theintercept--2020-03-18--Coronavirus Has Arrived at Rikers Island: Inside New York City Jails, Where the Pandemic Is Set to E

Coronavirus Has Arrived at Rikers Island: Inside New York City Jails, Where the Pandemic Is Set to Explode

like the rest of the United States , plunges into a public health crisis expected to be worse than anything in living memory , city residents have finally begun to heed the advice of medical professionals on how to limit exposure : Wash your hands often , disinfect surfaces , practice social distancing .
For the New Yorkers held in city jails on Rikers Island , though , these basic prescriptions — if they ’ ve even been made aware of them — are not within their power to follow .
They are locked in filthy intake rooms with dozens @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , confined to housing units or dorm-style sleeping areas with scores of other people , dependent on staff for soap and on correction officers for permission and an escort to visit a medical clinic .
The roughly 5,400 men and women detained in city jails on Rikers Island don ’ t have the agency to protect themselves from the disease , even as they are constantly exposed to the contagions of the outside world through the constant churn of three daily shifts of corrections officers and staff .
A New York City Department @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being diagnosed with the coronavirus .
A departmental press release cautioned that the dead man had only “ limited contact ” with people in custody .
Officials said that , as of Tuesday , there had been no confirmed cases of Covid-19 inside city jails .
On Wednesday , a news report said the first cases of coronavirus at the jail had been confirmed : one incarcerated person and a prison guard who worked at the jail complex ’ s gate .
The restricted ability of people locked on Rikers to protect themselves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , due to age or underlying health conditions , are at higher risk of getting very sick or dying from the disease .
It ’ s also a problem because the officials tasked with making sure incarcerated people are safe have so far refused to release any comprehensive plan for handling an outbreak .
Despite growing calls to release vulnerable people from the Petri dish of Rikers , officials have taken no steps to do so .
“ We know that there literally is no way to ensure the health and well-being of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of crisis , ” said Justine Olderman , executive director of Bronx Defenders , a public defender organization .
“ It is an incubator for the spread of disease and viruses , and this virus is unlike anything that anyone has ever seen .
You have a situation where all the protocols that are coming out of the Centers for Disease Control can not be enacted : There are broken sinks , there ’ s no hand sanitizer , people don ’ t have access to soap , and at a time we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ social distancing , you have an environment where people are sleeping 100 to a room .
In a situation like that , the only moral thing to do is release them.
” are trickling out from Rikers are not encouraging .
Last week , a man with a medical history that makes him especially vulnerable to contracting coronavirus , housed in a special-housing unit in one Rikers jail , called a social worker twice in one day to report that he was exhibiting symptoms of disease .
Others in his special housing unit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the man told the social worker , who relayed the account to a lawyer who asked that they all remain anonymous to avoid reprisals .
The men in the unit were told that there were not enough correction officers to transport them to the health clinic .
Kelsey de Avila , director of jail services for Brooklyn Defender Services , another public defender organization , said she spoke with two incarcerated people on Monday who described both a lack of information and the absence of basic sanitation .
“ Of the two men @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one had come to talk to him about what ’ s happening at all , and he hadn ’ t seen any posters in his housing area or the halls he ’ s walking in , ” de Avila said .
“ The other man said someone had come in and told people they should wash their hands and cover their mouth when they cough.
” One of the people de Avila spoke to said someone on his unit had been coughing all day .
“ We don ’ t know what it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cough , if he ’ s seen medical staff or not , ” she said .
“ But that ’ s part of the point : Our client doesn ’ t have any information , and he ’ s nervous.
” The man asked a correction officer if they could move their beds , he told de Avila .
“ The CO said , ‘ Yeah , do whatever you want.
’ It ’ s not really the level of response we need in this situation.
” Especially concerning is incarcerated people ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in jail can buy soap from the commissary , if they can afford it .
Otherwise , they ’ re dependent on the general-issue soap .
The man de Avila spoke with in dorm housing said his unit had about 30 to 40 people in it , with an attached bathroom with eight to 10 sinks .
“ Each sink has its own bar of soap , which you ’ re sharing with 30 or 40 people , ” she said .
“ He went to the bathroom this morning , and every @ @ @ @ @ @ @ someone throw them out ?
Was someone hoarding them ?
We don ’ t know .
But , as of noon that day , no one had replaced them.
” The Legal Aid Society of New York City , another public defender organization , spoke on March 12 with five people held on Rikers who described a similar disregard for sanitation and public health there .
One person with underlying medical conditions told Legal Aid that his housing unit had no soap .
When he asked a captain whether there were plans to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Another said he was issued industrial laundry soap but told that he ’ d have to buy bar soap to wash himself .
A third person , housed on a unit for people requiring intensive medical care , said his unit didn ’ t have adequate cleaning supplies .
A fourth man , who is immunocompromised , said his unit has no soap and that the common areas and showers are not being cleaned daily .
A fifth person described spending several days in a dirty intake room , in close quarters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whom had been coughing , only to be moved into a housing unit with no cleaning supplies , where correction officers told him that if he wanted disinfectant , he could buy it from the commissary .
At a time when public health officials are urging frequent hand-washing as one of the top ways to prevent the spread of the coronavirus , denying people access to soap is especially dangerous , de Avila said .
“ This is how it spreads , ” she said .
“ This is why it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people ’ s radar for months now .
In recent weeks , watchdogs and advocates for people held in Rikers have been calling on the New York City Department of Correction and Correctional Health Services , the city division responsible for medical care in city jails , to produce a comprehensive plan for handling the pandemic , and to make that plan public .
Two weeks ago , on March 3 , the New York City Board of Corrections , a civilian oversight body tasked with monitoring conditions in city jails , sent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Correctional Health Services requesting a written plan and including a detailed list of questions about how they intended to prevent transmission , as well as diagnose and treat people who became infected , according to a spokesperson for the board .
No written plan was shared or published .
On March 9 , The City , a nonprofit news outlet , published a leaked internal Department of Corrections document described as a pandemic plan to be activated “ when the first case of coronavirus is reported in the Department of Correction.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hand-washing with soap and daily cleaning of housing facilities .
It calls for incarcerated people with confirmed coronavirus infections to be housed in the Communicable Disease Unit at Rikers .
According to a recent presentation prepared by the mayor ’ s office , Rikers ’ s Communicable Disease Unit has a total of 70 beds .
What happens when the number of coronavirus infections exceeds the capacity of the Communicable Disease Unit ?
The Department of Corrections pandemic plan gets rather vague : “ Appropriate housing shall be identified.
” For some concerned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at least as many questions as it answered .
How many of those 70 beds are actually available and how many are currently in use by people needing other forms of medical care ?
Have they been maintained to proper medical standards since they were built for the tuberculosis crisis that swept Rikers in the 1980s ?
Are there enough medical staff to serve in the event of an outbreak ?
What happens when the 70 beds are filled and cases keep piling up ?
How many sinks are actually working on Rikers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Is anyone keeping track of incarcerated people at high risk if they ’ re infected ?
The Legal Aid Society of New York and Brooklyn Defender Services wrote letters to the Board of Correction the week of March 2 , asking the board to demand answers to these and other questions at its monthly public hearing on March 10 .
To their great dismay , that ’ s not what happened .
Instead , at the hearing , Patricia Feeney , the Department of Correction deputy commissioner for quality assurance and integrity , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of which six slides were examples of informational posters she said were being posted in the jails .
Ross MacDonald , chief medical officer for Correctional Health Services , told the board that people are being screened at courthouses before they are taken to city jails , and medical staff are keeping an eye out for fever symptoms among incarcerated people .
The presentation and the board ’ s questions lasted all of 22 minutes , after which they went on to other business .
