Editor-at-Large @ProPublica. Co-founder @DocumentCloud. Editor of Trump, Inc. podcast. (RIP) Hangs with @sarapekow.
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Jun 29 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
I just reported that NYPD has been burying cases of police brutality
But for some cases, the NYPD is doing this *in secret*
No disclosure
I found out about them. Chokeholds, Tasering and more…
Civilian investigators concluded the officers likely committed *crimes*
THREAD
In the summer of 2020, Officer Raul Torres Tasered an unarmed man named William Harvin Sr. *four times.*
“He Tased me for no reason,” recalled Harvin, who was trying to back away.
Here is video.
Jun 27 • 15 tweets • 5 min read
Today, I reported w/ @nytimes that the NYPD has been burying cases of police brutality — chokeholds, taserings, and more.
Let me tell you about some of those cases.
About what happened to the victims.
And about what happened to *the officers*
In the summer of 2020, Brianna Villafane was marching peacefully against police violence.
Then Officer Gerard Dowling grabbed her by her hair and yanked her to the ground.
Dec 16, 2023 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
I want to tell you a story about body cameras and *Derek Chauvin*
What Chauvin did to George Floyd, kneeling on his neck, was his move.
He had done to others.
It was all recorded by body cams.
But the footage was kept secret.
And Chauvin was left unpunished
[short THREAD]
In June, 2017, Chauvin arrested a young Black woman named Zoya Code.
Chauvin dragged the handcuffed Code outside her home and slammed
her to the ground.
Then pressed his knee into her neck for nearly five minutes.
“Don't kill me," Code begged.
Dec 14, 2023 • 25 tweets • 7 min read
Three years ago, I got some footage that I couldn’t get out of my mind.
It showed the first police killing captured on body-worn cameras in NY.
The NYPD didn’t want anyone to see it.
It eventually launched me on the biggest story I’ve ever done, w/ @NYTmag
[THREAD]
The footage involves a young, Jamaican man named Miguel Richards.
His landlord hadn’t seen Richards for weeks and asked the police to check in.
They found him holding a small knife, standing perfectly still in his bedroom, basically catatonic.
They pulled out their guns.
May 13, 2023 • 23 tweets • 8 min read
Police investigations into police killings are usually a black box
But @michaelhayes & I found how NYPD investigated itself after an officer killed a man, Kawaski Trawick, who was home alone
We got audio interviews w/ the officers
Listen as the blue wall of silence is built
👇🏻
Officer Herbert Davis, a Black more experienced officer, *repeatedly* told his junior, white partner, Brendan Thompson, not to use force
But when Davis was interviewed by NYPD investigators just hours later, he—falsely —says there was no conversation between him & his partner.
May 11, 2023 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
NEW: We got something you rarely see: internal investigation into police killing, w/ audio interviews of officers
They don't tell truth: A cop repeatedly told his partner not to fire.
Police investigators never ask about that, even though it was on film propublica.org/article/nypd-k…
“No, no, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t,” a more-experienced, Black officer told his junior, white partner
The officer fired anyway.
Police investigators could see the officer's repeated attempts to stop his partner. It was on film
They never raised it.
May 4, 2023 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
NEW: Clarence Thomas had a kid in private school. Harlan Crow paid the tuition.
"Harlan picked up the tab," a frmr school admin told us.
NYPD killed Kawaski Trawick 19 months ago. It's a case I've been reporting on.
NYPD finally released video Tues
But it won’t release it all. It won’t even let *Trawick’s family* see it
NYPD told fam’s lawyer @Rsquareesq it needs “to protect sensitive images of Mr. Trawick.”
Trawick, who was 32 & Black, was alone in his own apt, shot 112 seconds after police arrived.
It happened 605 days ago.
The NYPD...
hasn’t released its investigation.
hasn’t released the full footage.
hasn’t disciplined any officers.
The NYPD has been stonewalling investigations into police abuse. That’s what @mrsimon22 and I reported this week.
The NYPD denies it.
They say make “every effort” to cooperate with investigators.
So I thought I’d lay out some examples.
Warning: The cases are graphic.
A 15-year-old told investigators he was walking home when cops started chasing him, and an officer driving hit him. Then cops punched & kicked him.
Let's take a moment to consider ALL THE WAYS IN WHICH THE TRUMP FAMILY PRICE-GOUGED THE TRUMP INAUGURAL.
-Trump's DC hotel charged $175k/day, over planner's objections
-Others didn't charge for space at all.
-Hotel charged inaug 35x what it charged another group
[con't]
...
More on Trump family overcharging Trump inauguration:
-Trump hotel charged inaug $175k/day even for days inaug didn't have events
-The hotel charged inaug $300k for an event that was just for the Trump kids. It was “was more for you, Don and Eric,” a staffer wrote Ivanka
Nov 9, 2019 • 10 tweets • 6 min read
1/ On Halloween, my family saw NYPD converge on a group of black teenagers in Brooklyn. My wife and our 6-year-old daughter saw an unmarked NYPD car going against traffic *hit one of the boys.*
I asked the police about it.
They say it didn’t happen. 2/ My wife saw kids running from the wrong-way unmarked NYPD car, then saw a kid dart out and get hit.
Another witness told me it was “a horrible sound.”
The NYPD’S version: They investigating a violent phone robbery when a boy **“ran across the hood of a stationary car.”**
Sep 27, 2019 • 18 tweets • 21 min read
1/ It’s remarkable how much of this Ukraine stuff has been sitting in plain sight.
It reminds me of what happened with the torture scandal years ago.
The outlines were out there. We just couldn't wrap our heads around the *reality* of it.
propublica.org/article/trumps…2/ Trump wasn’t shy about wanting Ukraine to go after his political opponents. He TWEETED ABOUT IT IN 2017.
This WaPo story has so many revelations, it deserves its own thread.
Obviously, the top-line takeaway: Trump ordered aid to be held just days before he put squeeze on Ukraine's prez to investigate Biden.
But there's way more, like the *WH lied about it*
washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
Trump himself ordered the Ukraine aid withheld. But that's not what the administration told Congress. Instead, officials told Congress that the aid was on hold bc of "an interagency process."
Jul 28, 2019 • 9 tweets • 11 min read
Oh look, Trump buddy & inauguration chief Tom Barrack is under federal investigation for foreign influence peddling -- the very stuff we at @propublica / @wnyc & Trump Inc. have been reporting about him.
1/ There’s something I wanna say about Mueller Mania.
It’s something that became clear to me working on our Trump Inc episode about Trump’s Moscow Tower.
We may not get clarity on “collusion” —but what’s already clear is *Trump was compromised.*
propublica.org/article/trump-…2/ Trump was secretly working on getting a tower in Moscow. It had the potential to be *his most profitable project.* To make it happen, he *needed* the Kremlin’s help.
Not in some hypothetical, vague way. In a very concrete way.
Lemme explain...
Nov 21, 2018 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
1/ A couple of months ago, I discovered my health insurer was monitoring my sleep and using it to deny me benefits.