The Village Voice's NYPD Tapes on This American Life (Audio)

• I hold with your message , still, theres a few things I would have thrown in there as well.

• Wow. I am in awe of Mr. Schoolcraft and his unbelievable drive to to bring these issues to light. The story on This American Life brought me to tears. For everyone involved - thank you for your courage. As a resident in a neighborhood on the early part of the curve of gentrification, I can't help but wonder if there are any connections to real estate investments in the drive to downgrade more serious crimes. I hope that you are exploring this angle. Thank you.

• Where are the local tv stations on this ? Where's the Department of Justice on this? Where in the hell is Michael-Fucking-Bloomberg on this? If you just skim quickly over this story and you hear that Schoolcraft is suing for $50 million, you almost feel sorry for the police department. At the very least it sounds like Schoolcraft is money-hungry. But if you actually read the original <i>Voice</i> piece or listen to the <i>This American Life</i> podcast, you feel like what Schoolcraft has gone through is worth every last cent of the $50 million. NYPD is playing a dangerous game with public safety and public confidence. Their ought to be public, high-level dismissals here. No one wants higher crime levels. But no one wants patrol officers terrorizing the streets either.

• This was an absolutely surreal piece, for several reasons. Just arrest people off the street who weren't doing anything wrong at all? That's not police work, that's a felony! And I have to strongly question why police continued to stop by and knock at Mr. Schoolcraft's door on more than a dozen occasions: "On December 2, a cop from the Johnstown Police Department knocked on his door, claiming he was there to check on him. The visits continued: On December 3, three sergeants sat outside his home for hours; on December 7, the local police came by; on December 11, there was repeated banging on the door while three Johnstown patrol cars were parked out front." "The NYPD also sent people on December 13, January 12, January 13, January 14, January 15, January 21, January 31, February 3, February 12, and June 8" I'm not normally a paranoid person, but behavior like that strongly suggests to me that the NYPD was attempting to provoke a potentially violent incident with Mr. Schoolcraft. How about the prosecution of the deputy chief for the theft of his recorder? Why are the police immune to charges when they can arrest ordinary citizens for absolutely nothing? Very disturbing and upsetting story. Mr. Schoolcraft, if you read this, thank you for your courage and persistence in this. If you ever want to take a relaxing vacation out here in the Bay Area hit me up -- it sounds like you could use one after all of this.

• You will be losing the reader's interest for every additional 5 minutes that he or she reads your letter. Bear in mind that for some people it is not interesting to read some strangers professional skills and experiences. So put yourself in other people's shoes.

• I discussed the same subject on my blog last week. I won't bother giving the link becaise then you'll treat this comment as spam

• One correction: This American Life is actually distributed by PRI (Public Radio International: http://pri.org) and not NPR. The Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Radio_International briefly describes the history and differences between the two organizations. TAL reports that each podcast is downloaded by approximately 400,000 listeners. This show will probably get a significant bump over their average. Over the next few days, people around the world will hear about this story for the first time. A significant number of them will find the original stories on your website. I haven't read them yet; I'm sure you note this is a New York story but is reporting on something that is almost certainly happening worldwide. Thanks to Graham and the Village Voice for their persistence in reporting this story. Thanks also for your blog entries noting the failure of the New York Times to competently cover this story and credit your original reporting properly. I have witnessed similar nonsense on national and worldwide stories for many years. The arrogance of the NYT is astonishing and is helping to accelerate its self-destruction.

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