Police Shoot and Kill Knife-Wielding Man in Times Square

A long time ago, one could smoke pot (or do much worse) on the streets of Times Square without anyone paying attention, but in the present day, very few people would light up in front of the Hard Rock Cafe on a Saturday during high tourist season and expect to go unnoticed by the police. Yesterday, however, such an act was attempted by an unnamed 51-year-old man. Sadly, it ended in his death.

When the cops approached the man — who, according to the New York Times, was known around Times Square for asking for spare change while occasionally wearing a full ninja costume — he took out a large kitchen knife and ran, taunting the dozen officers who were chasing him and swinging at tourists along the way. He was shot after refusing multiple demands to drop the knife (and being pepper-sprayed six times), reports New York 1.

While it's not yet clear why the man resisted arrest, the sequence of events was well-documented — the commotion attracted a large crowd of onlookers, including passengers on the a double-decker sightseeing bus. "Some people were crouching near an office building," said one out-of-towner. "But others took out the cell phone cameras to try and capture it."

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NYPD Wants to Have Friendly Chat With Shooter of Police Sergeant

The NYPD has released a photo of 24-year-old John Thomas, the man suspected of shooting of Sergeant Craig Bier in both legs Wednesday in Jamaica, Queens, when Bier and his partner attempted to stop Thomas, the Times reports. But it's totally cool, the cops just want to chat with Thomas, probably talk about the Olympics or something. Said Police Comissioner Ray Kelly, "We very much want to talk to him." No big deal.

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NYPD's Occupy Pepper Spraying Sparks More Lawsuits, Calls For Police Oversight

Police resist the urge to spray down the crowd at another Occupy protest in September 2011.

Last week a report from civil liberties experts at NYU, Fordham, Harvard, and Stanford confirmed what anyone who followed Occupy Wall Street had already concluded:  Police were far too rough with protesters. Two protesters already filed a lawsuit in February against the city and NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, whose liberal use of pepper spray was caught on film and widely circulated on YouTube. Today three more protesters filed lawsuits, but in addition to monetary damages they're hoping to force the NYPD to change its policies on the use of force during demonstrations.

According to the New York Times, the suit alleges that Damien Crisp and Julie Lawler were also pepper sprayed by Officer Bologna during a march from Zuccotti Park to Union Square on September 24, even though police had already corralled them within a length of orange netting. The suit states that Crisp was hit directly in his right eye. Aside from the initial burning in his eyes, lungs, and on his skin, he suffered from an inflamed sty for about two weeks and missed three days of work while receiving medical treatment. Lawler says she was temporarily blinded, and the effects of the spray were exacerbated because she was wearing contact lenses.

Following the initial complaints about Bologna, he offered a questionable excuse, lost some vacation time, and was reassigned to Staten Island. Plus, in what may be the most serious punishment, the city is also letting him pay his own legal fees related to the lawsuits filed in February. (There's no word yet on whether the same goes for the new complaints.)

A third plaintiff, Kelly Hanlin, managed to stay out of Bologna's path, but was pepper sprayed in the face during the same protest by an unknown officer. He wasn't restrained by netting, but was nearby attempting to film what he thought was an unnecessarily rough arrest.

None of the three plaintiffs were arrested, one of their attorneys tells Gothamist that isn't surprising. "We are seeing a lot of instances of NYPD officers using force on people, but not arresting them," says Mark Taylor. "A lot of these incidents are the police department attempting to intimidate people, trying to scare them away from demonstrating."

Taylor says that his clients are seeking monetary damages "as anyone would seek if they were wrongfully pepper-sprayed," but their primary goal is changing the way the NYPD operates. "Ray Kelly isn't going to do it, the mayor isn't going to do it, so we're asking the courts to step in," says Taylor. They want to see more judicial supervision of the department's response to protests, and held off on filing the suits partially so they'd have the experts' report to bolster their claim. The city has already ignored numerous calls to create an inspector general's office to review its policies, but with new suits filed and the report's authors threatening to ask the Department of Justice to investigate their findings, it seems that the era of asking the NYPD to do a better job of policing itself may be over.

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