Discipline is about ‘who you know’

Not all crimes and punishments are equal in the NYPD.

One boss dated an ex-con, another is accused of fudging statistics and encouraging mass arrests – one was demoted and the other lost a few vacation days.

Which offense is worse? Having poor taste in men, according to the NYPD.

Probationary Capt. Kareema Nevels was suspended earlier this year for dating a convicted felon. Two weeks ago she was demoted to lieutenant, the Daily News has learned. Because she was new to her rank, the department didn’t need to go through a trial to demote Nevels.

By contrast, Deputy Inspector Steven Mauriello kept his rank — and lost just a few vacation days — despite what were arguably worse allegations.

Mauriello was accused of pressuring officers to downgrade felonies to misdemeanors and of running roughshod over minority men in the 81st Precinct’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, ordering mass arrests without good reason.

The claims were made by former cop Adrian Schoolcraft, who sued the NYPD in 2010 for forcing him into a mental institution after he made the allegations against Mauriello.

Schoolcraft secretly recorded the 29-year veteran pushing for an entire building full of people on Chauncey St. to be arrested.

“Everybody goes,” Mauriello said. “I don’t care .... Put them through the system. They got bandannas on? Arrest them. Everybody goes tonight. They’re underage? F—k it,” Mauriello railed on the tape, which rocked police headquarters.

Civil rights lawyer Joel Berger said Mauriello’s actions were worse than Nevels’ — and deserved a harsher penalty.

“In the NYPD disciplinary system it’s not what you did – it’s who you know,” Berger said. “The system is a farce. It doesn’t mete out discipline based on the merits of the case.”