Senator Diaz Goes Both Ways

Senator Plans Run as Democrat — and Republican

A Democratic state senator who is infuriated by his party's views on gay marriage and abortion rights is running for re-election on the Republican Party line, and says he is considering switching his allegiance to the Republican majority leader, Dean Skelos.

Senator Ruben Diaz Sr., a Pentecostal minister who represents the 32nd district in the south-central Bronx, said he isn't loyal to either party but is seeking to advance his conservative policy positions by taking advantage of the Republicans' slim margin of control in the chamber and running as both a Democrat and a Republican.

"People can't take me for granted," Mr. Diaz said in a telephone interview.
Republicans have a 32- to 30-seat lead in the Senate and are girding for tight contests in at least three of their districts, leaving the possibility that Mr. Diaz will be able to position himself as a swing vote next year.

Democrats need two seats to take the majority, which has been in Republican hands since 1938, with the exception of one year in the 1960s.
Mr. Diaz said he plans to speak with the majority leader, Mr. Skelos, and the Democratic conference leader, Malcolm Smith, who represents a district in Queens, before deciding whom to support.

"When the time comes, I will decide how I'm going to vote," he said. "I'm loyal to my community, the people who send me to Albany."
A candidate running on two major party lines is not unheard of in Albany — Mr. Smith did just that in 2002 to maximize his votes — but Democratic gains in the Senate have stigmatized the practice.

Although Mr. Diaz, 65, has often clashed with his colleagues, the debate over gay marriage has deepened the divisions. Mr. Diaz says he fears that Democrats in the Senate would join the Democrat-led Assembly in voting to legalize gay marriage if they seize the majority this year. In June, when Mr. Skelos was elected majority leader, Mr. Diaz refused to join his Democratic colleagues in a symbolic vote for Mr. Smith.

Mr. Diaz's colleagues say his threat is merely a bid for attention, while political observers said such a move by the senator could create political problems for his son, Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr., who is running to become the Bronx president in 2009. Democratic Party leaders, the observers said, might withhold their support for the younger Diaz should his father abandon the party.

"He's always blustering about this, but I don't think there's any probability that he will do anything that will affect our ability to take the majority," a Democratic senator of Manhattan, Eric Schneiderman, said.
The Bronx Republican leader, Jay Savino, said his party organization offered Mr. Diaz a spot on the Republican line after the senator was interviewed by its executive committee. Candidates that seek cross-endorsement must receive what is known as a Wilson-Pakula by party leaders.
"We were honored that he came in for a candidate screening and were happy to cross-endorse him," Mr. Savino said.

Since being elected in 2002, Mr. Diaz, a Puerto Rican who is an ordained minister of the Tennessee-based Church of God and the pastor of Christian Community Neighborhood Church in the Bronx, has been a magnet of discomfiting tension for a Democratic conference with a proudly liberal bent.

While sharing their views on issues such as rent control and public education policy, Mr. Diaz's traditional evangelical positions on the death penalty, abortion, stem cell research, and gay marriage are anathema to many of his colleagues.
Mr. Diaz has endorsed Republican candidates for office, including Mayor Giuliani, Governor Pataki, and a 2000 Senate candidate, Rick Lazio.

In speeches, Mr. Diaz has called abortion the "American Holocaust," comparing abortion rights activists to Nazis. "Hitler believed that Jews were not human beings. In America, abortionist believe that a fetus and an embryo are not a life," he wrote in a position paper.
"Hitler used the ashes of the Jews to make bars of soap. In America, we are selling fetal tissue to be used in: the manufacture of cosmetics as well as for medical research. What is the difference? Do not point your finger at Hitler, we are worse," he wrote.
"He's more conservative on some social issues than members of my executive committee," Mr. Savino said.
Mr. Diaz's placement on the Republican line was first reported by the New York Times.

Poll Finds Obama Candidacy Isn’t Closing Divide on Race

By ADAM NAGOURNEY and MEGAN THEE

Published: July 16, 2008

Americans are sharply divided by race heading into the first election in which an African-American will be a major-party presidential nominee, with blacks and whites holding vastly different views of Senator Barack Obama, the state of race relations and how black Americans are treated by society, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

The results of the poll, conducted against the backdrop of a campaign in which race has been a constant if not always overt issue, suggested that Mr. Obama’s candidacy, while generating high levels of enthusiasm among black voters, is not seen by them as evidence of significant improvement in race relations.

After years of growing political polarization, much of the divide in American politics is partisan. But Americans’ perceptions of the fall presidential election between Mr. Obama, Democrat of Illinois, and Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, also underlined the racial discord that the poll found. More than 80 percent of black voters said they had a favorable opinion of Mr. Obama; about 30 percent of white voters said they had a favorable opinion of him.

Nearly 60 percent of black respondents said race relations were generally bad, compared with 34 percent of whites. Four in 10 blacks say that there has been no progress in recent years in eliminating racial discrimination; fewer than 2 in 10 whites say the same thing. And about one-quarter of white respondents said they thought that too much had been made of racial barriers facing black people, while one-half of black respondents said not enough had been made of racial impediments faced by blacks.

The survey suggests that even as the nation crosses a racial threshold when it comes to politics — Mr. Obama, a Democrat, is the son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas — many of the racial patterns in society remain unchanged in recent years.

Indeed, the poll showed markedly little change in the racial components of people’s daily lives since 2000, when The Times examined race relations in an extensive series of articles called “How Race Is Lived in America.”

As it was eight years ago, few Americans have regular contact with people of other races, and few say their own workplaces or their own neighborhoods are integrated. In this latest poll, over 40 percent of blacks said they believed they had been stopped by the police because of their race, the same figure as eight years ago; 7 percent of whites said the same thing.

Nearly 70 percent of blacks said they had encountered a specific instance of discrimination based on their race, compared with 62 percent in 2000; 26 percent of whites said they had been the victim of racial discrimination. (Over 50 percent of Hispanics said they had been the victim of racial discrimination.)

And when asked whether blacks or whites had a better chance of getting ahead in today’s society, 64 percent of black respondents said that whites did. That figure was slightly higher even than the 57 percent of blacks who said so in a 2000 poll by The Times. And the number of blacks who described racial conditions as generally bad in this survey was almost identical to poll responses in 2000 and 1990.

“Basically it’s the same old problem, the desire for power,” Macie Mitchell, a Pennsylvania Democrat from Erie County, who is black, said in a follow-up interview after participating in the poll. “People get so obsessed with power and don’t want to share it. There are people who are not used to blacks being on top.”