No detailed plan was presented or asked for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ posed were given no airing .
For de Avila , of Brooklyn Defender Services , the hearing was a crushing missed opportunity .
“ I was absolutely appalled by how they handled it , ” she said .
“ They let the Department of Correction and Correctional Health Services just walk away .
Their whole job is to hold them accountable and they failed us all that day.
” A spokesperson for the Board of Correction declined to comment on the characterization , saying , “ On March 3 and March 10 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Correction and Correctional Health Services requesting a written plan on preventing the transmission of COVID-19 in New York City jails .
We ’ ve requested they publish this plan and increase communication to people in custody , staff , and the public .
DOC and CHS are doing heroic work right now to keep people in custody and staff safe in the jails – it is critical to their public health efforts that they communicate this work regularly and comprehensively.
” On March 13 , after the hearing , the board sent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Correctional Health Services , again stressing the need to improve their communication , with calls to release a plan and for the Department of Correction to consider how it might release sick or especially vulnerable people from jail , according to a board spokesperson .
Again , neither agency replied in writing to the letter .
If a comprehensive written plan for handling coronavirus on Rikers exists , it hasn ’ t been made public or shared with the Board of Correction .
The Intercept wrote to the Department of Correction and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the same questions that went unanswered when asked by the public defender organizations .
The Department of Correction responded on Monday that “ it can take days to get back to you on some of these questions.
” Correctional Health Services responded with a statement that left most of the questions unanswered .
that massive coronavirus infection on Rikers is all but certain has sunk in , and with confidence about the jails ’ capacity to control and treat it waning , advocates have begun pressing to get the most vulnerable people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ led the way .
In Cleveland , the local jail began releasing some of its most vulnerable inmates last weekend .
In Los Angeles , county jails have begun releasing people near the end of their sentences to reduce the jail population .
Public defenders across New York City have been trying to compile lists of clients at high risk , preparing draft writs they can file in court to ask for release .
But those motions can be opposed by prosecutors and would require a judge ’ s approval .
A spokesperson @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he has directed prosecutors to “ be mindful of vulnerable populations when making bail requests , ” and that his office will “ definitely consider ” applications for modifications of bail to get vulnerable people out .
Gonzalez tweeted a statement on Tuesday asking public defenders to notify his office about vulnerable people in pretrial detention “ who we should consider releasing during this crisis.
” ( The Intercept asked the other four district attorneys in New York if they supported efforts to get people with high health risks in a coronavirus outbreak @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . )
Even in instances in which judges to agree to release people from Rikers , that ’ s often not enough .
Many people are in city jails on parole violations .
Those people are in jail on parole holds and can only be released by order of the Parole Board , which is under the control of New York Gov .
Andrew Cuomo .
Some advocates question why it should fall to public defenders to try to identify vulnerable people and petition for their freedom .
“ We ’ ve thrown @ @ @ @ @ @ @ writs to get vulnerable people out one-by-one , ” said Olderman , of the Bronx Defenders .
“ But at a certain point a bell goes off .
The courts , prosecutors , DOC — they have all this information , and they have all of the power .
They know it ’ s harder than ever for us to be in touch with our clients in jail .
They could make a statement supporting the release of anyone in these broad categories .
Instead , they ’ re asking us to track @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , piece by piece .
‘ Send us a writ , make an application ’ — like it ’ s business as usual .
There is such a void of leadership in keeping incarcerated people safe.
” On Tuesday , the Board of Correction issued a statement calling for the city to begin releasing people from Rikers .
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio ’ s press office did not answer questions emailed Monday about the mayor ’ s support for releasing people , but Tuesday he said he was “ evaluating ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and other council members called on the mayor and district attorneys to immediately identify people held on Rikers who can be released .
New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Council Member Brad Lander echoed those calls in their own letter , adding that Cuomo should stop jailing people for technical parole violations and free older , high-risk people .
That was the foreboding landscape on Wednesday morning , when news broke about the two positive tests for coronavirus : the prison guard and the incarcerated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rikers is to be averted , advocates say , time is fast running out .
“ Most of the people being held on Rikers Island haven ’ t been convicted of a crime , ” said Olderman .
“ When you ’ re talking about a system of pretrial detention that guarantees people ’ s safety and ensures they can come back to court , that ’ s one thing .
We might disagree what that situation should look like and who should be caught up on it , but that ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Once you enter a universe where you are sending people who have not been convicted of a crime to sit in a jail cell under circumstances that can not protect their health or even their lives , there ’ s a whole different calculus at play.
” “ What ’ s so disturbing is that people are acting like nothing has changed .
”

As New York City, like the rest of the United States, plunges into a public health crisis expected to be worse than anything in living memory, city residents have finally begun to heed the advice of medical professionals on how to limit exposure: Wash your hands often, disinfect surfaces, practice social distancing.
For the New Yorkers held in city jails on Rikers Island, though, these basic prescriptions — if they’ve even been made aware of them — are not within their power to follow.
They are locked in filthy intake rooms with dozens of other people for days on end, confined to housing units or dorm-style sleeping areas with scores of other people, dependent on staff for soap and on correction officers for permission and an escort to visit a medical clinic. The roughly 5,400 men and women detained in city jails on Rikers Island don’t have the agency to protect themselves from the disease, even as they are constantly exposed to the contagions of the outside world through the constant churn of three daily shifts of corrections officers and staff.
A New York City Department of Corrections employee died on Tuesday after being diagnosed with the coronavirus. A departmental press release cautioned that the dead man had only “limited contact” with people in custody. Officials said that, as of Tuesday, there had been no confirmed cases of Covid-19 inside city jails. On Wednesday, a news report said the first cases of coronavirus at the jail had been confirmed: one incarcerated person and a prison guard who worked at the jail complex’s gate.
“You have a situation where all the protocols that are coming out of the Centers for Disease Control cannot be enacted.”
The restricted ability of people locked on Rikers to protect themselves is a problem because many of them, due to age or underlying health conditions, are at higher risk of getting very sick or dying from the disease. It’s also a problem because the officials tasked with making sure incarcerated people are safe have so far refused to release any comprehensive plan for handling an outbreak. Despite growing calls to release vulnerable people from the Petri dish of Rikers, officials have taken no steps to do so.
“We know that there literally is no way to ensure the health and well-being of people incarcerated on Rikers in this type of crisis,” said Justine Olderman, executive director of Bronx Defenders, a public defender organization. “It is an incubator for the spread of disease and viruses, and this virus is unlike anything that anyone has ever seen. You have a situation where all the protocols that are coming out of the Centers for Disease Control cannot be enacted: There are broken sinks, there’s no hand sanitizer, people don’t have access to soap, and at a time we’re all being asked to do social distancing, you have an environment where people are sleeping 100 to a room. In a situation like that, the only moral thing to do is release them.”
The accounts that are trickling out from Rikers are not encouraging. Last week, a man with a medical history that makes him especially vulnerable to contracting coronavirus, housed in a special-housing unit in one Rikers jail, called a social worker twice in one day to report that he was exhibiting symptoms of disease. Others in his special housing unit were coughing and exhibiting flu-like symptoms, the man told the social worker, who relayed the account to a lawyer who asked that they all remain anonymous to avoid reprisals. The men in the unit were told that there were not enough correction officers to transport them to the health clinic.
Kelsey de Avila, director of jail services for Brooklyn Defender Services, another public defender organization, said she spoke with two incarcerated people on Monday who described both a lack of information and the absence of basic sanitation. “Of the two men I spoke to, one said no one had come to talk to him about what’s happening at all, and he hadn’t seen any posters in his housing area or the halls he’s walking in,” de Avila said. “The other man said someone had come in and told people they should wash their hands and cover their mouth when they cough.”
