NYPD Attempts to Clean up its Image - by Rewriting History on Wikipedia Pages on Police Brutality

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**NuggzTheNinja**

http://gizmodo.com/nypd-caught-editing-wikipedia-articles-on-police-brutal-1691267182

Looks like the long arm of the law is trying to diddle Wikipedia into submission. Members of the NYPD are trying to scrub Wikipedia's entries about police violence.

Capital New York traced edits to IP addresses registered to the NYPD. Looking at which entries the NYPD tried to alter highlights a disturbing pattern. These are blatant attempts to bend the narrative on horrific state-administered brutality:

Computer users identified by Capital as working on the NYPD headquarters' network have edited and attempted to delete Wikipedia entries for several well-known victims of police altercations, including entries for Eric Garner, Sean Bell, and Amadou Diallo. Capital identified 85 NYPD addresses that have edited Wikipedia, although it is unclear how many users were involved, as computers on the NYPD network can operate on the department's range of IP addresses.
It isn't the first time people in power have been caught trying to make the crowdsourced encyclopedia reflect their reality. People have tracked the edits Congress makes to Wikipedia. But in that instance, most of the edits were for weirdo entries like "horse head mask" rather than articles that directly referred to Congressional misconduct.

The NYPD, in contrast, has made edits that are clearly in its best interest, attempts to whitewash the bloodiest moments in contemporary NYPD screw-ups by literally re-writing history and recasting critical moments of police violence as irrelevant blips:

On Nov. 25, 2006, undercover NYPD officers fired 50 times at three unarmed men, killing Sean Bell, and sparking citywide protests against police brutality. On April 12, 2007, a user on 1 Police Plaza's network attempted to delete the Wikipedia entry "Sean Bell shooting incident".

"He [Bell] was in the news for about two months, and now no one except Al Sharpton cares anymore. The police shoot people every day, and times with a lot more than 50 bullets. This incident is more news than notable," the user wrote on Wikipedia's internal "Articles for deletion" page.
The matter is "under internal review," according to an NYPD spokesperson.

Police IPs were also linked to entry changes on stop-and-frisk, police misconduct, fictional NYPD officer Andy Sipowitz, and the band Chumbawumba. [Capital New York]

If you don't like the truth about the conduct of your officers - just invent a new one!

**juraigamer**

Well that is one way to fix your image. Granted, some Photoshop skills would have helped.

**LordofHats**

I would actually back that bit about Shawn Bell, simply because Wikipedia's standards for "notability" basically mean "it was in the news for a few days" which honestly if you go through the news pretty much everything is that notable.

But I digress. Bad NYPD. BAD.

**Gitzbitah**

Hey, this is the kind of commitment to a cause that saved the African Elephant population, and caused it to triple back in 2006.

**Verviedi**

.

**Co'tor Shas**

Huh?

**d-usa**

Didn't Wikipedia have to blog the IP addresses of congress a while ago because staffers were constantly screwing with pages?

**daedalus**

Co'tor Shas wrote:
Huh?

I think it means "disagrees with his world view."

**Dreadwinter**

Verviedi wrote:
Wow. I added Gizmodo to the lucrative list of sources that contains Libcom, Thinkprogress, and CNN.

1/10 would not read again.

I am a little curious, what did you disagree with in this article?

**Verviedi**

Dreadwinter wrote:
Verviedi wrote:
Wow. I added Gizmodo to the lucrative list of sources that contains Libcom, Thinkprogress, and CNN.

1/10 would not read again.

I am a little curious, what did you disagree with in this article?

Writing style. It's written like sensationalist garbage.
"Bloodiest moments", ect...

**djones520**

The article certainly does seem sensationalist.

**Iron_Captain**

When is the media not being sensationalist? Sensationalism sells.
Stories are almost always made to seem bigger than they actually are. Always take whatever you read or hear in the media with an appropriate amount of salt and common sense.
In this case, it is probably just a police guy editing wikipedia during his lunchbreak while at work, or something irrelevant like that.
It is probably not that the NYPD has established something like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Commission_of_the_Russian_Federation_to_Counter_Attempts_to_Falsify_History_to_the_Detriment_of_Russia%27s_Interests

**Dreadclaw69**

NYPD will not be disciplining those involved;
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/03/nypd-wont-punish-cops-for-sanitizing-wikipedia-police-brutality-entries/

The New York Police Department has identified two officers who used agency computers to sanitize Wikipedia entries about incidents of police brutality.

"Two officers, who have been identified, were using department equipment to access Wikipedia and make entries," NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton said. "I don’t anticipate any punishment, quite frankly."
The agency did not identify the officers, who a police source told DNAinfo were exercising "their First Amendment right." However, the two officers might be reprimanded for using their employer's computers for unrelated work.

"We are quite clear that when you are using city computers, it is supposed to be for city business. This was not authorized business," Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday.

As many as 85 IP addresses connected to 1 Police Plaza altered entries for some of the most high-profile police abuse cases, including those for victims Eric Garner, Sean Bell, and Amadou Diallo. Edits have also been made to other entries covering NYPD scandals, its stop-and-frisk program, and the department leadership.

The two unnamed officers are believed responsible for the tinkering of the "Death of Eric Garner" page on Wikipedia. Garner, who was placed in a chokehold, was killed by police last year during an arrest that was captured on video by an onlooker. One of the edits altered "Garner raised both his arms in the air" to "Garner flailed his arms about as he spoke."

It was not immediately known whether the agency has identified others connected to the Wikipedia alterations.

**Prestor Jon**

Dreadclaw69 wrote:
NYPD will not be disciplining those involved;
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/03/nypd-wont-punish-cops-for-sanitizing-wikipedia-police-brutality-entries/

The New York Police Department has identified two officers who used agency computers to sanitize Wikipedia entries about incidents of police brutality.

"Two officers, who have been identified, were using department equipment to access Wikipedia and make entries," NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton said. "I don’t anticipate any punishment, quite frankly."
The agency did not identify the officers, who a police source told DNAinfo were exercising "their First Amendment right." However, the two officers might be reprimanded for using their employer's computers for unrelated work.

"We are quite clear that when you are using city computers, it is supposed to be for city business. This was not authorized business," Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday.

As many as 85 IP addresses connected to 1 Police Plaza altered entries for some of the most high-profile police abuse cases, including those for victims Eric Garner, Sean Bell, and Amadou Diallo. Edits have also been made to other entries covering NYPD scandals, its stop-and-frisk program, and the department leadership.

The two unnamed officers are believed responsible for the tinkering of the "Death of Eric Garner" page on Wikipedia. Garner, who was placed in a chokehold, was killed by police last year during an arrest that was captured on video by an onlooker. One of the edits altered "Garner raised both his arms in the air" to "Garner flailed his arms about as he spoke."

It was not immediately known whether the agency has identified others connected to the Wikipedia alterations.

Why would they be disciplined? Nobody is going to lose an election over this, no budgets are going to lose funding, there won't be protests in the streets over it. Govt is ultimately only accountable to itself and therefore only holds itself accountable when it suits its own needs.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

**Torga_DW**

Book burning is a thing of the past - these days you just have to click edit and delete?

**Jihadin**

Torga_DW wrote:
Book burning is a thing of the past - these days you just have to click edit and delete?

Another thing to go out the window. Same as cursive writing the library (place where one can draw and return books; paper in a binder; words one can read in a "book") will go digital.

**Co'tor Shas**

It makes me sad to think of stuff like that. I've been a huge reader since I was a kid, and the library is still one of my favorite places to go.