Rad Geek People's Daily

official state media for a secessionist republic of one

Gangsters in Blue (#2)

Here's a pretty old post from the blog archives of Geekery Today; it was written about 16 years ago, in 2008, on the World Wide Web.

Here is what the gangsters in blue do when you mess with their game:

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — A Queens bar owner claims the NYPD is trying to run him out of business because he helped prove his patrons were framed in a fake drug-dealing sting.

Eduardo Espinoza, 36, of Elmhurst, was hit with more than a dozen violations from the 110th Precinct — including two for failing to have liquid soap and paper towels in his bar bathroom — after handing over a videotape suggesting undercover officers made up a buy-and-bust deal in his club in January.

I been harassed so much, I'm selling my business, said Espinoza, owner of Delicias de Mi Tierra on 91st Place in Elmhurst.

Every two to three weeks, there's cops in here, searching the bar. If there's no violation, they'll make it up. I lost all my clients — everybody's scared to come in my place right now.

Espinoza was working in his bar about 1:40 a.m. on Jan. 5 when undercover officers busted brothers Jose and Maximo Colon and friends Raul Duchimasa and Luis Rodriguez for allegedly peddling $100 worth of cocaine.

Queens prosecutors dropped those charges last week because of Espinoza's security video showing that the undercover officers had no contact with them in the bar, Colon's lawyer said.

Prosecutors and the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau are investigating whether to bring charges against the officers. Investigators are also poring over the officers' prior cases for signs of misconduct, sources said.

An NYPD spokesman said the department would look into the matter. But sources blamed the frequent police visits on community complaints.

Espinoza said he thinks police are retaliating against him because of a strange phone call he received shortly before the harassment began.

A man who identified himself as the officer who made the drug arrest in his club demanded to know if Espinoza had taped the events of that night.

I said I already gave it to the defendants, Espinoza said, He said, Oh s–t. He hung up.

Espinoza, who has owned the bar for 2-1/2 years, said he'd gotten only two summonses before this year.

Most of his summonses have been tossed — including one for having an 8-foot neon sign without a permit, he said.

He's still fighting a $2,500 fine from the Buildings Department for being overcapacity and a summons for ignoring police orders when he tried to park outside the 110th Precinct stationhouse last month.

I knew they were innocent from the first moment, Espinoza said of the framed men. I felt so bad, I put myself in their shoes. Now [the cops] keep harassing me.

— Nicole Bode, New York Daily News (2008-07-01): Bar owner: Cops harassing me after fake bust

(Via Bad Cop News 2008-07-04, via Drug War Chronicle 2008-07-11.)

11 replies to Gangsters in Blue (#2) Use a feed to Follow replies to this article · TrackBack URI

  1. Black Bloke

    Off-topic: Today would be an ideal day to put “Liberty, Equality, Solidarity” up, no?

  2. Aaron Kinney

    Thank GOD we have these fine brave officers to protect us from 8-foot neon signs and processed coca plant material!

    I have nightmares about neon signs terrorizing my community with cocaine packets. I wet myself at night thinking about it. But now, I no longer have to fear the 8-foot neon sign pleasure-substance-distributors corrupting my family.

    And I also want to add that, because of the money these officers steal from me to fund their protection racket, I no longer have to WORRY about having enough money to buy my own neon-sign terror device or terrorist-plant-matter. So these guys are saving me from myself!

    Shit, maybe we should just make EVERYONE in America become a cop, from age 1 to 101, and then nobody would ever commit any neon-plant crimes EVER AGAIN :-)

    THANK YOU BOYS IN BLUE!

  3. Rad Geek

    Black Bloke,

    I’m flattered by the request, but when I submitted the article for publication I agreed that I would not republish for a period of 2 years from the date of publication. Since the book was published at the end of February 2008, the ideal day to reprint online will most likely be 28 February 2010.

· September 2008 ·

  1. Discussed at radgeek.com

    Rad Geek People’s Daily 2008-09-12 – Two cheers for police corruption:

    […] cops harass, unjustly imprison, beat, hurt, torture, rape, or kill the people that they contemptuously dismiss […]

— 2009 —

  1. Discussed at radgeek.com

    Rad Geek People’s Daily 2009-03-28 – It doesn’t take much imagination.:

    […] little to no repercussions or consequences. Imagine that they set up checkpoints on our soil and routinely searched and ransacked entire neighborhoods of homes. Imagine if Americans were fearful of these foreign troops and […]

  2. Discussed at radgeek.com

    Rad Geek People’s Daily 2008-11-26 – Professional courtesy, part 2: thugs on patrol:

    […] should say that when I refer to cops as a street gang or Gangsters in Blue or what have you, I’m not indulging in metaphor. I don’t mean that cops act kinda like […]

  3. Discussed at radgeek.com

    Rad Geek People’s Daily 2009-05-22 – Friday Lazy Linking:

    […] such is essentially irresponsible, and this kind of thing is Standard Operating Procedure for elite narc squads. There’s a lot here to justify outrage, but very little to justify […]

  4. Discussed at radgeek.com

    Rad Geek People’s Daily 2009-07-31 – The Police Beat:

    […] on the block. But who could possibly have foreseen that? It’s not like anything like this has ever happened […]

— 2010 —

  1. Discussed at radgeek.com

    Rad Geek People’s Daily 2008-12-05 – Don’t turn your back on the Wolfpack:

    […] should say that when I refer to cops as a street gang or Gangsters in Blue or what have you, I’m not indulging in metaphor. I don’t mean that cops act kinda like […]

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