White perceptions, by contrast, improved markedly from 1990 to 2000, but have remained steady since. This month’s poll found that 55 percent of whites said race relations were good, almost double the figure for blacks.

The nationwide telephone poll was conducted July 7-14 with 1,796 adults, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. In an effort to measure views of different races, the survey included larger-than-usual minority samples — 297 blacks and 246 Hispanics — with a margin of sampling error of six percentage points for each subgroup.

Black and white Americans agree that America is ready to elect a black president, but disagree on almost every other question about race in the poll.

Black voters were far more likely than whites to say that Mr. Obama cares about the needs and problems of people like them, and more likely to describe him as patriotic. Whites were more likely than blacks to say that Mr. Obama says what he thinks people want to hear, rather than what he truly believes. And about half of black voters said race relations would improve in an Obama administration, compared with 29 percent of whites.

About 40 percent of blacks said that Mr. McCain, if elected president, would favor whites over blacks should he win the election.

There was even racial dissension over Mr. Obama’s wife, Michelle: She was viewed favorably by 58 percent of black voters, compared with 24 percent of white voters.

Among black voters, who are overwhelmingly Democrats, Mr. Obama draws support from 89 percent, compared with 2 percent for Mr. McCain. Among whites, Mr. Obama has 37 percent of the vote, compared with 46 percent for Mr. McCain.

After a Democratic primary season in which Mr. Obama had difficulty competing for Hispanic votes against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mr. Obama leads Mr. McCain among Hispanic voters in the likely general election matchup by 62 to 23 percent. Mr. Obama is viewed favorably by more than half of Hispanic Americans, compared with Mr. McCain, whose favorability rating is just under one-quarter. By significant margins, these voters believe that Mr. Obama will do a better job of dealing with immigration; Mr. McCain has been trying to distance himself from Republicans who have advocated a tough policy on permitting illegal immigrants to stay in the country.

Over all, Mr. Obama leads Mr. McCain among all registered voters by 45 percent to 39 percent.

White voters, much more so than black voters, are divided in their political loyalties. Mr. Obama draws significant support among white Democrats. Yet still, among just Democrats, blacks were more apt than whites in the poll to express positive views of Mr. Obama across a range of questions. For example, black Democrats were 24 points more likely than white Democrats to have a favorable opinion of Mr. Obama.

“I don’t like some of his policies, like on energy,” said Bob Beidelman, 69, a white Democrat from York, Pa., about Mr. Obama. “Also I don’t like statements his wife made. She seems like a spoiled brat to me.”

He added: “I’m one of those white people who clings to guns and the Bible, and those things that Barack said kind of turned me off,” he said. “This isn’t a black and white thing. If a conservative African-American like former Congressman J. C. Watts was running, I’d have bumper stickers plastered all over my car supporting him.”

The survey found extensive excitement among African-Americans about the prospect of Mr. Obama’s candidacy, a factor that could prove important in pushing voter turnout. The poll found that 72 percent of black voters said they expected Mr. Obama to win.

The high levels of enthusiasm for Mr. Obama among black Americans suggested that there was less of a divide among them about his candidacy than suggested by occasional tension among black leaders. Last week, Mr. Obama was criticized by the Rev. Jesse Jackson as “talking down to black people” by going before black audiences and urging parents to take more responsibility for their children.

“He’s got all these enthusiastic young people working for him,” said James Wilson, 75, a property manager from Philadelphia who is black. “I’m a person who would never give money and they called on the phone and got me to give.”

The poll found that Mr. McCain is yoked to the legacy of President Bush — majorities believe that Mr. McCain, as president, would continue Mr. Bush’s policies in Iraq and on the economy. Mr. Bush’s approval rating on the economy is as low as it has been in his presidency, 20 percent; and even while there has been an increase in the number of Americans who think the war is going well, there has been no change in the significantly large number of people who think it was a mistake to have invaded.

Kevin Sack, Dalia Sussman and Marina Stefan contributed reporting.

New York Extends Benefits for Jobless

By PATRICK McGEEHAN

Published: July 15, 2008

New York State began notifying out-of-work residents on Monday that they may be eligible to collect an additional 13 weeks of unemployment checks. All told, the extended benefits could go to more than 250,000 New Yorkers, the state labor commissioner said on Monday.

The commissioner, M. Patricia Smith, said the Labor Department would send notices to residents who are eligible for an additional 13 weeks of unemployment benefits under an extension President Bush signed on June 30. Ms. Smith said 112,000 potential recipients, or about 43 percent of those eligible in the state, live in New York City.

Ms. Smith estimated that the additional checks would spur more than $850 million in spending — on rent, food and other necessities — in the state, over the course of the extension, which expires in March.

Some out-of-work New Yorkers, like Donna Faiella of Howard Beach, Queens, are not waiting to be invited to apply for more benefits.

Ms. Faiella, 51, an editor of television commercials, said she applied online Monday morning for the extended benefits and hoped to receive her first check by the end of the week. She is expecting to receive $405 a week, which is the maximum benefit in the state, with no taxes deducted.

She cashed the last of her 26 checks — the limit before the extension — in March and has been living off savings since then, she said.

“I’ve had zero income for a while,” Ms. Faiella said. “I can’t even find a $10-an-hour job doing anything full time.”

She said that after she was laid off by a big advertising agency last year, she stretched her 26 checks over 40 weeks because she was able to find freelance jobs along the way. She applied for a state training grant to help her adapt to the shift to digital production, which has made her skills in analog video less useful, but her application was denied, she said. Now she simply hopes to find full-time work before the additional 13 checks run out.

Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the National Employment Law Project, said the need for the extension was especially high in New York. On average, New York beneficiaries collect unemployment for about 17 weeks, longer than all but five states, he said.

“New York historically has been one of the hardest places to find work,” Mr. Stettner said. Referring to the May increase in the state’s unemployment rate to 5.5 percent, she said, “It’s a time when we need to give people that additional time looking for work.”

The National Employment Law Project estimated that 61,000 New York State residents had used up their unemployment benefits since November 2006 and remained out of work. The project, which advocates for the jobless, estimated that an additional 172,000 New Yorkers would have exhausted their benefits by March 2009 without the extension. The State Labor Department estimated that slightly more people, 259,000, would be eligible. Only California has more people potentially eligible for the extended benefits, about 645,000, according to the project’s figures.

Some states have indexed the amount of unemployment benefits they pay to the inflation rate, but New York has not increased its maximum benefit in about a decade, Ms. Smith said.

The top weekly benefit in New Jersey is now $560, more than one-third higher than New York’s. Connecticut’s top rate, $501 a week, is 24 percent higher than New York’s.