One of the people de Avila spoke to said someone on his unit had been coughing all day. “We don’t know what it is, if he just has a cough, if he’s seen medical staff or not,” she said. “But that’s part of the point: Our client doesn’t have any information, and he’s nervous.” The man asked a correction officer if they could move their beds, he told de Avila. “The CO said, ‘Yeah, do whatever you want.’ It’s not really the level of response we need in this situation.”
Especially concerning is incarcerated people’s limited access to sanitation. Those in jail can buy soap from the commissary, if they can afford it. Otherwise, they’re dependent on the general-issue soap. The man de Avila spoke with in dorm housing said his unit had about 30 to 40 people in it, with an attached bathroom with eight to 10 sinks. “Each sink has its own bar of soap, which you’re sharing with 30 or 40 people,” she said. “He went to the bathroom this morning, and every bar of soap was missing. Did someone throw them out? Was someone hoarding them? We don’t know. But, as of noon that day, no one had replaced them.”
“This is how it spreads. This is why it’s going to spread.”
The Legal Aid Society of New York City, another public defender organization, spoke on March 12 with five people held on Rikers who described a similar disregard for sanitation and public health there. One person with underlying medical conditions told Legal Aid that his housing unit had no soap. When he asked a captain whether there were plans to get some, he got no answer. Another said he was issued industrial laundry soap but told that he’d have to buy bar soap to wash himself. A third person, housed on a unit for people requiring intensive medical care, said his unit didn’t have adequate cleaning supplies. A fourth man, who is immunocompromised, said his unit has no soap and that the common areas and showers are not being cleaned daily.
A fifth person described spending several days in a dirty intake room, in close quarters with dozens of people, some of whom had been coughing, only to be moved into a housing unit with no cleaning supplies, where correction officers told him that if he wanted disinfectant, he could buy it from the commissary.
At a time when public health officials are urging frequent hand-washing as one of the top ways to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, denying people access to soap is especially dangerous, de Avila said. “This is how it spreads,” she said. “This is why it’s going to spread.”
Rikers Island emergency services personnel walk through one of many gates inside the jail complex in New York on July 31, 2014. Photo: Julie Jacobson/AP
The coronavirus threat has been on people’s radar for months now. In recent weeks, watchdogs and advocates for people held in Rikers have been calling on the New York City Department of Correction and Correctional Health Services, the city division responsible for medical care in city jails, to produce a comprehensive plan for handling the pandemic, and to make that plan public.
Two weeks ago, on March 3, the New York City Board of Corrections, a civilian oversight body tasked with monitoring conditions in city jails, sent a letter to the Department of Correction and Correctional Health Services requesting a written plan and including a detailed list of questions about how they intended to prevent transmission, as well as diagnose and treat people who became infected, according to a spokesperson for the board. No written plan was shared or published.
On March 9, The City, a nonprofit news outlet, published a leaked internal Department of Corrections document described as a pandemic plan to be activated “when the first case of coronavirus is reported in the Department of Correction.” The document emphasizes the need for frequent hand-washing with soap and daily cleaning of housing facilities. It calls for incarcerated people with confirmed coronavirus infections to be housed in the Communicable Disease Unit at Rikers.
According to a recent presentation prepared by the mayor’s office, Rikers’s Communicable Disease Unit has a total of 70 beds. What happens when the number of coronavirus infections exceeds the capacity of the Communicable Disease Unit? The Department of Corrections pandemic plan gets rather vague: “Appropriate housing shall be identified.”
For some concerned observers, the leaked pandemic plan raised at least as many questions as it answered. How many of those 70 beds are actually available and how many are currently in use by people needing other forms of medical care? Have they been maintained to proper medical standards since they were built for the tuberculosis crisis that swept Rikers in the 1980s? Are there enough medical staff to serve in the event of an outbreak? What happens when the 70 beds are filled and cases keep piling up? How many sinks are actually working on Rikers? How often is soap restocked? Is anyone keeping track of incarcerated people at high risk if they’re infected?
The Legal Aid Society of New York and Brooklyn Defender Services wrote letters to the Board of Correction the week of March 2, asking the board to demand answers to these and other questions at its monthly public hearing on March 10. To their great dismay, that’s not what happened. Instead, at the hearing, Patricia Feeney, the Department of Correction deputy commissioner for quality assurance and integrity, delivered a nine-slide presentation on preparedness, of which six slides were examples of informational posters she said were being posted in the jails. Ross MacDonald, chief medical officer for Correctional Health Services, told the board that people are being screened at courthouses before they are taken to city jails, and medical staff are keeping an eye out for fever symptoms among incarcerated people. The presentation and the board’s questions lasted all of 22 minutes, after which they went on to other business. No detailed plan was presented or asked for. The specific questions public defenders had posed were given no airing.
For de Avila, of Brooklyn Defender Services, the hearing was a crushing missed opportunity. “I was absolutely appalled by how they handled it,” she said. “They let the Department of Correction and Correctional Health Services just walk away. Their whole job is to hold them accountable and they failed us all that day.”
A spokesperson for the Board of Correction declined to comment on the characterization, saying, “On March 3 and March 10, the Board sent letters to the Department of Correction and Correctional Health Services requesting a written plan on preventing the transmission of COVID-19 in New York City jails. We’ve requested they publish this plan and increase communication to people in custody, staff, and the public. DOC and CHS are doing heroic work right now to keep people in custody and staff safe in the jails – it is critical to their public health efforts that they communicate this work regularly and comprehensively.”
On March 13, after the hearing, the board sent a second letter to Department of Correction and Correctional Health Services, again stressing the need to improve their communication, with calls to release a plan and for the Department of Correction to consider how it might release sick or especially vulnerable people from jail, according to a board spokesperson. Again, neither agency replied in writing to the letter. If a comprehensive written plan for handling coronavirus on Rikers exists, it hasn’t been made public or shared with the Board of Correction.
The Intercept wrote to the Department of Correction and Correctional Health Services this week posing many of the same questions that went unanswered when asked by the public defender organizations. The Department of Correction responded on Monday that “it can take days to get back to you on some of these questions.” Correctional Health Services responded with a statement that left most of the questions unanswered.
As the reality that massive coronavirus infection on Rikers is all but certain has sunk in, and with confidence about the jails’ capacity to control and treat it waning, advocates have begun pressing to get the most vulnerable people off the island.
Other jurisdictions have led the way. In Cleveland, the local jail began releasing some of its most vulnerable inmates last weekend. In Los Angeles, county jails have begun releasing people near the end of their sentences to reduce the jail population. Public defenders across New York City have been trying to compile lists of clients at high risk, preparing draft writs they can file in court to ask for release. But those motions can be opposed by prosecutors and would require a judge’s approval.
A spokesperson for Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said he has directed prosecutors to “be mindful of vulnerable populations when making bail requests,” and that his office will “definitely consider” applications for modifications of bail to get vulnerable people out. Gonzalez tweeted a statement on Tuesday asking public defenders to notify his office about vulnerable people in pretrial detention “who we should consider releasing during this crisis.” (The Intercept asked the other four district attorneys in New York if they supported efforts to get people with high health risks in a coronavirus outbreak out of city jails. None responded.)
Even in instances in which judges to agree to release people from Rikers, that’s often not enough. Many people are in city jails on parole violations. Those people are in jail on parole holds and can only be released by order of the Parole Board, which is under the control of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“What’s so disturbing is that people are acting like nothing has changed.”
