have launched two separate attack sites against mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner (here and here.)

Here's why:

District Council 37's Local 372 has launched a pre-primary broadside against the ex-congressman and mayoral hopeful, bannering two photos from his 2011 sexting scandal -- one showing Weiner gripping his privates -- on its PAC's homepage under the headline, "Disgraced Weiner Attacks Parent Coordinators."

Local 372 President Santos Crespo Jr. says with Weiner climbing in the polls -- and bent on cutting the 1,600 coordinators, who act as liaisons and advocates -- "We're going to do what we need to do to take him out."

Weiner has said parents should be involved in their kids' schooling, but believes it doesn't require paid intermediaries.

"I would not want to dismiss the possibility that [Weiner] may be the Democratic contender after the smoke clears," said Crespo, who's also a vice president of DC37, the city's biggest municipal worker union.

"Since [Weiner's] already indicated that he wants to come after our parent coordinators, I need to stop this before it gets worse down the road."

That means gearing up Local 372 for what Crespo says will be an anti-Weiner "full-court press. It's going to be press conferences. It's going to be rallies. It's going to be door-to-door [visits and] phone calls."

The point: "Aside from [his] lack of integrity and class, we’re reminding folks that this is a guy who outright lied when he asked if he had done that," Crespo said of Weiner's sketchy snapshots.

"A lot of people unfortunately do not remember that," said Crespo, who says his local will work with community and parent groups, as well as confer with other unions, to go after Weiner. "You've got to think, 'Gee, I wonder what else he would lie to the public about?'"

 ...

Local 372's decision to give Weiner's "junk mail" the Return To Sender treatment online came shortly before the launch of a separate website, stopweiner.com.

Both web pages, which focus on the school workers who act as liaisons between families and city teachers, are the work of Mona Davids, the new political director of Local 372.

Davids said stopweiner.com, which she registered only Sunday night, is a joint effort with Local 372. It's is also meant to highlight Weiner's lewd past and publicize his call for the elimination of the parent liaisons in his "Keys To The City" blueprint for the mayoralty.

32 BJ President Hector Figueroa spoke yesterday about the importance of going after Weiner on both his ethics and his "retrogressive" politics.

It's about time that the unions wake up to the danger Weiner poses for their members and start a widespread campaign to take down his poll numbers and support.

A similar effort against Quinn has really driven down her poll numbers.

I'm betting that a month of "Did Anthony Weiner Lie About Sexting With A 17 Year Old?" ads on NY1 and other local stations would do something similar to Weiner's numbers.

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Joel Klein Diverts Attention From Disappointing News Corp Education Division Debut With Education Speech

According to Gotham Schools, former NYC Schools Chancellor and current News Corporation executive Joel Klein gave a speech defending Bloomberg's education policies and attacking mayoral candidates who aren't fully on board with that agenda.

Not mentioned in the Gotham Schools story is that yesterday was the debut of the "new" News Corporation, with Joel Klein at the helm of the for-profit education technology division that is now paired with the newspapers and the publishing house, Harper Collins.

The much more profitable entertainment business in the old News Corporation has been spun off into a company known as 21st Century Fox.

Here is how Reuters reported on that story:

(Reuters) - Wall Street rewarded Rupert Murdoch's move to create a separate entertainment company, giving 21st Century Fox one of the richest valuations in the media sector on its first day of trading.
 
Investors had waited for Murdoch to split News Corp, giving its cable, movie and equity stakes in pay-TV assets their own spotlight away from the publishing division.

The move is part of larger trend among media companies that are shedding print properties. Tribune announced on Monday it will acquire a stable of TV stations making it one of the largest local TV broadcasters while it seeks a possible sale of its newspapers.

21st Century Fox, which includes the Fox cable network, already has one of the highest valuations among its media peers based on 2013 price to earnings multiple. At 20.7 times, it is higher than Walt Disney, Viacom and Time Warner, and ranks second only to Discovery according to estimates from UBS analyst John Janedis.

Shares in the new 21st Century Fox entertainment operation gained over 2 percent on Monday, or $1.1 billion dollars in market value, from its opening price. Its market capitalization is about $68 billion, reflecting Monday's gain.

"By divesting its less attractive legacy business, Fox has become a pure-play entertainment company with fantastic assets in its cable channels," Gabelli & Co analyst Brett Harriss said.

In contrast, shares of the new News Corp, which includes publishing assets like The Wall Street Journal and HarperCollins, and an education division, lost 3 percent, or half a billion, from their opening price. News Corp has a current market value of about $8.5 billion.

"News Corp is largely seen as ink on paper, and the perception is that the good assets, so to speak, went to Fox," said Gabelli & Co analyst Barry Lucas.

In addition to being seen as the "less valuable" assets from the old News Corporation, the "new" News Corporation education/print division is facing potential lawsuits in the United States related to phone hacking.

Norman Siegel has already filed one for Eunice Huthart, a stunt double for Angelina Jolie, who says she was hacked by News Corporation journalists working for the now closed News of the World and The Sun while on U.S. soil.

According to The Guardian, Siegel said at a press conference that "There are a bunch of people, the majority from England but some from here, who want to bring claims."


The Guardian article goes on to say that:

This is the first time that News Corp, parent company of News International, which controls the UK newspapers, has been named as a defendant in a case. It comes as the Justice Department continues to investigate News Corp under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), used to pursue US companies accused of bribing foreign officials.

Siegel has also worked with the relatives of 9/11 victims who were also reportedly hacked by News Corp employees. Siegel said it was his understanding that a FBI investigation into those allegations was ongoing.

With News Corporation now split into two entities, court fees, fines and settlements related to both British and U.S. hacking claims will come of out Klein's education technology/newspaper division.

 The Associated Press reports that:

News Corp. has spent $388 million in settlements, legal fees and other costs associated with ongoing investigations in the U.K. since the hacking scandal came to light in 2011.

It's not a mistake that just as the "new" News Corporation is debuting on Wall Street by losing 3 percent (half a billion dollars in valuation from its opening price) and is facing a new American front in the hacking scandal that could cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars, Klein is giving a speech touting his education "legacy" when he was NYC chancellor and attacking mayoral candidates who aren't on board with that legacy 100%.

They're looking to divert attention from the poor reception Wall Street gave to the education technology/newspaper division yesterday and the problems they're facing over future hacking claims that put the company's health very much in doubt.

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CUNY Pays David Petraeus $150,000 A Year To Teach One Course

Many CUNY adjuncts are paid less than $3,000 a course.

Retired General David Petraeus will make $2,250 an hour to teach one course.

So glad to see those CUNY fee and tuition hikes going for really important things.

Petraeus, btw, didn't think CUNY was "prestigious" enough for him and had to be persuaded by outgoing CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein to take the gig.

Hey, Dave, CUNY not prestigious enough for you?

Great, take your lying-ass act elsewhere.

I'm sure Harvard would like to have you.

Harvard's loss would be CUNY's gain.

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