Footage of the Largest Gang Raid in NYPD History Reveals the Agency’s Military-Style Tactics
Footage of the Largest Gang Raid in NYPD History Reveals the Agency’s Military-Style Tactics
Incoming police commissioner James O’Neill oversaw the arrests.
By Simon Davis-Cohen
September 1, 2016
At 4:51 am, on April 27 in the North Bronx, Paula Clarke and her two daughters were awoken by the sounds of explosions and shuffling feet. “I just thought that (it was) terrorism, nothing else,” she said, thinking back to the night.
More than a dozen law-enforcement officers surrounded their home, detonating flash-bang grenades, before breaking down the front door—assault rifles drawn. A helicopter hovered overhead. The officers forced the disoriented family to crawl down their hallway toward them on hands and knees. The events were captured by Paula’s private security cameras. The footage is published here for the first time.
“They kept saying, ‘Where is Michael?’ and ‘Where is the gun?’” said Paula. Her son’s name is not Michael. “If they did (their homework), they would know that he was on parole and that he lives with his father.” After searching the home and finding no young man and no firearm, three authorities stayed with the women while the rest left to detain her 21-year-old son (she asked that he not be named). At the time, Paula did not know that her private terror was part of a massive raid sweeping her Williamsbridge neighborhood.
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That night, nearly 700 agents descended on Williamsbridge, a predominantly African-American neighborhood, to execute what would be the largest gang raid in modern New York City history. Seventy-eight people were arrested and 120 indicted, all on conspiracy charges. The men arrested—24 years old on average—are being held collectively responsible for eight murders, and a handful of firearms and narcotics charges dating back to 2007.
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https://www.thenation.com/article/footage-of-the-largest-gang-raid-in-nypd-history-reveals-the-agencys-military-style-tactics/