Nonetheless, unemployed city residents were happy to hear that their benefits could last more than half a year.

“It takes a bit of the stress off,” said Patrick Alexander, who was laid off as a maintenance worker at Columbia University in May.

Mr. Alexander, 35, who lives in Harlem, said he was considering a move to Arizona, where, he has heard, the job market is stronger.

“Before, you could work and come home and have a position,” Mr. Alexander said. “Now it’s like you never know. You might not have a job today or tomorrow.”

Jason Grant contributed reporting.

Want Obama in a Punch Line? First, Find a Joke

By BILL CARTER

Published: July 15, 2008

What’s so funny about Barack Obama? Apparently not very much, at least not yet.

Comedy Central

Jon Stewart, after telling his audience “you’re allowed to laugh” at an Obama joke.

The cover in question.

Phil McCarten/Reuters

“If you can’t do irony on the cover of The New Yorker,” asked Bill Maher, “where can you do it?”

On Monday, The New Yorker magazine tried dipping its toe into broad satire involving Senator Obama with a cover image depicting the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and his wife, Michelle, as fist-bumping, flag-burning, bin Laden-loving terrorists in the Oval Office. The response from both Democrats and Republicans was explosive.

Comedy has been no easier for the phalanx of late-night television hosts who depend on skewering political leaders for a healthy quotient of their nightly monologues. Jay Leno, David Letterman, Conan O’Brien and others have delivered a nightly stream of jokes about the Republican running for president — each one a variant on the same theme: John McCain is old.

But there has been little humor about Mr. Obama: about his age, his speaking ability, his intelligence, his family, his physique. And within a late-night landscape dominated by white hosts, white writers, and overwhelmingly white audiences, there has been almost none about his race.

“We’re doing jokes about people in his orbit, not really about him,” said Mike Sweeney, the head writer for Mr. O’Brien on “Late Night.” The jokes will come, representatives of the late-night shows said, when Mr. Obama does or says something that defines him — in comedy terms.

“We’re carrion birds,” said Jon Stewart, host of “The Daily Show” on the Comedy Central channel. “We’re sitting up there saying ‘Does he seem weak? Is he dehydrated yet? Let’s attack.’ ”

But so far, no true punch lines have landed.

Why? The reason cited by most of those involved in the shows is that a fundamental factor is so far missing in Mr. Obama: There is no comedic “take” on him, nothing easy to turn to for an easy laugh, like allegations of Bill Clinton’s womanizing, or President Bush’s goofy bumbling or Al Gore’s robotic persona.

“The thing is, he’s not buffoonish in any way,” said Mike Barry, who started writing political jokes for Johnny Carson’s monologues in the waning days of the Johnson administration and has lambasted every presidential candidate since, most recently for Mr. Letterman. “He’s not a comical figure,” Mr. Barry said.

Jokes have been made about what Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton really thought about Mr. Obama during the primaries, and about the vulgar comments the Rev. Jesse Jackson made about him last week. But anything approaching a joke about Mr. Obama himself has fallen flat.

When Mr. Stewart on “The Daily Show” recently tried to joke about Mr. Obama changing his position on campaign financing, for instance, he met with such obvious resistance from the audience, he said, “You know, you’re allowed to laugh at him.” Mr. Stewart said in a telephone interview on Monday, “People have a tendency to react as far as their ideology allows them.”

Despite audience resistance, Mr. Stewart contended, his show had been able to develop a distinctive angle on Mr. Obama.

Noting that the senator seems to emphasize the historic nature of his quest, Mr. Stewart said, “So far, our take is that he’s positioning himself to be on a coin.”

There is no doubt, several representatives of the late-night shows said, that so far their audiences (and at least some of the shows’ writers) seem to be favorably disposed toward Mr. Obama, to a degree that perhaps leaves them more resistant to jokes about him than those about most previous candidates.

“A lot of people are excited about his candidacy,” Mr. Sweeney said. “It’s almost like: ‘Hey, don’t go after this guy. He’s a fresh face; cut him some slack.’ ”

Justin Stangel, who is a head writer for “Late Show With David Letterman,” disputed that, saying, “We always have to make jokes about everybody. We’re not trying to lay off the new guy.”

But Mr. Barry said, “I think some of us were maybe too quick to caricature Al Gore and John Kerry and there’s maybe some reluctance to do the same thing to him.”

Of course, the question of race is also mentioned as one reason Mr. Obama has proved to be so elusive a target for satire.

“Anything that has even a whiff of being racist, no one is going to laugh,” said Rob Burnett, an executive producer for Mr. Letterman. “The audience is not going to allow anyone to do that.”

The New Yorker faced a different kind of hostility with its cover this week, which the Obama campaign criticized harshly. A campaign spokesman, Bill Burton, said in a statement that “most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive — and we agree.”

Asked about the cover at a news conference Monday, Mr. McCain said he thought it was “totally inappropriate, and frankly I understand if Senator Obama and his supporters would find it offensive.”

The cover was drawn by Barry Blitt, who also contributes illustrations to The New York Times’s Op-Ed page. David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, said in an e-mail message, “The cover takes a lot of distortions, lies, and misconceptions about the Obamas and puts a mirror up to them to show them for what they are.

“It’s a lot like the spirit of what Stephen Colbert does — by exaggerating and mocking something, he shows its absurdity, and that is what satire is all about,” Mr. Remnick continued.

Mr. Colbert said in a telephone interview that a running joke on his show has been that Mr. Obama is a “secret Muslim”; the New Yorker cover, he said, was consistent with that. “It’s a completely valid satirical point to make — and it’s perfectly valid for Obama not to like it,” he said.

Mr. Colbert said he had been freer to poke fun at Mr. Obama than other late-night hosts because “my character on the show doesn’t like him. I’m expected to be hostile to him.”

Mr. Stewart, who is also an executive producer of “The Colbert Report,” said the Obama campaign’s reaction to the New Yorker cover seemed part of what is now almost a pro forma cycle in political campaigns. “Nothing can occur without the candidate responding,” he said.

Bill Maher, who is host of a politically oriented late-night show on HBO, said, “If you can’t do irony on the cover of The New Yorker, where can you do it?”

One issue that clearly has some impact on writing jokes about Mr. Obama is a consistency among the big late-night shows. Not only are all the hosts white, the vast majority of their audiences are white. “I think white audiences get a little self-conscious if race comes up,” Mr. Sweeney of Mr. O’Brien’s show said.

