The Name of NYPD Brutality: Anthony Bologna

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The Lieutenant Deputy Inspector who pepper-sprayed a kettled, defenseless woman has been identified as Anthony Bologna. He was IDed, in part, by a lawyer representing one of the people Bologna improperly arrested during the 2004 RNC.

The Guardian has learned that the officer, named by activists as deputy inspector Anthony Bologna, stands accused of false arrest and civil rights violations in a claim brought by a protester involved in the 2004 demonstrations at the Republican national convention.

[snip]

Alan Levine, a civil rights lawyer representing Post A Posr, a protester at the 2004 event, told the Guardian that he filed an action against Bologna and another officer, Tulio Camejo, in 2007. The case, filed at the New York Southern District Court, is expected to be heard next year.

[snip]

The lawyer said Posr was arrested on 31 August 2004, after he approached the driver of a Volkswagen festooned with anti-abortion slogans.

[snip]

Levine said: “Police contend that Posr hit the man with a rolled-up newspaper. He said he was just talking to the guy. Bologna ordered another officer, Camejo, to arrest Posr.”

Posr was charged with two counts of disorderly conduct and one count of second degree harassment, and held until September 2. On November 8, all charges against him were dropped.

Levine said that, in a departure from normal police procedure, his client was held in a special detention facility, at Pier 57, where he and others arrested were held until the protests were over.

It sounds like this guy is using his badge to legally and physically abuse people whose politics he disagrees with–someone politically debating choice in 2004 and a woman opposing MOTU power this weekend.

I don’t expect Ray Kelly to do anything about such an abusive officer on his staff (in any case, the union would presumably defend Bologna if Kelly tried to fire him). But so long as he remains on the force, we have a name and a face to personify the NYPD’s brutality: Anthony Bologna.

Update: Bologna’s rank fixed. One of the women who got partly sprayed by him apparently incorrectly used that rank. h/t Cynthia Kouril.

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29 replies
  1. Saltinwound says:

    Nice to see the NYPD making the news in the UK for this, if not the States. Do we know for a fact that all these guys are technically NYPD? No one is being paid by the Feds, but is under NYPD cover, for example?

  2. bamage says:

    This is no laughing matter, but…
    seriously? The name and face of NYC police brutality is –
    “Tony Baloney”!? wth?

  3. guest says:

    he also maced the cops holding up the orange netting near those women. why doesn’t the police union do something about standing up for them against vicious tony baloney’s reckless and careless violence?

  4. Richard Stack says:

    There must be psychological testing they could use on police officers to weed out sadistic psychopaths like this person plainly is. In any case, he should be removed immediately from the police force!

  5. BoxTurtle says:

    Even money says the person who released the officers name is charged with SOMETHING for doing so.

    Boxturtle (Probably under a terrorism statute)

  6. Jim White says:

    In somewhat related news, it looks like the cops in North Miami Beach are advocating violence against citizen activists:

    North Miami Beach police are investigating a threatening submission to a resident’s blog that was posted using a city-issued computer.
    The anonymous post invited criminals to pay a visit to two outspoken city activists.
    The statements under investigation were submitted to gadfly Stephanie Kienzle’s blog votersopinion.com and was traced back to a city-issued police department computer, North Miami Beach Major Kathy Katerman confirmed.

    Link: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/09/26/2426328/north-miami-beach-threatening.html

  7. cynthia Kouril says:

    EW,

    The Guy is not a Lt. He’s ans inspector according to the gardian, that is a MUCH higher rank than Lt. It is just below Chief.

  8. Cynthia Kouril says:

    EW,
    According to the gaurdian he’s an Inspector not an Lt.

    Inspector is a very high rank, just below Chief.

  9. ed says:

    media coverage of this protest has been a central and revealing part of the story. US outlets have fluctuated between ignoring the crowds gathering in the financial district, or as near to it as they can get,and belittling them. now the best story so far has come from a UK newspaper not an american one. doesn’t all this tell us a lot about the state of the US media post-Iraq, post 2008 crash?

