This is the story of Terrence Dickerson & so many other good cops:

A police officer frustrated with his bosses’ pressure to hit artificial arrest quotas says he reached the breaking point when he was ordered to take responsibility for the controversial high-profile arrest of a Brooklyn man tackled by cops outside his presence.

Terence Dickerson, 30, says in papers filed with the city that his NYPD superiors told him to sign records claiming he arrested Fitzroy Gayle, 20, who says he was brutally beaten by six other cops March 3 in an incident that generated protests and heavy media coverage.

Dickerson, who is black, claims the order was retaliation for filing a complaint that he had been pressured over three years to hit unofficial quotas by supervisors in Public Service Area 7, a South Bronx-based unit that patrols city housing, and in the 69th Precinct in Canarsie, Brooklyn. He has filed a notice of claim that accuses city of racial discrimination.

“The NYPD claims to have switched to community based policing but in practice this is not true,” Dickerson told the Daily News. “As a result, good police officers are forced to target black civilians for the sake of a number. I’m hoping that this lawsuit will help expose that and drive real change.” Dickerson joined the NYPD in 2015 and was assigned to PSA 7. Superiors began to pressure him for higher numbers of arrests and summonses, he says. Often, he claims, superiors told him, “This is the South Bronx. Everyone is a criminal.”

On April 22, 2017, the sergeant stopped a man and then searched him, finding a knife, the claim said. The sergeant then attempted to assign the arrest to Dickerson.
The notice of claim says that when Dickerson objected on the ground that the sergeant had no legal reason to stop the man in the first place, the sergeant replied: “If you don’t take this arrest, you will be suspended. I know people in IAB [Internal Affairs] and I will hurt your career.”

Then on March 3, a group of cops tackled Gayle as he pleaded his innocence in a caught-on-video arrest outside Glenwood Park in Canarsie. Gayle said the cops punched and kicked him. Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said video of the incident had disturbing elements, and that he would have preferred to see “no physical resistance at all and no arrest needed.”

Three hours later, Dickerson, who hadn’t been at the scene, was approached on his meal break and told he had to take responsibilty for Gayle’s arrest.
Dickerson says he objected, but found himself under investigation for an arrest he had nothing to do with. Meanwhile, the Gayle case generated protests and an ongoing criminal investigation.

“They had the forms all filled out for him but he didn’t know the circumstances of what happened,” said Dickerson’s lawyer John Scola. “I don’t know how he can attest to an arrest he didn’t see. They were trying to put the blame on him.”

Civil rights lawyer Joel Berger said the practice is common and highly questionable. “What it looks like to me is that they knew he was a whistleblower and they wanted to stick it to him in case the s--- hit the fan,” he said.

It was then that Dickerson decided to file a notice of claim, a preliminary step to filing a lawsuit against the city.

“Despite the recent public steps by the NYPD, under the guise of substantive change, numbers based policing is alive and well and continues to be used in a discriminatory manner against both minority police officers and communities,” Scola said.

SOURCE: NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

 

HOW CAN AMERICAN CITIZENS FEEL SAFE IF THE GOOD COPS ARE BEING PRESSURED TO ENGAGE IN UNETHICAL PRACTICES BY THEIR SUPERIORS? HOW CAN WE FEEL SAFE IF POLICE UNIONS & DEPARTMENTS CONTINUE TO PROTECT THE BAD COPS AND OSTRACIZE THE GOOD COPS, ENDING THEIR CAREERS?

THIS HAS TO STOP! GOOD COPS NEED OUR HELP & PROTECTION.

This petition is calling on all elected officials across the 50 states to create laws that protect GOOD cops from retaliation AND promote a culture of integrity among all law enforcement departments.  

Create whistleblower protections for good cops. Stop retaliation against cops who honorably serve this country.

Provide independent, free counseling for cops reporting internal misconduct. Hire an external agency.

Establish severe penalties (suspension without pay) for cops who lie or remain silent and fail to report unethical practices or behavior of fellow officers. 

Create severe penalties (suspension without pay) for any cop, especially superiors engaging in unethical practices or behavior. 

Create a support network (improved police unions) that supports good cops and not the bad cops.

 

THERE ARE COUNTLESS STORIES OF HONORABLE COPS GETTING FIRED BY THEIR DEPARTMENTS FOR DOING THE RIGHT THING!!! The integrity of the badge needs to be upheld to the highest standard if America hopes to ever see relationships between community and law enforcement improve.