5 ms·

The NYPD has a budget for spying on people in other countries. State power is weird.

rmrfstar 6y ago
Strictly speaking, that is not in their budget. Comes from anonymous donors [1]. Nothing strange about that. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/nyregion/terrorism-nypd-intelligence-crime.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/nyregion/terrorism-nypd-i...
- jfengel 6y ago
  OK, that's weird. It doesn't entirely come as a surprise that they would have an international arm, since they are home to the UN and were the most visible target of the most prominent international terrorist attack. But having that money come anonymously... that's suspicious.
  - rmrfstar 6y ago
    Still weird. The FBI and the rest of our national security apparatus exist to deal with those issues.
    - jfengel 6y ago
      I mean it wouldn't surprise me if the NYPD had a liaison directly with FBI field offices outside of the country, since the stakes are so high and tight integration could save lives. It would also be weird if the NYPD were operating much more directly than that.
    - pjc50 6y ago
      The "anonymous donor overseas placement" system is clearly a means to launder bribe money into holidays for officers. Anonymous "donations" to police are so obviously corrupt they might as well hang up a sign.
ciarannolan 6y ago
For those curious who didn't know about this (like me): >With offices in 11 foreign capitals and an unpublished budget, the ILP’s far-flung counterterrorism cops operate outside the authority of top U.S. officials abroad, including the American ambassador and the CIA station chief, who is the nominal head of U.S. intelligence in foreign countries. >The ILP is supported by private donors through the New York Police Foundation, which won't say how much it has given the NYPD, beyond a sentence on its Web page that it sought to raise $1.5 million for the program in 2010. The NYPD itself won't say whether any of its annual $178 million budget for intelligence and counterterrorism goes to posting detectives in Paris, London, Madrid or other posh capitals. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/11/nypds_foreign_cops_play_outsid.html http://voices.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/11/nypds_fore...
- hef19898 6y ago
  So the NYPD privatized secret policing? Nice one!
- stefan_ 6y ago
  keep having to preface everything lately with "not a joke," but no joke the NYPD's International Liaison Program, which has a secret budget and operates in 13 foreign countries with no oversight, just showed up in an official NYPD cruiser for a pro-police demonstration in Paris https://mobile.twitter.com/newyorkyearzero/status/1273754924250288128 https://mobile.twitter.com/newyorkyearzero/status/1273754924...
jeffbee 6y ago
Does it also seem weird to you that small countries have intelligence bureaus? Denmark and Finland are both less populous than New York City.
- dhosek 6y ago
  So then Walmart should have a spy agency because they're bigger than some countries?
  - jeffbee 6y ago
    Walmart is not an executive agency of an elected government, so no.
    - dhosek 6y ago
      And New York is not a sovereign nation so...
  - mijoharas 6y ago
    Interestingly, wallmart has their own forensics lab[0] [0] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/csi-walmart/521565/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/csi-w...
  - krick 6y ago
    Funny enough, I find this purposefully exaggerated example not exaggerated enough. It seems to me there is much more reason for Walmart have a spy agency than for NYPD. After all, if NYPD has a reason to be involved with a foreign entity, there are federal agencies (most prominently NSA and CIA) that supposedly should handle these matters (though what they really do nobody knows). NYPD exists only to serve NY, and NY is a part of USA. Walmart, on the other hand, isn't exactly a part of USA, and if it needs to spy on somebody, it would have to rely on their own internal capacity.
- danharaj 6y ago
  No, because they're countries. Who deals with an international incident caused by the NYPD?
kens 6y ago
Another weird thing about the NYPD is that each police officer gets 20 so-called "get out of jail free" cards to give to friends and family. The recipient can show the card to the police if pulled over and use the card to "wiggle out of minor trouble". https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42780382 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42780382
- bsanr 6y ago
  That's a joke, right? Police aren't so stupid to have institutionalized petty corruption with an actual laminated pass, right?
  - larrik 6y ago
    It's not typically laminated, usually the cop is supposed to take it and call the person who handed it out (or tear it up). This is very real, though.
  - vageli 6y ago
    It's sickening. https://classroom.synonym.com/how-to-get-a-pba-card-in-new-jersey-13583644.html https://classroom.synonym.com/how-to-get-a-pba-card-in-new-j...