Some advocates question why it should fall to public defenders to try to identify vulnerable people and petition for their freedom. “We’ve thrown ourselves into preparing these lists and these writs to get vulnerable people out one-by-one,” said Olderman, of the Bronx Defenders. “But at a certain point a bell goes off. The courts, prosecutors, DOC — they have all this information, and they have all of the power. They know it’s harder than ever for us to be in touch with our clients in jail. They could make a statement supporting the release of anyone in these broad categories. Instead, they’re asking us to track it all down and pick at it, piece by piece. ‘Send us a writ, make an application’ — like it’s business as usual. There is such a void of leadership in keeping incarcerated people safe.”
On Tuesday, the Board of Correction issued a statement calling for the city to begin releasing people from Rikers. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s press office did not answer questions emailed Monday about the mayor’s support for releasing people, but Tuesday he said he was “evaluating” the possibility.
On Wednesday, New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and other council members called on the mayor and district attorneys to immediately identify people held on Rikers who can be released. New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Council Member Brad Lander echoed those calls in their own letter, adding that Cuomo should stop jailing people for technical parole violations and free older, high-risk people.
That was the foreboding landscape on Wednesday morning, when news broke about the two positive tests for coronavirus: the prison guard and the incarcerated person. If an all-out crisis on Rikers is to be averted, advocates say, time is fast running out.
“Most of the people being held on Rikers Island haven’t been convicted of a crime,” said Olderman. “When you’re talking about a system of pretrial detention that guarantees people’s safety and ensures they can come back to court, that’s one thing. We might disagree what that situation should look like and who should be caught up on it, but that’s over to one side right now. Once you enter a universe where you are sending people who have not been convicted of a crime to sit in a jail cell under circumstances that cannot protect their health or even their lives, there’s a whole different calculus at play.”
“What’s so disturbing is that people are acting like nothing has changed.”


theintercept--2020-03-18--As the U.S. Blames China for the Coronavirus Pandemic, the Rest of the World Asks China for Help

of coronavirus infections spirals out of control , the U.S. and countries around the world have reported major shortages of ventilators , respirators , test kits , surgical masks , and other essential health equipment for dealing with the pandemic .
On Wednesday , President Donald Trump continued to blame China and doubled down on his use of the racist term “ Chinese virus.
” Yet now that the situation in China appears to have stabilized , the country is positioning itself at the head of the global response to Covid-19 , adopting a unique leadership position that may alter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shock to its industrial output and economy in recent history and its coverup in Wuhan at the beginning of the crisis .
Western Europe and the U.S. are struggling under the weight of the crisis , with cases rising exponentially every day and higher death rates in Italy than anywhere else .
China ’ s private and public sectors are filling in gaps in equipment where other states are failing , although the spread of the disease is such that demand for those materials might quickly outpace China ’ s supply .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ billionaire and co-founder of the Alibaba Group , have already sent doctors and medical supplies to France , Spain , Italy , Belgium , Iran , Iraq , the Philippines , and the United States .
Chinese citizens living abroad are flying home in large numbers to avoid catastrophic health failures elsewhere .
In Massachusetts , a Chinese woman tried and failed to be tested three times for Covid-19 before flying back home to be tested and treated .
“ The Chinese government has been trying to project Chinese state power beyond its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leader , not dissimilar to what the U.S. government has been doing for the better part of a century , and the distribution of medical aid is part of this mission , ” said Dr. Yangyang Cheng , a postdoctoral research associate at Cornell University who writes the science and China column for SupChina .
The most effective responses to the pandemic thus far have involved very high levels of Covid-19 testing .
South Korea ’ s case is the most notable .
The country has conducted roughly 300,000 tests and is able @ @ @ @ @ @ @ flattening its curve and managing to avoid the draconian lockdowns implemented by China that are now taking hold in Western Europe and some American cities .
The World Health Organization ’ s director-general , Tedros Adhanom , underlined South Korea ’ s strategy on Monday .
“ Our key message is : test , test , test , ” he said .
The U.S. has failed to catch on to that message , as only about 60,000 tests have been conducted overall despite a population more than six times that of South Korea @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at a presidential press briefing on Tuesday .
Trump called the WHO ’ s test “ a very bad test ” at the same briefing .
In the meantime , intensive care units at many American hospitals could be overrun with sick patients in a matter of days .
Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital in New York City , one of the nation ’ s top cancer facilities , has only a week ’ s supply of masks and limited supplies of ventilators and personal protective equipment , according to BuzzFeed News .
Even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ larger quantities of Covid-19 tests , they are behind China ’ s capacity to do so and are unlikely to be able to provide much medical aid to other countries in the short term .
In contrast , the Jack Ma Foundation has sent 500,000 testing kits and 1 million masks to the U.S. , which will be distributed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
Urgent medical supplies had been blocked by Trump ’ s trade war with China , and an exemption wasn ’ t granted until March 6 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dispute with the U.S. after Chinese and American officials traded accusations over who was responsible for the virus , with Asian-Americans in the U.S. facing greater racism and prejudice as a result .
China expelled American journalists on Tuesday following new restrictions on Chinese journalists in the U.S. and a tweet from Trump calling Covid-19 “ the Chinese virus.
” At a press briefing on Wednesday , Trump said “ we ’ ll see what happens ” when asked if he was considering “ punishing China.
” U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ divulge the number of ventilators in the country for security reasons , but it is clear that the U.S. has a shortage of equipment that the federal government can not hide .
“ Respirators , ventilators , all of the equipment — try getting it yourselves , ” Trump reportedly told American governors on a conference call Monday , before igniting a Twitter spat with Andrew Cuomo , the governor of New York .
Even though the U.S. needs ventilators , Italy and Germany were the ones scrambling to purchase them from major @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other firms indicated that they haven ’ t received an influx of new orders .
Elsewhere in the world , China ’ s ability to provide much-needed medical aid stood in contrast to the lack of help from Western nations struggling with the virus themselves .
“ European solidarity does not exist .
It was a fairy tale on paper , ” Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told reporters at a press conference on Sunday .
Vucic announced that he had sent a letter to his “ brother and friend ” Xi Jinping , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aid , stating that “ the only country that can help us is China .
For the rest of them , thanks for nothing.
” The first test kits from China landed in Belgrade late Monday night .
The Jack Ma Foundation also announced that it would send “ 20,000 testing kits , 100,000 masks and 1,000 protective suits and face shields ” to every country in Africa , and added that Ethiopia ’ s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed would “ take the lead in managing the logistics and distribution of these supplies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ethiopian health official told The Intercept that he hoped the tests provided by Ma would be sufficient and that “ as the technology gets better , ” Ethiopia also hoped to source them from multiple other countries as well .
Ethiopia has a shortage of ventilators , however , and so far , “ no one is providing ” them , he said .
It ’ s unclear just how big an impact China will have on containing the global spread of the virus .
While governments and private companies around the world @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the lack of ventilators will be a more difficult challenge to solve .
The U.K. , for example , called on all industries to support the production of 20,000 ventilators to supplement the 5,000 that its National Health Service currently has , but critics said the government should focus on boosting production from health companies that already make ventilators .
Howard French , journalist and author of “ Everything Under the Heavens : How the Past Helps Shape China ’ s Push for Global Power , ” cast doubt on China ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ If this becomes generalized , I have a very hard time imagining China has on hand , or even has the ability to crank up , production of quantities of ventilators sufficient to address the urgent care needs of large numbers of people like this in many , many countries all at once , ” he said .
Although “ medical aid during a pandemic is an objectively good thing , ” Cheng said , “ China has , in more recently weeks , been rewriting the narrative of the outbreak from a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and mismanagement , to a story of triumph , of Chinese strength and generosity , or even superiority of its governing system .
The dysfunction in the White House , and perhaps to an extent 10 Downing Street , has certainly helped the Chinese government establish that narrative.