Things might be somewhat different if even one late-night host was black. Black comics are not having any trouble joking about Mr. Obama, said David Alan Grier, a comedian who, starting in October, will have a satirical news magazine show on Comedy Central, “Chocolate News.”

“I tell jokes on stage about him,” Mr. Grier said, reciting a few that would not ever get onto a network late-night show (nor into this newspaper).

But he said of the late-night hosts, “Those guys really can’t go there. It’s just like the gay comic can do gay material. It comes with the territory.” Still, he said, he has no sympathy for the hosts. “No way. They’ve had 200 years of presidential jokes. It’s our time.”

Jimmy Kimmel, the host of the ABC late-night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” said of Mr. Obama, “There’s a weird reverse racism going on. You can’t joke about him because he’s half-white. It’s silly. I think it’s more a problem because he’s so polished, he doesn’t seem to have any flaws.”

Mr. Maher said that being sensitive to Mr. Obama was in no way interfering with his commentary, though on HBO he has more freedom about content than other comedians. “There’s been this question about whether he’s black enough,” Mr. Maher said. “I have this joke: What does he have to do? Dunk? He bowled a 37 — to me, that’s black enough.”

Mr. Kimmel said, “His ears should be the focus of the jokes.”

Mostly the late-night shows seem to be in a similar position.

Mr. Burnett of the Letterman show said, “We can’t manufacture a perception. If the perception isn’t true, no one will laugh at it.”

Mr. Sweeney said, “We’re hoping he picks an idiot as vice president.”

Richard Pérez-Peña and Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting.

BUSTED BRIT

BRITISH MILITARY MAN GETS 34 YEARS FOR ATTEMPTED COUP

Jul. 8 (GIN) –A rogue British mercenary will serve 34 years behind bars for his role in a plot to oust President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea.

A three judge panel in the capital city Malabo, issued the sentence to Simon Mann, 55, a former SAS commando, and son of a rich family.
Leading a group of 60 mainly South African mercenaries, Mann sought to seize control of the West African state by replacing strongman Obiang with Severo Moto, an exiled opposition leader living in Madrid. He stood to earn $15 million plus lucrative security contracts had the plot gone off.
Mark Thatcher, son of Britain's former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, also played a role in the plot and an arrest warrant has reportedly been issued.

(commentary below)

This regime is to say the least barbaric and this is not something that the world is not aware of. The true horror lies with the US Oil companies who deal with this warlord in order to increase their share holders profits and further their greed. This is what sickens me more the fact if they wanted to, the respective governments in the US and the UK could apply some leverage and have this man released. This will never happen oil is too important, more than the human rights of these men on trial or the people of Equatorial Guinea. Turn a blind eye and reap the profits! For your information I lived and worked in EG for over 4 and half years. I too was guilty of profiteering from the misery of the Guinean people and am deeply ashamed.- Iain Barnes, Glasgow Scotland

'Satirical' Obama Cover Stirs Controversy

AP

Posted: 2008-07-14 13:52:36

WASHINGTON (July 14) - Barack Obama's campaign says a satirical New Yorker magazine cover showing the Democratic presidential candidate dressed as a Muslim and his wife as a terrorist is "tasteless and offensive."

The illustration on the issue that hits newsstands Monday, titled "The Politics of Fear" and drawn by Barry Blitt, depicts Barack Obama wearing traditional Muslim garb — sandals, robe and turban — and his wife, Michelle — dressed in camouflage, combat boots and an assault rifle strapped over her shoulder — standing in the Oval Office.

Controversial Covers

New Yorker / AP

Cover: July 21, 2008, New Yorker
Controversy: A satirical illustration of Michelle and Barack Obama brought harsh criticism from both the Obama and McCain campaigns. Obama's campaign called it "tasteless and offensive." The magazine said it illustrates prejudicial issues the Obamas face.

1 of 6PHOTOS

From Political Machine: New Yorker Touches a Nerve

The couple is doing a fist tap in front of a fireplace in which an American flag is burning. Over the mantel hangs a portrait of Osama bin Laden.

"The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama's right-wing critics have tried to create," said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton. "But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree."

In a statement Monday, the magazine said the cover "combines a number of fantastical images about the Obamas and shows them for the obvious distortions they are."

"The burning flag, the nationalist-radical and Islamic outfits, the fist-bump, the portrait on the wall? All of them echo one attack or another. Satire is part of what we do, and it is meant to bring things out into the open, to hold up a mirror to prejudice, the hateful, and the absurd. And that's the spirit of this cover," the New Yorker statement said.

The statement also pointed to the two articles on Obama contained inside the magazine, calling them "very serious."

Republican John McCain's campaign spokesman, Tucker Bonds, agreed that the cover was "tasteless and offensive."

ESPADA BAMBOOZLES SENIORS

More Petey acting seedy.

One Vote One Pineapple for Pedro Espada

Citizen Pedro Espada has been soliciting signatures for the Senatorial race against Efrain Gonzalez, Jr. He now has enough petitioned signatures to qualify for a spot on the ballot in the September primary. However, the question remains as to how he obtained those signatures.

YFP has previously documented how Espada announced a free blood pressure screening for senior citizens where none of those duties were fulfilled. In lieu of the screening, he doled out fruit in exchange for signatures to place him o the September ballot.

Well, Petey continues with his old tactics. He recently held a "book giveaway" in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx. Free books were given away in addition to fruit. This time, pineapple was included. Apparently also included were staffers from his Soundview Health Center.

One could conclude if the the dots are connected, that federal and/or state monies earmarked for his health center were being inadvertently used to finance his campaign. And before the pineapples expire, perhaps his candidacy should also.

Boro Beat: Stick around for Dems' battle royal after primary

Tuesday, July 8th 2008, 8:00 AM

The battle for control of the Bronx Democratic Party - if there is one by then - won't be decided in a smoke-filled back room.

It'll be in a smoke-free school auditorium, with several hundred party members from opposing factions voting at the party convention shortly after the Sept. 9 primary.

That's when loyalist and rebel assembly members will haul their winning slates of district leaders and as many of the numerous county committee members from the borough's 1,000 election districts as they can to vote on officers for the County Committee, chaired by Carl Heastie, one of five rebel assembly members.

The new or reelected committee members and 24 assembly district leaders will then vote on whether Party Boss Jose Rivera survives as chairman (his official title) of the "inner circle" executive committee.

"You can expect people to show up by the busload," said one insider, for what could be a party brawl.

Choosing a party boss has been a relatively tame affair over the past two decades, though not without some behind-the-scenes maneuvering, such as Bronx BP Freddy Ferrer engineering the choice of Roberto Ramirez in 1994, and the deal by Ramirez to back Jose's son Joel for City Council if Jose backed away from running for borough president to become county leader instead in 2002.

