Headlines across the country today are screaming about riots in New York City, comparing NYPD to the LAPD of the early 1990s.
(AP Wire, NYC) In spite of the return of full power to one of the largest, most populous cities in the nation, New York City is not yet celebrating — in fact, authorities in the city are under fire. The hardships suffered by all those within the boundaries of the city have finally exploded into an "us versus them" mentality. Violence and riots have been par for the course since the January 28 terrorist attack that destroyed the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and cut off Staten Island from Manhattan proper, but until this week it has been the kind of violence that is always seen after a disaster.
Yesterday afternoon, the powder keg that has been hiding within New York City exploded. According to sources, the riot began over a truckload of fresh vegetables and fruits. With rolling blackouts still plaguing the city until just a few days ago, refrigeration of fresh produce and dairy has been next to impossible for many. What appears to have been a relatively minor car accident at the corner of Houston St. escalated within moments into a food riot, and when a group of Evolved men attempted to take over the truck, it escalated further into an anti-Evolved riot. The WNYC news helicopter took startling footage of the NYPD surrounding the rioting crowd — several cameras have disturbing images of two officers beating a young woman on the ground a la Rodney King in Los Angeles more than a decade ago, and the aerial footage includes views of officers firing their weapons INTO the crowd.
In a seperate event on the same day, nearly 50 people breaking the citywide curfew resulted in two storefronts in the Bronx burning to the ground. Police and firefighters responded to the scene at approximately 11:00pm, and as they attempted to disperse the crowd, people within the group began flaunting Evolved abilities and chanted "the 35." Although reports are still unclear about what happened, a journalist on the scene captured amazing photographs of the protestors and the police response — including one uniformed officer shooting and killing a twelve-year-old child.
Additional reports out of New York implicate police in various complaints of brutality and even outright murder. William Baines, an investigative journalist for the New York Times, has amassed a file containing over 200 reports of police mishandling of Evolved cases. Representatives of the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau state that they are investigating all such reports, but that the situation is complicated by being short-handed and the lack of supporting evidence in many cases. But it begs the question — where there's smoke, is there fire? Is the NYPD, supposedly an example of pro-Evolved sentiment with the first Evolved team in the country, unbiased enough to actually do their job when it includes policing their own?