” “ We have seen how the Chinese government uses foreign aid and investment to whitewash its human rights abuses , and how countries at the receiving end become less willing to criticize or hold China accountable , ” she added .
“ That perspective @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crisis of a global pandemic .
”

As the number of coronavirus infections spirals out of control, the U.S. and countries around the world have reported major shortages of ventilators, respirators, test kits, surgical masks, and other essential health equipment for dealing with the pandemic. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump continued to blame China and doubled down on his use of the racist term “Chinese virus.”
Yet now that the situation in China appears to have stabilized, the country is positioning itself at the head of the global response to Covid-19, adopting a unique leadership position that may alter global power relations, despite the biggest shock to its industrial output and economy in recent history and its coverup in Wuhan at the beginning of the crisis.
“The only country that can help us is China. For the rest of them, thanks for nothing.”
Western Europe and the U.S. are struggling under the weight of the crisis, with cases rising exponentially every day and higher death rates in Italy than anywhere else. China’s private and public sectors are filling in gaps in equipment where other states are failing, although the spread of the disease is such that demand for those materials might quickly outpace China’s supply. The government and Jack Ma, a Chinese billionaire and co-founder of the Alibaba Group, have already sent doctors and medical supplies to France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Iran, Iraq, the Philippines, and the United States. Chinese citizens living abroad are flying home in large numbers to avoid catastrophic health failures elsewhere. In Massachusetts, a Chinese woman tried and failed to be tested three times for Covid-19 before flying back home to be tested and treated.
“The Chinese government has been trying to project Chinese state power beyond its borders and establish China as a global leader, not dissimilar to what the U.S. government has been doing for the better part of a century, and the distribution of medical aid is part of this mission,” said Dr. Yangyang Cheng, a postdoctoral research associate at Cornell University who writes the science and China column for SupChina.
The most effective responses to the pandemic thus far have involved very high levels of Covid-19 testing. South Korea’s case is the most notable. The country has conducted roughly 300,000 tests and is able to do 15,000 a day, while flattening its curve and managing to avoid the draconian lockdowns implemented by China that are now taking hold in Western Europe and some American cities. The World Health Organization’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom, underlined South Korea’s strategy on Monday. “Our key message is: test, test, test,” he said.
The U.S. has failed to catch on to that message, as only about 60,000 tests have been conducted overall despite a population more than six times that of South Korea’s, according to government officials at a presidential press briefing on Tuesday. Trump called the WHO’s test “a very bad test” at the same briefing. In the meantime, intensive care units at many American hospitals could be overrun with sick patients in a matter of days. Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital in New York City, one of the nation’s top cancer facilities, has only a week’s supply of masks and limited supplies of ventilators and personal protective equipment, according to BuzzFeed News.
Even though American laboratories are beginning to produce larger quantities of Covid-19 tests, they are behind China’s capacity to do so and are unlikely to be able to provide much medical aid to other countries in the short term. In contrast, the Jack Ma Foundation has sent 500,000 testing kits and 1 million masks to the U.S., which will be distributed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Urgent medical supplies had been blocked by Trump’s trade war with China, and an exemption wasn’t granted until March 6.
China is now in a growing dispute with the U.S. after Chinese and American officials traded accusations over who was responsible for the virus, with Asian-Americans in the U.S. facing greater racism and prejudice as a result. China expelled American journalists on Tuesday following new restrictions on Chinese journalists in the U.S. and a tweet from Trump calling Covid-19 “the Chinese virus.” At a press briefing on Wednesday, Trump said “we’ll see what happens” when asked if he was considering “punishing China.”
U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar told reporters on Sunday that he would not divulge the number of ventilators in the country for security reasons, but it is clear that the U.S. has a shortage of equipment that the federal government cannot hide. “Respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment — try getting it yourselves,” Trump reportedly told American governors on a conference call Monday, before igniting a Twitter spat with Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York. Even though the U.S. needs ventilators, Italy and Germany were the ones scrambling to purchase them from major producers Dräegerwerk and Hamilton Medical, while other firms indicated that they haven’t received an influx of new orders.
Read Our Complete Coverage The Coronavirus Crisis
Elsewhere in the world, China’s ability to provide much-needed medical aid stood in contrast to the lack of help from Western nations struggling with the virus themselves. “European solidarity does not exist. It was a fairy tale on paper,” Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told reporters at a press conference on Sunday. Vucic announced that he had sent a letter to his “brother and friend” Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, asking for medical aid, stating that “the only country that can help us is China. For the rest of them, thanks for nothing.” The first test kits from China landed in Belgrade late Monday night.
The Jack Ma Foundation also announced that it would send “20,000 testing kits, 100,000 masks and 1,000 protective suits and face shields” to every country in Africa, and added that Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed would “take the lead in managing the logistics and distribution of these supplies to other African countries.” A senior Ethiopian health official told The Intercept that he hoped the tests provided by Ma would be sufficient and that “as the technology gets better,” Ethiopia also hoped to source them from multiple other countries as well. Ethiopia has a shortage of ventilators, however, and so far, “no one is providing” them, he said.
It’s unclear just how big an impact China will have on containing the global spread of the virus. While governments and private companies around the world have ramped up their testing manufacturing, the lack of ventilators will be a more difficult challenge to solve. The U.K., for example, called on all industries to support the production of 20,000 ventilators to supplement the 5,000 that its National Health Service currently has, but critics said the government should focus on boosting production from health companies that already make ventilators.
Howard French, journalist and author of “Everything Under the Heavens: How the Past Helps Shape China’s Push for Global Power,” cast doubt on China’s ability to save the day. “If this becomes generalized, I have a very hard time imagining China has on hand, or even has the ability to crank up, production of quantities of ventilators sufficient to address the urgent care needs of large numbers of people like this in many, many countries all at once,” he said.
Although “medical aid during a pandemic is an objectively good thing,” Cheng said, “China has, in more recently weeks, been rewriting the narrative of the outbreak from a scandal, one of Chinese government coverup and mismanagement, to a story of triumph, of Chinese strength and generosity, or even superiority of its governing system. The dysfunction in the White House, and perhaps to an extent 10 Downing Street, has certainly helped the Chinese government establish that narrative.”
“We have seen how the Chinese government uses foreign aid and investment to whitewash its human rights abuses, and how countries at the receiving end become less willing to criticize or hold China accountable,” she added. “That perspective should not be lost even in the crisis of a global pandemic.”


theintercept--2020-03-18--A New York Police Officer Was Caught on Camera Apparently Planting Marijuana in a Car — for the Seco

A New York Police Officer Was Caught on Camera Apparently Planting Marijuana in a Car — for the Second Time

in Staten Island was caught by his own body camera in the apparent act of planting marijuana in the car of a group of young men , the video evidence against him was strong enough to prompt prosecutors in the resulting case to throw out the marijuana charge in the middle of a pretrial hearing .
A judge cut short his testimony , and prosecutors recommended he get a lawyer .
But an internal review by the New York Police Department found that no misconduct had occurred .
Now a new video — published exclusively by The Intercept — shows @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during a different traffic stop just a few weeks after the first , raising questions about the credibility of internal review processes and highlighting the lack of transparency in cases of police misconduct .
The video , which didn ’ t emerge for nearly two years , also underscores the limited information available not just to the public but also defendants , and validates criticism by police accountability advocates that body cameras are of no use if the evidence they capture remains inaccessible .
On both occasions , two officers — Kyle Erickson @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Precinct — stopped cars for minor traffic infractions , then claimed the vehicles smelled like marijuana .
In both instances , body camera footage shows the officers extensively searching the cars for several minutes and finding nothing .
