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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Thomas didn’t disclose it.

$6,200/month

Here’s the wire transfer

propublica.org/article/claren…

By @js_kaplan @JustinElliott @Amierjeski Thomas didn't respond to our detailed Qs about the latest payments.

Crow did. His office told us...

“Harlan Crow has long been passionate about the importance of quality education and giving back to those less fortunate, especially at-risk youth."

New from me:

Two years ago on Halloween, my wife @sarapekow saw an NYPD cop drive against traffic & hit a kid

NYPD told me it didn’t happen

Now, NYPD is quashing a move to punish the officer

They call what my family saw an “alleged traffic accident”

propublica.org/article/a-poli… My family also saw officers profile Black boys who'd been trick-or-treating.

Cops lined 'em up against a wall & cuffed 'em.

One kid, 12, was crying, "What did i do?"

@CCRB_NYC has charged officers w/ serious misconduct

But NYPD just intervened to kill the discipline cases

NEW:

Why are home COVID tests so damn $$ and hard to find?

@lydiadepillis & I made some calls

Company after company told us they’d tried to get tests approved but *gave up after inexplicable FDA delays*

One FDA scientist told he quit in frustration

propublica.org/article/heres-… In the U.S. just two companies got approval FDA at first for easy at-home covid cases.

Abbott's BinaxNow still has 75% of the market.

They sell for $23.99 for the required 2-pack.

In Europe, Abbott sells *the same test* under a diff name for about $4

praxisdienst.de/Laborbedarf/Te…

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.

propublica.org/article/it-was…

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.

They didn’t arrest him.

The @CCRB_NYC investigated.

But they were thwarted by the NYPD, which *redacted & erased records.*

1/ Earlier this week, I wrote about how my family saw an NYPD car *hit a kid* The police denied it.

The car didn’t hit the kid, they said. *The kid hit the car.*

Legally, there are checks on NYPD abuses. But in reality, impunity is built into the system.

This is how... 2/ Like many cities, NYC has a civilian board to dig into police abuse.

The @CCRB_nyc gets about 7,000 complaints per year, about 3,00 for police allegedly hurting people. It does its best to investigate.

But the NYPD can kill both investigations and proposed penalties.

The federal government is confiscating orders from...the federal government!

FEMA hijacked 5 million masks from the VA, which is very short of supplies.

The masks "disappeared," say VA hospital chief. Hospitals are now at “austerity levels.”

washingtonpost.com/politics/va-he… “I couldn’t tell you when my next delivery was coming in,” says VA hospital chief.

FEMA took VA's order of 5 million masks that are desperately needed *now*--and instead allocated them for the strategic *reserve.*

Exactly what kind of strategy is that.

washingtonpost.com/politics/va-he…

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

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.”**

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.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/889788202172780544?s=20

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."

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.

nytimes.com/2019/07/28/us/… @propublica @WNYC The NYT says feds have "questioned witnesses about Mr. Barrack’s involvement" in a plan to give Saudi Arabia nuclear technology

Our @iarnsdorf detailed that deal: "It smelled so bad I said I never wanted to be anywhere close to that," said one official

propublica.org/article/white-…

1/ The @nytimes just had a v. credulous story saying restaurant workers are *against* getting higher minimum wage

The workers say they’re upset that celebs like Amy Poehler are pushing for a higher min wage

I was curious: Who *are* these workers?

nytimes.com/2019/03/22/nyr… 2/ The NYT only IDs one worker speaking out: “Maggie Raczynski, a bartender at an Outback Steakhouse in upstate New York.”

A link shows Raczynski is part of the “Restaurant Workers of America”

*What* is that? I turned to an advanced tool called Google

static1.squarespace.com/static/5a3d428…

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...

1/ A couple of months ago, I discovered my health insurer was monitoring my sleep and using it to deny me benefits.

So I told my colleague @marshall_allen…

propublica.org/article/you-sn… 2/ I use a CPAP for sleep apnea. My doc gave me a prescription to change machine settings and get a new mask.

1/ Short story about DC today.

Two years ago, we detailed how an accreditor for for-profit colleges was keeping schools open despite horrific outcomes for students (low grad rates, high debt etc)

propublica.org/article/accred… 2/ We reported that 2/3 of the commissioners of the accreditor for for-profit schools had been execs at...for-profit schools. Indeed many at schools that had been under investigation.

propublica.org/article/whos-r…

1/ Trump is suing towns across the country to get breaks on taxes.

We found nine suits his company has brought **since Trump became president.**

propublica.org/article/trump-… 2/ So Trump is suing town across the country to get breaks on his property taxes.

He claim that the properties are worth much less than...he’s said.

Stated value of Westchester golf course in fin disclosures: $50 mil+

Stated value in suit: $1.4 mil

propublica.org/article/trump-…