VIRTUAL TOUR — REAL PRIDE
Village’s LGBT history to be told in online ‘pub crawl’ as in-person Pride events hit
Allegations of police perjury, faulty interrogation tactics and other “evidentiary misconduct” should be probed by the city Department of Investigation, a City Council member told the Daily News Thursday.
Councilman Ritchie Torres (DBronx) has proposed a bill that would give DOI the mandate to investigate the type of misconduct “that compromises the very integrity of the criminal justice system.”
“I have no confidence that officers who do engage in evidentiary misconduct are held accountable,” Torres said. “The Police Department cannot be trusted to police itself.”
The NYPD didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The DOI said it is reviewing the bill.
The Department of Investigation oversees the NYPD’s inspector general, which was created in 2013 in the wake of withering criticism of the NYPD’s stop and frisk practices and its surveillance of Muslims. The inspector general also conducts broad reviews of police policies and practices.
Torres said if his bill becomes law he expects complaints about individual cases would be brought to DOI’s attention from lawyers and legal groups, such as the Legal Aid Society.
The councilman said DOI would have the power to investigate cases in which exculpatory evidence was withheld, body worn cameras weren’t used properly or witness identification procedures were called into question.
He was particularly struck by the case of disgraced and nowretired Detective Louis Scarcella, who was involved in eight murder convictions that have been vacated, and by reports of “testilying” — cops lying on the stand.
The NYPD disciplinary process, “shrouded in secrecy,” has allowed misconduct to fester for years, Torres said.
“Officers have to be held accountable for their conduct, especially the kind of misconduct that produces false confessions and wrongful convictions,” Torres said
As the third night of clashes between cops and the gay community came to a close on June 30, 1969, poet and political activist Allen Ginsberg stepped into the Stonewall Inn and took in the Greenwich Village bar scene before him.
There, revelers beamed as they swayed to ’60s tunes, their spirits filled with the energy of the uprising that would later be recognized as a cataclysmic turning point for the gay rights movement.
“As he walked out of the bar, [Ginsberg] turned to his friend [Taylor Mead] and said he could not believe how beautiful the men were, that none of them had that haggard, beaten, wearied look that we all had when I was young,” said
Eric Chase, who runs a walking tour company that focuses on the Village and often shares this anecdote with customers.
“I get chills every time I tell that story,” he said. “While he didn’t vocalize it, I really think he was seeing the pride for the first time — that inner beauty of being like, to hell with all of you: I am who I am, and I am proud.”
The COVID crisis has shut down the traditional Gay Pride events that are usually celebrated across the city this month — including the city’s storied Gay Pride Parade.
But for Chase, the relative calm offers a unique opportunity to showcase Village history that sometimes gets lost in the bustle.
He and two other guides will tell tales about area LGBT poets, writers and artists Monday during a virtual Literary Pub Crawl: Pride Edition.
“It’s such a lovely quiet neighborhood — but it’s [past] is so noisy, so rich,” said Ariel Kates, director of programming for the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, which will host the event.
“I like that we’re highlighting all of those things, especially for Pride,” she said. “It’s such an important and intrinsic part of the history of the Village...and lifting that up feels super important right now.”
Kates, Chase and other organizers first came up with the idea for a virtual tour when coronavirus shut the city down.
By offering the event online, Chase said they also had a chance to potentially reach more participants during one of