Rivera's inner circle seems confident the wily "Columbo of politics" will survive, with one telling us: "We have the numbers."

Jose's stones

And speaking of Rivera, the painful kidney stone(s) that recently landed him in the hospital brought a letter from Gov. Paterson, telling him, "The residents of the Bronx and the greater State of New York need you back on your feet."

Which Jose was last week, back doing the people's and the party's business.

Klein's birthday bash

It'll be a 48th birthday bash fund-raiser tomorrow at Maestro's for Senate Deputy Minority Leader Jeff Klein, with the host committee of heavyweight names charging $500 minimum for tix to help tip Senate control to Democrats - and elevate Klein to deputy MAJORITY leader under Queens Sen. Malcolm Smith.

Iris off to prison

Iris Baez, the former longtime power behind the Riverbay Board that runs Co-op City, surrendered July 1 to begin serving a six-month prison term at the federal jail in Danbury, Conn.

Baez, 60, was convicted in a contract kickback scheme at the sprawling Mitchell-Lama complex.

Video provided by Carlos Gonzalez and Rafael Martínez Alequín

Senator Eric Adams (D-Brooklyn) demonstrates PistolCam technology due to the aftermath of the Sean Bell case. The Senator is proposing legislation to install video cameras on all guns used by police authorities.

Shown below is taser technology that installs a video capturing device on all tasers.


Video by Carlos Gonzalez and Rafael Martínez Alequín

Norman Siegel speaks at the Silent Voices "Cover UP -That's What's UP" Event. The HIV prevention advocacy program and Norman Siegel plan to test 18,000 people within 18 months.



Also at this event, Senator Efrain Gonzalez (D-Bronx) is addressing the lack of diversity and coverage of Latinos in the media. He challenges NY1 reporters to cover him in English.

No Charge for Officer in ’07 Killing

By JOHN ELIGON and AL BAKER

Published: July 11, 2008

A grand jury decided not to indict a police officer who killed a driver in a road-rage confrontation last fall but left and did not report the shooting for 19 hours, the Manhattan district attorney said Thursday.

John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times

Jayson Tirado, 25, at left in a family photo with his daughter, Jaylene, was shot by Officer Sean Sawyer in a driving dispute.

The decision may indicate that the grand jury considered the shooting by the off-duty officer, Sean Sawyer, justified.

According to the district attorney’s office, the shooting occurred during an argument after the second driver, Jayson Tirado, 25, reached toward the floor of his car, said, “Want to see my Ruger?” and then brought his arms up as if holding a gun. Officer Sawyer fired twice, hitting Mr. Tirado once, prosecutors said.

Mr. Tirado managed to drive a few blocks, and Officer Sawyer has testified that he did not know that Mr. Tirado died until the next day.

Officer Sawyer, 35, said in a telephone interview from his home on Staten Island that the grand jury’s decision was “bittersweet, because this young man did lose his life, and you can’t take that lightly.”

The victim’s mother, Irene Tirado, said she would not accept the grand jury’s decision. Speaking in her home on the Lower East Side as she held a blue box with her son’s ashes, she said, “Something’s got to come of this,” adding, “He can’t go free.”

Officer Sawyer, who has been suspended with pay, is likely to face departmental charges, according to his lawyer, Richard H. B. Murray.

Paul J. Browne, the department’s chief spokesman, declined to comment on the case in detail but said, “As in all cases where the department has deferred to the decision of a grand jury, the case would now be the subject of an administrative review.”

In the past, officers whose acts are taken before a grand jury have suffered departmental penalties, ranging from loss of pay to dismissal, even when the courts take no action.

Mr. Murray said the grand jury made “the appropriate decision based on the facts as my client recounted them and the friends of Mr. Tirado who were in the car.”

“It was a justifiable shooting under unfortunate circumstances,” he added.

The district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, said Officer Sawyer broke no law by leaving the scene, since the only possibly applicable law concerns vehicular accidents.

“I’m sure that most people would be shocked to learn that it is not a crime for a police officer to leave the scene of a shooting without reporting it as soon as practicable,” Mr. Morgenthau said on Thursday. “I share their outrage. But that is the law. As a result of this case, we will be submitting legislation to change that.”

Ronald L. Kuby, a lawyer for Mr. Tirado’s fiancée, Lisa Claudio, and his daughter, Jaylene, said he believed that because the defendant was a police officer, the district attorney’s office tried only half-heartedly to obtain an indictment.

“When they don’t want an indictment, they claim it was the grand jury that made the decision,” Mr. Kuby said.

The confrontation started early in the morning of Oct. 21, as Officer Sawyer was driving south on Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive after spending time at a bar in Woodside, Queens. Mr. Tirado was driving in the same direction after drinking with friends at a park in Upper Manhattan, the district attorney’s office said.

Traffic was being diverted onto 116th Street from the highway because of an accident, prosecutors said, and Mr. Tirado, driving a purple Honda Civic, cut in front of Officer Sawyer’s yellow Nissan Xterra, causing the two men to exchange words as they left the highway.

Officer Sawyer told the grand jury that Mr. Tirado started it by saying he was going to “knock him out,” prosecutors said.

A friend who was in the car with Mr. Tirado testified that Officer Sawyer started the argument by telling Mr. Tirado he needed to learn how to drive and threatened to shoot him, prosecutors said.

Officer Sawyer sped away and Mr. Tirado followed, prosecutors said, eventually catching up on First Avenue near 117th Street. After Mr. Tirado made his remark about a gun and brought his arms up, Officer Sawyer fired.

One shot hit Mr. Tirado, who was able to drive three blocks before his car slowed and he slumped over, prosecutors said. He was pronounced dead at Harlem Hospital Center. No gun was found in the car he was driving.

Mr. Murray said Officer Sawyer “reasonably believed Mr. Tirado was about to pull a gun.”

“A regular citizen licensed to carry a gun would’ve been justified,” he added. “The fact that he was a police officer under these circumstances is totally irrelevant.”

Mr. Kuby said Mr. Tirado’s actions did not provide a credible threat that he had a gun.

“Of course, he got preferential treatment because he was a police officer,” Mr. Kuby said. “If a civilian had killed a police officer under those circumstances, that civilian would be looking for bail money right now.”

A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, Barbara Thompson, declined to comment on Mr. Kuby’s assertion that Officer Sawyer was shown preferential treatment.

Since grand jury proceedings are secret, it was not clear exactly what charges the district attorney’s office presented to the grand jury.