In the first incident , in February 2018 , Erickson ’ s body camera is then suddenly switched off and then back on just as he discovers a marijuana cigarette that did not appear to be there when his partner was first searching the car .
The New York Times published that video later that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lasou Kuyateh , obtained it through discovery .
Kuyateh , who in the video can be heard shouting that Erickson is “ putting something in my car , ” was arrested and spent two weeks in jail .
He fought the charges in court , and late last year he began proceedings to sue the city for $ 1 million over the incident .
But Jason Serrano , the man arrested during the second stop , in March 2018 , took a plea deal to avoid jail time and didn ’ t learn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ earlier this year , when attorneys with the Legal Aid Society showed it to him .
“ There ’ s nothing to say , the video speaks for itself , ” Serrano told me during a recent interview .
“ I didn ’ t have no marijuana , I had no weed , I had no drugs , I wasn ’ t driving , it wasn ’ t my car , the taillight wasn ’ t broken.
” The car ’ s driver , who was issued a summons even though she would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the marijuana found in the car , could not be reached for comment .
Erickson and Pastran did not respond to The Intercept ’ s requests for comment .
A spokesperson for the NYPD declined to comment .
The Richmond County District Attorney ’ s Office did not respond to a request for comment .
Serrano was sitting in the passenger seat of his friend ’ s car when Erickson and Pastran stopped them .
The officers later claimed the car had a broken taillight , but according to Serrano , the officers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ made a U-turn to pull up by the car , and they couldn ’ t have seen the taillight from that position .
As soon as the driver rolled down the window , Erickson and Pastran claimed the car smelled “ like weed ” and ordered her and Serrano out , both officers ’ camera feeds show .
The videos then show Serrano , who was recovering from abdominal surgery after being stabbed , lifting his clothes to show his wound to Erickson and telling him “ I can barely move ” ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ see that , ” the officer responds ) .
Once out of the car , the officers demand to search Serrano ’ s jacket and he refuses , telling them “ There ’ s nothing in there .
… I ’ m not getting searched for no reason.
” As Serrano grows agitated , the officers become more aggressive , grab him , push him to the ground , and handcuff him .
“ They said I was resisting arrest , but I just didn ’ t want to hit the floor , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was this , ” Serrano said during a recent interview , pointing to his stomach .
“ I still had staples in me .
… I couldn ’ t even stand up straight.
” As Serrano curls up on the sidewalk , bleeding from his wound , and as more officers and bystanders gather on the scene waiting for an ambulance , Pastran searches Serrano ’ s jacket .
“ We got ta find something , ” Erickson tells him .
The footage then shows Erickson using a flashlight to search around the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
When he finds nothing , he can be heard murmuring an expletive to himself before returning to Pastran to ask him , “ Should I search the whole thing ?
” Erickson again returns to the car and continues to meticulously search it , while Pastran briefs a supervisor who has arrived on the scene .
Erickson then appears to place something in the car ’ s drink holder , before opening the front seat ’ s console and a small toiletry box .
Erickson then says “ I smell a little @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pick up and move the little bud he seemed to have dropped in the drink holder moments earlier .
Erickson then searches the back of the car , and when Pastran approaches , the two exchange a charged look as Erickson tells Pastran “ I see nothing .
… You know what I mean ?
” He then returns to search the front seat area for a third time , this time dropping a larger bud in the drink holder and saying , “ There ’ s a little bit of weed.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ console , opening a wallet and continuing to search where he had already looked .
“ Good ?
” Pastran asks him .
Erickson continues to fiddle with something for a couple more minutes .
At the end of the search , as Serrano is about to taken away on a stretcher , it ’ s Erickson ’ s turn to ask Pastran , “ You good ?
” The two officers then fist-bump each other .
The few words exchanged between the two officers on the occasion of Serrano ’ s arrest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during Kuyateh ’ s arrest .
“ We have to find something .
… You know what I mean ?
” Erickson can be heard saying in footage from the earlier stop .
On that occasion , too , the search had ended with Erickson asking Pastran , “ You good ?
” In the first incident , Kuyateh refused prosecutors ’ offers for a plea deal and continued to fight the charges .
In one of several court hearings , Erickson testified that the camera had shut off at a crucial moment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ technical difficulty.
” But Erickson ’ s testimony was cut short when the body camera footage was presented as evidence , and the judge called lawyers in the middle of a pretrial hearing for an off-the-record exchange .
Prosecutors dropped the marijuana charge right after that exchange , and later advised the police department that Erickson might need an attorney .
The judge in the case blocked Legal Aid attorneys ’ subsequent efforts to discuss the video , and ultimately dismissed and sealed the case .
The police department ’ s internal affairs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ incident and ruled that accusations of misconduct on the officers ’ part were “ unfounded.
” A spokesperson for the Civilian Complaint Review Board , a civilian agency that investigates allegations of police misconduct , confirmed the agency received complaints stemming from both incidents , but declined to comment further .
A spokesperson for the Department of Investigation , which independently oversees city government , including police , said that the “ DOI is aware of the matter ” regarding Erickson and Pastran , but declined to comment further .
The two officers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ neighborhood .
Serrano spent the five days after his arrest handcuffed in a hospital room , waiting for his abdominal wound to close .
When he arrived there , he recalled , a medic told police “ this guy is in no condition to resist anyone.
” Yet he was charged with resisting arrest , as well as obstruction of government administration , unlawful possession of marijuana , and criminal possession of a controlled substance .
That last charge stemmed from a zip-close bag police claimed they found in Serrano ’ s jacket @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be seen repeatedly searching the jacket in the video , and finding nothing .
It ’ s not clear what was in the bag : a laboratory analysis of its contents reviewed by The Intercept says that “ federally controlled substances are indicated ; however , their identification is not confirmed at this time.
” Serrano and his attorneys maintain that there was no bag at all in his jacket , and body camera footage shows Erickson fiddling with Serrano ’ s jacket for several minutes after searching the car , although it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doing .
After leaving the hospital Serrano was sent home on supervised release .
Three months later , a judge found that he had violated the terms of his release and set his bail at $ 500 — but Serrano couldn ’ t pay it , and in order to avoid jail , he agreed to plead guilty to the resisting arrest charge only .
“ The court put him in the position of having to make that choice of whether he was going to continue to fight charges that he knew he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was more important to him , ” said Christopher Pisciotta , the attorney in charge of Legal Aid ’ s Staten Island division .
“ This is something that with our bail reform laws would not have happened .
And even under the old law , a judge would have been extremely reluctant to ever set bail where there was actual video proof that the person was innocent.
” Under sweeping criminal justice reforms that were recently implemented in New York state — prompting a swift backlash — prosecutors would have accessed police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Serrano ’ s attorneys would have received it within 15 days of his arraignment .
That would have allowed them to push for the charges to be dismissed .
But Serrano and his attorneys didn ’ t learn there was camera footage of the incident until much later .
The new laws eliminated cash bail for most defendants and put an end to prosecutors ’ ability to withhold evidence until trial .
But within days of their implementation on January 1 , the reforms came under a string of ferocious attacks from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and elected officials quickly began giving in to pressure and signaling their intention to scale back the reforms .
“ There is a push right now to try to repeal the very laws that would have protected Jason had they been available , ” said Pisciotta .
“ If we repeal the discovery laws and push back on what has to be turned over and when it has to be turned over , and if we expand when judges can set bail again , there are going to be more Jason Serranos @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be right back where we were.
” Last year , New York state also passed legislation decriminalizing marijuana — reducing possession of small quantities to a violation — after officials admitted marijuana laws had long been disproportionately enforced against black and Latino New Yorkers .
But while marijuana arrests have drastically dropped since then , racial disparities remain .
