Newsday reports that NYPD Assistant Chief Bruce Smolka is retiring. While many officers Newsday spoke to love Smolka, he leaves behind an interesting legacy. Let's paraphrase Aaron Naparstek's 2005 piece about Smolka for the NY Press' 50 Most Loathsome New Yorkers issue:
...Smolka was the commanding officer of the NYPD’s infamous Street Crimes Unit. It was his officers who, in February 1999, pumped 41 bullets into Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant guilty of nothing more than standing in the hallway of his own apartment building....
...In February 2003, Smolka illegally ordered horseback-mounted police to charge into a group of peaceful anti-war demonstrators...
...Architect of the Critical Mass crackdown...
...At a December 8, 2004 federal court hearing on Critical Mass, civil liberties lawyer Steven Hyman skewered the chief before federal judge, William Pauley. The day’s highlight was Smolka’s attempt to argue that seven bikes lined up on a New York City street are a “procession” requiring a permit while seven motor vehicles clogging the very same street are simply traffic...
There are two lawsuits and other pending against Smolka. One pending lawsuit claims that Smolka grabbed a woman off her bike via the bike chain around her waist. Another lawsuit contends that Smolka kicked Cynthia Greenberg's head during a 2003 anti-war demonstration. Watch the video here, via I-Witness Video.