In similar shooting cases, the first question addressed in a presentation to the grand jury is whether the shooting was justified. If the grand jury votes that the shooting is justified, then murder and assault charges cannot be sought.

Officer Sawyer testified that he did not learn until the next day that Mr. Tirado had died. After hearing the news on television, he left home for a nearby police station, prosecutors said, and told a police sergeant he encountered on the street what had happened.

Mr. Murray said his client had not reported the shooting immediately because he was in shock. “He was somewhat overwhelmed by it,” Mr. Murray said. “He did not believe initially he had struck anyone. It was just a moment of poor judgment.”

That moment could cost Officer Sawyer his job.

Both leaving the scene of a shooting and failing to report it are violations of the department’s Patrol Guide, its policy manual. Mr. Murray said he expected the department to file charges against Officer Sawyer, who had been assigned to the Queens narcotics bureau.

“If he’s brought up on charges for failing to make a timely report, there’s not much of a defense to that, to be honest,” Mr. Murray said. “It’s clearly in violation of the Patrol Guide, but then the question is, what is the appropriate action for that? And there are a lot of factors that go into that determination.”

Mr. Murray said his client should keep his job because of his overall good performance as a police officer. Officer Sawyer joined the force in 2004 and moved quickly through the undercover ranks.

Officer Sawyer said he was sure the department would “make the right decision.”

“It’s a great job and something I’ve wanted to do since I was 10 years old,” he said.

Mr. Kuby said no decision had been made on whether to file a civil lawsuit. He said it was unlikely that the federal authorities would investigate civil rights charges because Officer Sawyer was not acting as a police officer at the time of the shooting, a necessary factor for a case brought under federal jurisdiction.

On the Lower East Side on Thursday afternoon, the victim’s fiancée, Ms. Claudio, stood with 5-year-old Jaylene and pleaded for a different ending.

“They let cops get away with a lot of things,” she said. “Just for letting Jayson die on the street, he should be indicted.”

Colin Moynihan contributed reporting.

Rangel Rents Apartments at Bargain Rates

Mick Hales/"Style and Grace: African Americans at Home," Bulfinch Press

Alma and Charles B. Rangel’s Harlem residence, as shown in “Style and Grace: African Americans at Home” (2003)

By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI

Published: July 11, 2008

While aggressive evictions are reducing the number of rent-stabilized apartments in New York, Representative Charles B. Rangel is enjoying four of them, including three adjacent units on the 16th floor overlooking Upper Manhattan in a building owned by one of New York’s premier real estate developers.

Uli Seit for The New York Times

The Harlem building where Representative Charles B. Rangel has four rent-stabilized units.

Susan Walsh/Associated Press

Mr. Rangel, right, a congressman for 37 years and a big fund-raiser, is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

The New York Times

Gov. David A. Paterson also rents at Lenox Terrace.

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Mr. Rangel, the powerful Democrat who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, uses his fourth apartment, six floors below, as a campaign office, despite state and city regulations that require rent-stabilized apartments to be used as a primary residence.

Mr. Rangel, who has a net worth of $566,000 to $1.2 million, according to Congressional disclosure records, paid a total rent of $3,894 monthly in 2007 for the four apartments at Lenox Terrace, a 1,700-unit luxury development of six towers, with doormen, that is described in real estate publications as Harlem’s most prestigious address.

The current market-rate rent for similar apartments in Mr. Rangel’s building would total $7,465 to $8,125 a month, according to the Web site of the owner, the Olnick Organization.

The Olnick Organization and other real estate firms have been accused of overzealous tactics as they move to evict tenants from their rent-stabilized apartments and convert the units into market-rate housing.

Tensions are especially inflamed in Harlem, where the rising cost of living and the arrival of more moneyed residents have triggered anxiety over the future of the historically black neighborhood. And Vantage Properties, a company established by Olnick’s former chief operating officer, has attracted billions in private equity financing by promising investors that it can aggressively convert tens of thousands of rent-stabilized apartments, many in Harlem.

Yet Mr. Rangel, a critic of other landlords’ callousness, has been uncharacteristically reticent about Olnick’s actions.

State officials and city housing experts said in interviews that while the law does not bar tenants from having more than one rent-stabilized apartment, they knew of no one else with four of them. Others suggested that the arrangement undermines the purpose of rent regulation.

“There are families who manage to get two, when one tenant marries another, things like that,” said Dov Treiman, a lawyer who publishes The Housing Court Reporter, a legal trade publication. “But I’ve never heard of any tenant managing to get four.”

Mr. Rangel’s use of the fourth apartment as an office, in addition to his 2,500-square-foot residence, was especially troubling to some advocates, given the city’s chronic shortage of housing for low- and moderate-income residents.

“Whether it’s an elected official or not, no one should have four apartments, especially when one is being used as an office,” said Michael McKee, treasurer of the Tenants Political Action Committee, who was not aware of Mr. Rangel’s situation when he was interviewed.

Mr. Rangel, who was first elected to Congress in 1970 and is one of the city’s most recognizable elected officials, has written and spoken extensively about his devotion to his home in Harlem, but does not appear to have ever publicly acknowledged that he has been permitted to lease four rent-stabilized apartments there. According to a public records database and interviews with neighbors, he has lived in the building since the early 1970s, but it is not clear when he amassed the four units.

Mr. Rangel, 78, declined to answer questions during a telephone interview, saying that his housing was a private matter that did not affect his representation of his constituents.

“Why should I help you embarrass me?” he said, before abruptly hanging up.

Olnick officials declined to discuss when or why they decided to permit Mr. Rangel to lease multiple rent-stabilized units. Asked why he had been allowed to use one as an office, Jeanette Bocchino, a spokeswoman for the company, replied: “This is a private matter for the Olnick Organization and Mr. Rangel to evaluate.”

Mr. Rangel is not the only prominent resident with a rent-stabilized apartment at Lenox Terrace. Gov. David A. Paterson told The New York Sun in May that he pays $1,250 for a rent-stabilized two-bedroom apartment in the complex that rents for $2,600 or more at market rates. Basil A. Paterson, the governor’s father, pays $868 per month for his apartment there, in the same building as Mr. Rangel’s apartments, according to state records.

Percy E. Sutton, the former Manhattan borough president and a longtime ally and friend of Mr. Rangel’s, also lives at Lenox Terrace, though records about his rent were not available.

Under state and city rent regulations, tenants can continue renewing the lease in their rent-stabilized apartments for as long as they use it as a primary residence, and landlords can increase rent only by an annual percentage set by a city board.