Legal Aid attorneys have repeatedly argued against the use of marijuana “ odor ” to justify a stop and search .
Police can currently use the smell of marijuana to legally justify searching a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is regularly abused — and in a growing number of cases , judges have questioned the credibility of officers claiming they smelled marijuana .
In a particularly explicit rebuke , a judge recently ruled in favor of two defendants in such a case , arguing that “ the time has come to reject the canard of marijuana emanating from nearly every vehicle subject to a traffic stop.
” The video of Serrano ’ s arrest is also emblematic of the widely disputed protections afforded to officers accused of misconduct in New York state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the repeal of a law known as “ 50-a , ” which refers to a section of the New York Civil Rights Law that makes the personnel records of law enforcement officers “ confidential and not subject to inspection or review.
” The law , which has been on the books for decades , has come under scrutiny as the movement for police accountability has grown stronger .
But as the public pushed for more transparency , police departments and unions countered with ever-stricter interpretations of the law , making everything from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of internal reviews , to body camera footage itself largely inaccessible to the public .
Efforts to fight the law in court have failed , and the battle has since shifted to Albany , where it remains a hotly debated issue by state legislators .
“ 50-a protects police officers from being held accountable , ” said Pisciotta .
“ The community should have more information about the police officers who are serving them , and they should know when an officer has done something unlawful.
” Pisciotta , who called for Pastran @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pointed to the disparity in the information that is accessible to the public .
“ The officers violated several laws by planting evidence in this case and falsely arresting an innocent person , but the information that the public has is that Jason Serrano was arrested and charged with these offenses , and that information will always be in the public ’ s eye , out on the internet , ” he said .
“ Meanwhile , the officers who committed these crimes , who violated the public ’ s trust — their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ incident is also likely to fuel ongoing criticism of police ’ s use of body camera footage .
A report released last month by the Civilian Complaint Review Board , which relies heavily on the footage as it investigates complaints of police misconduct , noted that officers “ often failed to properly use their cameras by turning on the BWC late , turning the BWC off early , or not turning the BWC on at all , ” the report noted , using an acronym for body-worn cameras .
The report also confirms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to “ inform other officers when their BWCs are active ” — including by using nonverbal signals or code phrases like “ I went Hollywood , ” “ Green , ” and “ I ’ m hot.
” In both incidents involving Erickson and Pastran , the officers seemed aware of their cameras — with Pastran at one point talking about Serrano getting “ combative ” and saying “ thank God it ’ s on video.
” After the first incident , as Pastran drove Kuyateh away , his body camera kept rolling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ planted evidence in his car .
“ The man just planted weed in my car , ” Kuyateh said .
“ He has a camera , I have a camera .
Why would he do that ?
” Pastran replied .
“ For him to do that , that would be the dumbest thing ever .
He ’ d lose his job over a dumb arrest like this ?
” But neither Erickson nor Pastran lost their jobs then , or after they stopped Serrano a couple weeks later .
As Serrano watched @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time , narrating over the footage , he kept shaking his head in disbelief .
“ They had no reason to stop me at all , besides harassment , ” he said .
“ They couldn ’ t even tell me what I did wrong .
Oh , you smell weed ?
You smell weed because you placed the little nugget there .
You smell weed because it ’ s on you , that ’ s why .
”

When a police officer in Staten Island was caught by his own body camera in the apparent act of planting marijuana in the car of a group of young men, the video evidence against him was strong enough to prompt prosecutors in the resulting case to throw out the marijuana charge in the middle of a pretrial hearing. A judge cut short his testimony, and prosecutors recommended he get a lawyer. But an internal review by the New York Police Department found that no misconduct had occurred.
Now a new video — published exclusively by The Intercept — shows the same officer again seemingly planting marijuana during a different traffic stop just a few weeks after the first, raising questions about the credibility of internal review processes and highlighting the lack of transparency in cases of police misconduct. The video, which didn’t emerge for nearly two years, also underscores the limited information available not just to the public but also defendants, and validates criticism by police accountability advocates that body cameras are of no use if the evidence they capture remains inaccessible.
On both occasions, two officers — Kyle Erickson and Elmer Pastran, of the 120th Precinct — stopped cars for minor traffic infractions, then claimed the vehicles smelled like marijuana. In both instances, body camera footage shows the officers extensively searching the cars for several minutes and finding nothing. In the first incident, in February 2018, Erickson’s body camera is then suddenly switched off and then back on just as he discovers a marijuana cigarette that did not appear to be there when his partner was first searching the car. The New York Times published that video later that year after attorneys for the driver, Lasou Kuyateh, obtained it through discovery. Kuyateh, who in the video can be heard shouting that Erickson is “putting something in my car,” was arrested and spent two weeks in jail. He fought the charges in court, and late last year he began proceedings to sue the city for $1 million over the incident.
But Jason Serrano, the man arrested during the second stop, in March 2018, took a plea deal to avoid jail time and didn’t learn of the footage’s existence until earlier this year, when attorneys with the Legal Aid Society showed it to him. “There’s nothing to say, the video speaks for itself,” Serrano told me during a recent interview. “I didn’t have no marijuana, I had no weed, I had no drugs, I wasn’t driving, it wasn’t my car, the taillight wasn’t broken.”
The car’s driver, who was issued a summons even though she would have normally been the one charged for the marijuana found in the car, could not be reached for comment. Erickson and Pastran did not respond to The Intercept’s requests for comment. A spokesperson for the NYPD declined to comment. The Richmond County District Attorney’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
Jason Serrano, photographed at the Legal Aid Society office in Staten Island, N.Y., on Feb. 13, 2020. Photo: Ariel Zambelich/The Intercept
“We Gotta Find Something”
Serrano was sitting in the passenger seat of his friend’s car when Erickson and Pastran stopped them. The officers later claimed the car had a broken taillight, but according to Serrano, the officers had been further up the road and made a U-turn to pull up by the car, and they couldn’t have seen the taillight from that position. As soon as the driver rolled down the window, Erickson and Pastran claimed the car smelled “like weed” and ordered her and Serrano out, both officers’ camera feeds show. The videos then show Serrano, who was recovering from abdominal surgery after being stabbed, lifting his clothes to show his wound to Erickson and telling him “I can barely move” (“I don’t want to see that,” the officer responds). Once out of the car, the officers demand to search Serrano’s jacket and he refuses, telling them “There’s nothing in there. … I’m not getting searched for no reason.” As Serrano grows agitated, the officers become more aggressive, grab him, push him to the ground, and handcuff him.
“They said I was resisting arrest, but I just didn’t want to hit the floor, the only thing I was thinking about was this,” Serrano said during a recent interview, pointing to his stomach. “I still had staples in me. … I couldn’t even stand up straight.”
As Serrano curls up on the sidewalk, bleeding from his wound, and as more officers and bystanders gather on the scene waiting for an ambulance, Pastran searches Serrano’s jacket. “We gotta find something,” Erickson tells him. The footage then shows Erickson using a flashlight to search around the front seat where Serrano had been seated. When he finds nothing, he can be heard murmuring an expletive to himself before returning to Pastran to ask him, “Should I search the whole thing?” Erickson again returns to the car and continues to meticulously search it, while Pastran briefs a supervisor who has arrived on the scene. Erickson then appears to place something in the car’s drink holder, before opening the front seat’s console and a small toiletry box. Erickson then says “I smell a little weed” just as he appears to pick up and move the little bud he seemed to have dropped in the drink holder moments earlier. Erickson then searches the back of the car, and when Pastran approaches, the two exchange a charged look as Erickson tells Pastran “I see nothing. … You know what I mean?” He then returns to search the front seat area for a third time, this time dropping a larger bud in the drink holder and saying, “There’s a little bit of weed.” He then again returns to the car console, opening a wallet and continuing to search where he had already looked. “Good?” Pastran asks him. Erickson continues to fiddle with something for a couple more minutes. At the end of the search, as Serrano is about to taken away on a stretcher, it’s Erickson’s turn to ask Pastran, “You good?” The two officers then fist-bump each other.