Strictly speaking, that is not in their budget. Comes from anonymous donors [1]. Nothing strange about that. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/nyregion/terrorism-nypd-intelligence-crime.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/nyregion/terrorism-nypd-i...

jfengel 6y ago
OK, that's weird. It doesn't entirely come as a surprise that they would have an international arm, since they are home to the UN and were the most visible target of the most prominent international terrorist attack. But having that money come anonymously... that's suspicious.
- rmrfstar 6y ago
  Still weird. The FBI and the rest of our national security apparatus exist to deal with those issues.
  - jfengel 6y ago
    I mean it wouldn't surprise me if the NYPD had a liaison directly with FBI field offices outside of the country, since the stakes are so high and tight integration could save lives. It would also be weird if the NYPD were operating much more directly than that.
  - pjc50 6y ago
    The "anonymous donor overseas placement" system is clearly a means to launder bribe money into holidays for officers. Anonymous "donations" to police are so obviously corrupt they might as well hang up a sign.

ciarannolan 6y ago

For those curious who didn't know about this (like me): >With offices in 11 foreign capitals and an unpublished budget, the ILP’s far-flung counterterrorism cops operate outside the authority of top U.S. officials abroad, including the American ambassador and the CIA station chief, who is the nominal head of U.S. intelligence in foreign countries. >The ILP is supported by private donors through the New York Police Foundation, which won't say how much it has given the NYPD, beyond a sentence on its Web page that it sought to raise $1.5 million for the program in 2010. The NYPD itself won't say whether any of its annual $178 million budget for intelligence and counterterrorism goes to posting detectives in Paris, London, Madrid or other posh capitals. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/11/nypds_foreign_cops_play_outsid.html http://voices.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/11/nypds_fore...

hef19898 6y ago
So the NYPD privatized secret policing? Nice one!
stefan_ 6y ago
keep having to preface everything lately with "not a joke," but no joke the NYPD's International Liaison Program, which has a secret budget and operates in 13 foreign countries with no oversight, just showed up in an official NYPD cruiser for a pro-police demonstration in Paris https://mobile.twitter.com/newyorkyearzero/status/1273754924250288128 https://mobile.twitter.com/newyorkyearzero/status/1273754924...

jeffbee 6y ago

Does it also seem weird to you that small countries have intelligence bureaus? Denmark and Finland are both less populous than New York City.

dhosek 6y ago
So then Walmart should have a spy agency because they're bigger than some countries?
- jeffbee 6y ago
  Walmart is not an executive agency of an elected government, so no.
  - dhosek 6y ago
    And New York is not a sovereign nation so...
- mijoharas 6y ago
  Interestingly, wallmart has their own forensics lab[0] [0] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/csi-walmart/521565/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/csi-w...
- krick 6y ago
  Funny enough, I find this purposefully exaggerated example not exaggerated enough. It seems to me there is much more reason for Walmart have a spy agency than for NYPD. After all, if NYPD has a reason to be involved with a foreign entity, there are federal agencies (most prominently NSA and CIA) that supposedly should handle these matters (though what they really do nobody knows). NYPD exists only to serve NY, and NY is a part of USA. Walmart, on the other hand, isn't exactly a part of USA, and if it needs to spy on somebody, it would have to rely on their own internal capacity.
danharaj 6y ago
No, because they're countries. Who deals with an international incident caused by the NYPD?

kens 6y ago

Another weird thing about the NYPD is that each police officer gets 20 so-called "get out of jail free" cards to give to friends and family. The recipient can show the card to the police if pulled over and use the card to "wiggle out of minor trouble". https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42780382 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42780382

bsanr 6y ago
That's a joke, right? Police aren't so stupid to have institutionalized petty corruption with an actual laminated pass, right?
- larrik 6y ago
  It's not typically laminated, usually the cop is supposed to take it and call the person who handed it out (or tear it up). This is very real, though.
- vageli 6y ago
  It's sickening. https://classroom.synonym.com/how-to-get-a-pba-card-in-new-jersey-13583644.html https://classroom.synonym.com/how-to-get-a-pba-card-in-new-j...