A spokesman for the governor said that Governor Paterson, who owns a home in an Albany suburb and recently moved into the executive mansion, considered Lenox Terrace his primary residence. A secretary to the elder Mr. Paterson, who owns a home on Long Island, said he could not be immediately reached.

Luminaries are nothing new at Lenox Terrace, a large development on 135th Street between Fifth and Lenox Avenues. The Olnick Organization built it in 1958 as the first luxury community in Harlem. The family-run company has a broad portfolio of retail, commercial and residential buildings, and holds a contract to lease office space to federal agencies in Morristown, N.J.

According to Federal Election Commission records, Mr. Rangel received $2,000 in campaign contributions from Sylvia Olnick, an owner of the company, in 2004. His separate political action committee received $2,500 donations from her in 2004 and 2006.

In addition, city records show that in 2005, a lobbyist for the Olnick Organization met with Mr. Rangel and Mr. Paterson, who was then the State Senate minority leader, as the company set out to win government approvals of a plan to expand Lenox Terrace and build another apartment complex in the Bronx.

Ms. Bocchino said that Mr. Rangel was not asked to do, nor did he do, anything for the company. A spokesman for the governor said he also did not act on Olnick’s behalf.

Neither project has advanced.

Mr. Rangel’s residence, which has custom moldings and dramatic archways, is decorated with Benin Bronze statues and antique carved walnut Italian chairs, and was featured in the 2003 book “Style and Grace: African Americans at Home,” by Michael Henry Adams (Bulfinch Press). The article called the home a penthouse, although it is on the second floor from the top.

The book does not mention that the units are rent-stabilized, but says that the penthouse had been assembled by combining separate apartments. Mr. Rangel’s wife, Alma, is quoted describing the congressman as “the shopper in this family” who has a penchant for hunting down antiques like cut-glass champagne flutes and walnut chests to furnish their elegant abode.

The State Division of Housing and Community Renewal does not publicly release information about rents paid by tenants in rent-regulated apartments. But The New York Times obtained a copy of the agency’s 2007 rent roll report for Mr. Rangel’s building, which showed that the congressman holds the leases on Apartments 16M, 16N, 16P and 10U.

Neither Mr. Rangel nor the company would describe the dimensions or layouts of the apartments, but neighbors and a doorman said the apartments included a studio, a one-bedroom and a two-bedroom on the 16th floor. A Times reporter visited the 10th-floor office, a one-bedroom.

The records showed that the congressman paid $1,329 monthly for his two-bedroom apartment, which is about half the $2,600 market-rate rent the development now charges new tenants. For the adjacent one-bedroom, he also paid $1,329. The one-bedrooms are now rented for $1,865 and up.

He paid $606 a month for the adjacent studio apartment, while market rents for studios there are now $1,300. He pays $630 for the 10th-floor office, and federal election records show that he splits the cost between his Congressional re-election fund, which has raised more than $3.6 million this election cycle, and his National Leadership PAC, a committee he controls, which raised more than $1.6 million.

Some Congressional ethics experts, while saying it appears legitimate for Mr. Rangel to have one rent-stabilized apartment, question whether his acceptance of the additional units may violate the House of Representatives’ ban on members’ accepting gifts of more than $100. They suggest that the difference between what Mr. Rangel pays for the second, third and fourth apartments and what a new market-rate tenant would pay — some $30,000 annually — could be considered a gift because it is given at the discretion of the landlord and it is not generally available to the public.

Landlords can — and routinely do — force tenants who have more than one rent-stabilized apartment to give up any additional units.

Meredith McGehee, policy director for the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center in Washington, said she was not familiar with the particulars of Mr. Rangel’s accommodations, but said that under House ethics rules, a gift is defined as any “gratuity, favor, discount, entertainment, hospitality, loan, forbearance, or other item having monetary value.”

Mr. Rangel, who earns $169,300 base pay as a congressman, owns a villa in the Dominican Republic that is worth $250,000 to $500,000, his disclosure form states. He has also bought and sold properties in recent years; he bought a condominium in 2004 in Sunny Isles, Fla., for $50,000 to $100,000 and sold it last year for $100,000 to $250,000. In 2004 he also sold a building on 132nd Street, around the corner from Lenox Terrace, for $250,000 to $500,000. He owns mutual funds with a combined value between $266,000 and $765,000

Mr. Rangel is among New York’s most influential politicians. He is a member of the legendary “gang of four” black Democratic power brokers — along with Mr. Sutton, the former Manhattan borough president; former Mayor David N. Dinkins; and the senior Mr. Paterson, the former secretary of state and the governor’s father — who have dominated Harlem affairs for a generation.

Mr. Rangel is frequently re-elected with more than 80 percent of the vote. In the 1990s he wrote the Federal Empowerment Zone demonstration project, a $5 billion program to revitalize urban neighborhoods throughout the country. More than $200 million of that money has been steered to the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, where Representative Rangel has served on the board, and which has been credited with helping spur Harlem’s resurgence.

But critics, including some Harlem residents, complain that Mr. Rangel has too often used his public office to help himself and his friends. In 1999, Mr. Rangel was forced out as chairman of the Apollo Theater foundation after the state attorney general’s office charged that the board had failed to collect more than $4 million owed to the theater by a company controlled by his ally Mr. Sutton. Mr. Rangel and Mr. Sutton denied any wrongdoing.

Last year, government watchdog groups criticized Mr. Rangel for pushing through a $1.9 million earmark to build the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service at City College of New York, which is to include an office for Mr. Rangel and a presidential-style library for his official papers. The congressman and the college said that by lending his name to the project, he had helped the college raise millions from private donors.

Danny Hakim and Toby Lyles contributed reporting.

AFRICAN ARTISTS

Please join us and support these artists!

This month, eleven theatre artists from East Africa (Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda) will be at Dartmouth College and NYC for a three and a half week residency. On July 21 and 22, they will stage work-in-progress presentations at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center CUNY.

The aim of the program is to facilitate concrete and useful relationships that can be translated into practical opportunities to build further connections between the U.S. and East Africa.
Performances and discussions will take place over the two days with East African theatre artists: Robert Ajwang' (Tanzania); Deborah Asiimwe (Uganda); Hope Azeda (Rwanda); Mumbi Kaigwa (Kenya); Mrisho Mpoto (Tanzania); Charles Mulekwa (Uganda); Mgunga Mwa Mnyenyelwa (Tanzania); Eva David Nyambe (Tanzania); Okello Kelo Sam (Uganda); George Bwanika Seremba (Uganda) and Andrea Kalima Zawose (Tanzania).

