The NYPD headquarters at One Police Plaza are the site from which changes to Eric Garner and other police brutality victims' Wikipedia pages were made. (Photo: Ed Yourdon/flickr/cc)
Mar 13, 2015
Edits to the Wikipedia pages of Eric Garner, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, and other victims of police brutality in New York City have been traced back to the NYPD headquarters at One Police Plaza, according to a report.
The news outlet Capital New York broke the story on Friday. According to their reporting, the edits made to the pages which detailed Garner's death last July at the hands of NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo include:
- "Garner raised both his arms in the air" was changed to "Garner flailed his arms about as he spoke."
- "[P]ush Garner's face into the sidewalk" was changed to "push Garner's head down into the sidewalk."
- "Use of the chokehold has been prohibited" was changed to "Use of the chokehold is legal, but has been prohibited."
- The sentence, "Garner, who was considerably larger than any of the officers, continued to struggle with them," was added to the description of the incident.
- Instances of the word "chokehold" were replaced twice, once to "chokehold or headlock," and once to "respiratory distress."
In previous years, IP addresses that linked back to One Police Plaza also attempted to delete the Wikipedia pages for Sean Bell, an unarmed man killed by police in a hail of gunfire in November 2006, as well as Amadou Diallo, shot dead by an officer who claimed to mistake Diallo's wallet for a gun in November 2013.
Bell's page was also edited to change the sentence "one Latino and two African-American men were shot a total of 50 times" to "one Latino and two African-American men were shot at a total of 50 times" (emphasis added).
An NYPD spokesperson, Det. Cheryl Crispin, told Capital New York that the matter was "under internal review."
Join Us: News for people demanding a better world
Common Dreams is powered by optimists who believe in the power of informed and engaged citizens to ignite and enact change to make the world a better place. We're hundreds of thousands strong, but every single supporter makes the difference. Your contribution supports this bold media model—free, independent, and dedicated to reporting the facts every day. Stand with us in the fight for economic equality, social justice, human rights, and a more sustainable future. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover the issues the corporate media never will. Join with us today! |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
Edits to the Wikipedia pages of Eric Garner, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, and other victims of police brutality in New York City have been traced back to the NYPD headquarters at One Police Plaza, according to a report.
The news outlet Capital New York broke the story on Friday. According to their reporting, the edits made to the pages which detailed Garner's death last July at the hands of NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo include:
- "Garner raised both his arms in the air" was changed to "Garner flailed his arms about as he spoke."
- "[P]ush Garner's face into the sidewalk" was changed to "push Garner's head down into the sidewalk."
- "Use of the chokehold has been prohibited" was changed to "Use of the chokehold is legal, but has been prohibited."
- The sentence, "Garner, who was considerably larger than any of the officers, continued to struggle with them," was added to the description of the incident.
- Instances of the word "chokehold" were replaced twice, once to "chokehold or headlock," and once to "respiratory distress."
In previous years, IP addresses that linked back to One Police Plaza also attempted to delete the Wikipedia pages for Sean Bell, an unarmed man killed by police in a hail of gunfire in November 2006, as well as Amadou Diallo, shot dead by an officer who claimed to mistake Diallo's wallet for a gun in November 2013.
Bell's page was also edited to change the sentence "one Latino and two African-American men were shot a total of 50 times" to "one Latino and two African-American men were shot at a total of 50 times" (emphasis added).
An NYPD spokesperson, Det. Cheryl Crispin, told Capital New York that the matter was "under internal review."
Nadia Prupis
Nadia Prupis is a former Common Dreams staff writer. She wrote on media policy for Truthout.org and has been published in New America Media and AlterNet. She graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a BA in English in 2008.
Edits to the Wikipedia pages of Eric Garner, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, and other victims of police brutality in New York City have been traced back to the NYPD headquarters at One Police Plaza, according to a report.
The news outlet Capital New York broke the story on Friday. According to their reporting, the edits made to the pages which detailed Garner's death last July at the hands of NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo include:
- "Garner raised both his arms in the air" was changed to "Garner flailed his arms about as he spoke."
- "[P]ush Garner's face into the sidewalk" was changed to "push Garner's head down into the sidewalk."
- "Use of the chokehold has been prohibited" was changed to "Use of the chokehold is legal, but has been prohibited."
- The sentence, "Garner, who was considerably larger than any of the officers, continued to struggle with them," was added to the description of the incident.
- Instances of the word "chokehold" were replaced twice, once to "chokehold or headlock," and once to "respiratory distress."
In previous years, IP addresses that linked back to One Police Plaza also attempted to delete the Wikipedia pages for Sean Bell, an unarmed man killed by police in a hail of gunfire in November 2006, as well as Amadou Diallo, shot dead by an officer who claimed to mistake Diallo's wallet for a gun in November 2013.
Bell's page was also edited to change the sentence "one Latino and two African-American men were shot a total of 50 times" to "one Latino and two African-American men were shot at a total of 50 times" (emphasis added).
An NYPD spokesperson, Det. Cheryl Crispin, told Capital New York that the matter was "under internal review."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.