by amy zimmer / metro new yorkCops group calls on feds to watch NYPD
Rash of recent incidents, including weekend shooting, prompts cries
AUG 4, 2008
New York's top cop has failed to respond to incidents of police brutality, questionable shootings and unlawful stops, claims an advocacy group that once again called yesterday for the federal government to step in and oversee the NYPD.
"We have no confidence in Raymond Kelly," said Noel Leader, co-founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, blasting the city's police commissioner for ignoring "systemic patterns of abuse."
He ticked off a litany of other causes for concern, including this weekend's fatal shooting of a Darryl Battle, 20, in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Officers claim Battle pulled an 11-inch kitchen knife on them, prompting a cop to open fire. Battle's family is calling for an independent investigation.
Videos that surfaced online last week - one of an officer shoving a man off his bicycle during Critical Mass, the other of an officer using his baton during an arrest - "was the straw that broke the camel's back," Leader said.
Assistant Police Chief Michael Collins, who noted Leader's group has called for federal oversight many times, said the shooting of Battle "appeared to be within department guidelines."
Related Fox News story with video of Noel Leader's moronic rantings.
"This, too, shall pass." 