The few words exchanged between the two officers on the occasion of Serrano’s arrest are almost identical to those they exchanged during Kuyateh’s arrest. “We have to find something. … You know what I mean?” Erickson can be heard saying in footage from the earlier stop. On that occasion, too, the search had ended with Erickson asking Pastran, “You good?”
In the first incident, Kuyateh refused prosecutors’ offers for a plea deal and continued to fight the charges. In one of several court hearings, Erickson testified that the camera had shut off at a crucial moment in the recording due to a “technical difficulty.” But Erickson’s testimony was cut short when the body camera footage was presented as evidence, and the judge called lawyers in the middle of a pretrial hearing for an off-the-record exchange. Prosecutors dropped the marijuana charge right after that exchange, and later advised the police department that Erickson might need an attorney. The judge in the case blocked Legal Aid attorneys’ subsequent efforts to discuss the video, and ultimately dismissed and sealed the case.
The police department’s internal affairs division conducted its own review of that incident and ruled that accusations of misconduct on the officers’ part were “unfounded.” A spokesperson for the Civilian Complaint Review Board, a civilian agency that investigates allegations of police misconduct, confirmed the agency received complaints stemming from both incidents, but declined to comment further. A spokesperson for the Department of Investigation, which independently oversees city government, including police, said that the “DOI is aware of the matter” regarding Erickson and Pastran, but declined to comment further. The two officers remain on patrol in Serrano’s neighborhood.
Screenshot: The Intercept
More Jason Serranos
Serrano spent the five days after his arrest handcuffed in a hospital room, waiting for his abdominal wound to close. When he arrived there, he recalled, a medic told police “this guy is in no condition to resist anyone.”
Yet he was charged with resisting arrest, as well as obstruction of government administration, unlawful possession of marijuana, and criminal possession of a controlled substance. That last charge stemmed from a zip-close bag police claimed they found in Serrano’s jacket — even though Erickson and Pastran can be seen repeatedly searching the jacket in the video, and finding nothing. It’s not clear what was in the bag: a laboratory analysis of its contents reviewed by The Intercept says that “federally controlled substances are indicated; however, their identification is not confirmed at this time.” Serrano and his attorneys maintain that there was no bag at all in his jacket, and body camera footage shows Erickson fiddling with Serrano’s jacket for several minutes after searching the car, although it is impossible to see what he is doing.
After leaving the hospital Serrano was sent home on supervised release. Three months later, a judge found that he had violated the terms of his release and set his bail at $500 — but Serrano couldn’t pay it, and in order to avoid jail, he agreed to plead guilty to the resisting arrest charge only. “The court put him in the position of having to make that choice of whether he was going to continue to fight charges that he knew he was innocent of, or whether liberty was more important to him,” said Christopher Pisciotta, the attorney in charge of Legal Aid’s Staten Island division. “This is something that with our bail reform laws would not have happened. And even under the old law, a judge would have been extremely reluctant to ever set bail where there was actual video proof that the person was innocent.”
Under sweeping criminal justice reforms that were recently implemented in New York state — prompting a swift backlash — prosecutors would have accessed police body camera footage within 24 hours, and Serrano’s attorneys would have received it within 15 days of his arraignment. That would have allowed them to push for the charges to be dismissed. But Serrano and his attorneys didn’t learn there was camera footage of the incident until much later.
The new laws eliminated cash bail for most defendants and put an end to prosecutors’ ability to withhold evidence until trial. But within days of their implementation on January 1, the reforms came under a string of ferocious attacks from police, prosecutors, and some pundits, and elected officials quickly began giving in to pressure and signaling their intention to scale back the reforms.
“There is a push right now to try to repeal the very laws that would have protected Jason had they been available,” said Pisciotta. “If we repeal the discovery laws and push back on what has to be turned over and when it has to be turned over, and if we expand when judges can set bail again, there are going to be more Jason Serranos. And we’re going to be right back where we were.”
Last year, New York state also passed legislation decriminalizing marijuana — reducing possession of small quantities to a violation — after officials admitted marijuana laws had long been disproportionately enforced against black and Latino New Yorkers. But while marijuana arrests have drastically dropped since then, racial disparities remain. Legal Aid attorneys have repeatedly argued against the use of marijuana “odor” to justify a stop and search. Police can currently use the smell of marijuana to legally justify searching a vehicle, but attorneys say that justification is regularly abused — and in a growing number of cases, judges have questioned the credibility of officers claiming they smelled marijuana. In a particularly explicit rebuke, a judge recently ruled in favor of two defendants in such a case, arguing that “the time has come to reject the canard of marijuana emanating from nearly every vehicle subject to a traffic stop.”
The video of Serrano’s arrest is also emblematic of the widely disputed protections afforded to officers accused of misconduct in New York state. For years, advocates have called for the repeal of a law known as “50-a,” which refers to a section of the New York Civil Rights Law that makes the personnel records of law enforcement officers “confidential and not subject to inspection or review.” The law, which has been on the books for decades, has come under scrutiny as the movement for police accountability has grown stronger. But as the public pushed for more transparency, police departments and unions countered with ever-stricter interpretations of the law, making everything from complaints of misconduct, to the findings of internal reviews, to body camera footage itself largely inaccessible to the public. Efforts to fight the law in court have failed, and the battle has since shifted to Albany, where it remains a hotly debated issue by state legislators.
“50-a protects police officers from being held accountable,” said Pisciotta. “The community should have more information about the police officers who are serving them, and they should know when an officer has done something unlawful.”
Pisciotta, who called for Pastran and Erickson’s firing, also pointed to the disparity in the information that is accessible to the public. “The officers violated several laws by planting evidence in this case and falsely arresting an innocent person, but the information that the public has is that Jason Serrano was arrested and charged with these offenses, and that information will always be in the public’s eye, out on the internet,” he said. “Meanwhile, the officers who committed these crimes, who violated the public’s trust — their information remains secret and protected.”
Screenshot: The Intercept
The incident is also likely to fuel ongoing criticism of police’s use of body camera footage. A report released last month by the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which relies heavily on the footage as it investigates complaints of police misconduct, noted that officers “often failed to properly use their cameras by turning on the BWC late, turning the BWC off early, or not turning the BWC on at all,” the report noted, using an acronym for body-worn cameras. The report also confirms that officers are trained by the department to “inform other officers when their BWCs are active” — including by using nonverbal signals or code phrases like “I went Hollywood,” “Green,” and “I’m hot.”
In both incidents involving Erickson and Pastran, the officers seemed aware of their cameras — with Pastran at one point talking about Serrano getting “combative” and saying “thank God it’s on video.” After the first incident, as Pastran drove Kuyateh away, his body camera kept rolling as the teen accused Erickson of having planted evidence in his car. “The man just planted weed in my car,” Kuyateh said. “He has a camera, I have a camera. Why would he do that?” Pastran replied. “For him to do that, that would be the dumbest thing ever. He’d lose his job over a dumb arrest like this?”
But neither Erickson nor Pastran lost their jobs then, or after they stopped Serrano a couple weeks later. As Serrano watched the video of his arrest one more time, narrating over the footage, he kept shaking his head in disbelief.
“They had no reason to stop me at all, besides harassment,” he said. “They couldn’t even tell me what I did wrong. Oh, you smell weed? You smell weed because you placed the little nugget there. You smell weed because it’s on you, that’s why.”