Discussion with the artists will be joined by leading African and African-American theatre artists and scholars. Project Designers include; Laura Edmondson, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH; Charles Mulekwa, playwright, Uganda (Brown University); Roberta Levitow, Theatre Without Borders, Santa Monica, CA; and Liesl Tommy, Director, South Africa-NYC. Consortium partners include: Dartmouth College, Peter Hackett, Chair, Department of Drama;

651 ARTS, and Georgiana Pickett, Executive Director and Anna Glass, Managing Director.
3:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m. & 6:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m.
Monday, July 21 & Tuesday July 22, 2008
Martin E. Segal Theatre. FREE!The Graduate School and University Center
Martin E. Segal Theatre Center
The Graduate School and University Center
The City University of New York
365 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10016-4309
The City University of New York365 Fifth Ave, New York, NY 10016-4309

Lisa VivesExecutive DirectorGlobal Information Network146 West 29th Street Suite 7ENew York, NY 10001www.globalinfo.org212-244-3123 (voice)212-244-3522 (fax)

FDNY and NYPD Squabble at the Bronx Zoo

Several people were trapped in a tram (Sky Safari) at the Bronx Zoo this week for hours. While they waited above for a rescue, apparently their rescuers were squabbling amongst themselves.

According to a police chat room, the longstanding rivalry between NYPD and FDNY was alive and well. Posters say that NYPD would not allow FDNY to take part in the rescue until much later. Passengers were trapped for more than five hours. Below is a post from an irate fireman.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Re: NYPD TAKES OVER BRONX ZOO Post by tllt on Yesterday at 11:48pm HERE'S THE STORY AND IT'S UGLY!!! :

B-18 gave verbal from the kitchen while watching the 6 O'clock news!!! Called dispatcher by phone and told them to transmit the box. E-88, L-58, B-18 responded. B-18 enters Zoo to find an advanced PD operation under way. Numerous ESU rigs (the little kind and the big kind), guys on the towers over the cable, multiple bosses and the helicopter flying 20 feet over the whole operation!!!???

Here's where it gets uglier: As L-58 approaches gate to enter regular cops slam gate shut. They tell the Sr. Captain they have orders from their bosses NOT TO LET FDNY IN!!! WTF : Deputy shows up and starts yelling. They finally let our guys in. This is incredible as we actually drill on this very scenario with the zoo people every year. I'm not blaming the regular cops at the gate. They were under orders. But where do the NYPD Bosses get off pulling this S#@T.

Again lately we've actually had no problems with ESU up this way. It's the hierarchy that's the problem.

HARLEM DAZE FOR WHITES ONLY

The gentrification of Harlem has risen to the level of absurdity. The March issue of W, a prominent fashion magazine featured a spread called Harlem Daze. However, not one Black or Latino model was featured in the issue. All shots were done on location......in Harlem.

Valentino’s multicolored sequined silk tulle dress, at Valentino. Kenneth Jay Lane earrings; Stocking Showcase Inc. hosiery; Louis Vuitton shoes.
“Sexy looks that are a good girl-bad girl mix—soft sweaters, short skirts—reflect the early-Sixties style of Room at the TopA Taste of Honey, transplanted to present-day Harlem in an unexpected twist.”

Photographed by Craig McDean
Styled by Alex White
Courtesy Wmagazine

Harlem daze.(Letters: Readers React)(Letter to the editor)
From:
W
Date:
May 1, 2008
Author:
Parker, Vicki L.
More results for:
craig mcdean harlem days Copyright information COPYRIGHT 2008 Fairchild Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.

As a woman of color originally from the New York area, I was appalled by March's "Harlem Days," styled by Alex White and photographed by Craig McDean. I was hoping you would have one model of color (African American, Latino or even Asian) in the piece, but instead you had all Anglos! What were you thinking? Walk down any Harlem street, any time of day or ...

Albany to Expand Domestic Violence Law to Include Dating Relationships

By DANNY HAKIM

Published: July 10, 2008

ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson said on Wednesday that he would sign a major expansion of New York State’s domestic violence law to allow family court judges to issue civil protection orders against a far broader swath of alleged abusers.

The new law would make it possible for people in dating relationships, heterosexual or gay, to seek protection from abusers in family court. As it stands, New York has one of the narrowest domestic violence laws in the country, allowing for civil protection orders only against spouses or former spouses, blood relations or the other parent of an abused person’s child.

The passage of the legislation comes after years of effort by Assemblywoman Helene E. Weinstein, a Brooklyn Democrat who sponsored similar legislation in 1988 and in every legislative session since, but failed to find enough support in the Republican-led Senate until last month.

“Everybody but us allows a broader group of people to be able to get a civil order of protection,” she said. “The need became more apparent over time.”

She credited the governor with helping push the bill over the top.

Mr. Paterson has been outspoken in support of gay rights and had made domestic violence a priority during his brief tenure as lieutenant governor. In an interview on Wednesday, he said he personally took up the issue last month with Joseph L. Bruno, who was then the Senate majority leader, and secured his agreement.

“New York lagged behind all the other states in the Northeast in terms of addressing orders of protection,” the governor said. “We expanded the coverage to include what we would consider to be intimate relationships. They do not have to be sexual. Theoretically, it could be two people who are dating and haven’t had sex. They’ve come close, one refuses the other and then the stalking starts.”

Advocacy groups say that current law has deterred teenagers and gay men and women from seeking protection from abusers, because their only recourse is the criminal courts. Getting an order of protection in criminal court requires reporting abuse to the police, the arrest of the alleged abuser, and the cooperation of a prosecutor.

Civil protection orders in family court accept a lower burden of proof and do not require police involvement, and an accuser can be represented by a lawyer and not have to rely on a prosecutor.

“This is the greatest thing to happen for our clients,” said Stephanie Nilva, executive director of Day One, a New York City group that provides legal services and programs for young people in abusive relationships. “It means a world of difference to them,” she added.

Ms. Nilva said that most teenagers would not even consider reporting abuse to the police and getting a classmate arrested. “That’s not something a kid is going to do,” she said. “They just want the protection and the violence to stop.”

Sharon Stapel, executive director of the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, said, “Having the police make an assessment about a same-sex couple at a point of crisis or danger is often a scary thought for our clients.”

The revised law, Ms. Stapel said, “means that our clients can go to family court like many heterosexual victims have been able to do for years.”

According to a survey released last year by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, dating violence rose more than 40 percent since 1999.

Editor note: The video below is footage on the creation of the Senate Democratic Task Force on Domestic Violence.