  10. emptywheel says:

    @BoxTurtle: His name was identified by a photographer who zoomed in on his badge. It circulated around the Toobz, but as the Guardian story suggests, this lawyer was on the look out for any of the people he was suing.

  11. Andrew says:

    Searching the SDNY PACER site for this guy’s name brings up like eight different lawsuits.

    Most of them are from the 2004 RNC protests, but at least one of them was filed in 2003 over an environmental protest.

  12. Iolaus says:

    @ed: I forget who it was who first started calling NY Times reporters “stenographers.” Greenwald, maybe? Whatever. Big Media is just another branch of Big Corporate America, and reports accordingly.

  13. quidditas says:

    @Richard Stack:

    They’re not born psychopathic. They BECOME psychopathic, which is why early retirement is sometimes the way to go.

    Maybe that’s what he’s after. It was so blatant, he has to know that they would complain. He has to know they were filming.

    Maybe he thinks he’ll do better getting out now, before the MOTU change the pension rules.

    Did that work for the old farts at the UAW?

    Maybe he’s the smartest anarchist at the protest.

  14. Nox Ninox says:

    I don’t expect Ray Kelly to do anything about such an abusive officer on his staff (in any case, the union would presumably defend Bologna if Kelly tried to fire him).

    Why assume that Bologna is just some rogue cop who was not acting under orders?

    His high officer rank and the NYPD’s swift, categorical dismissals of any wrongdoing would suggest the attack was not only condoned but premeditated.

  15. thatvisionthing says:

    @Iolaus:

    You know, Stephen Colbert didn’t actually use the word stenographer at the 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner:

    But, listen, let’s review the rules. Here’s how it works. The President makes decisions. He’s the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put ’em through a spell check and go home.

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/04/30/206303/-Re-Improved-Colbert-transcript-(now-with-complete-text-of-Colbert-Thomas-video!)

  16. thatvisionthing says:

    @Nox Ninox:

    I’m waiting for SNL to do a skit where Obama has Balogna and the young women he maced over for beer on the lawn. Or a block party for the NYPD and all the protesters. Now THAT would be fun.

  17. thatvisionthing says:

    @emptywheel:

    Officer ID, precinct contact info, per Daily Kos yesterday:

    http://www.dailykos.com/comments/1020542/43433063#c2

    Anthony Bologna D0x
    NYPD Deputy Inspector
    Patrol Boro Manhattan South – 212-477-6181
    phone: (518) 989-9051
    add: 46.5 Sawyer Ave, Unit A, Staten Island, NY, US

    Please do not post info on his family. This is an issue of accountability for the individual, justice for the victims, and protection for the future. Included in the victims of this are the other officers – both who suffered from the attack and all who potentially suffer from attempts to incite riots and provoke further violence escalating.

    (what’s a DOx?)

  18. stephen dossick says:

    Hi,

    I’m a long time Wheel reader, first time poster. I’m a psychiatrist with an office at 12th and University and was upstairs Saturday where at about 2:45 the screaming began right downstairs. Actually had a 16 yo kid with his parents from Long Island Peter King territory who wouldn’t go to school because he’s into ecology and liberal causes for which he is ostracized (and for being super smart).

    My opinion of the NYPD changed in 2004 when my wife and I were selling T shirts at Union Square during the Republican convention to raise $$$ for Move On. I saw them beating and arresting harmless kids then. I talked to a lot of the cops at the square and found them to be the most bizarrely politically ignorant people in New York. So Tony Baloney– who is he? He is THE cop who was in charge of all lower Manhattan in 2004. That’s their leadership?

    I’m so sorry I wasn’t downstairs when this was happening. Would have invoked ‘I’m a doctor’ and got the girls water for their eyes. Wouldn’t have backed down.

    Hippies with a good civil rights lawyer rule!

    BTW thanks for everything, Marcy.

  19. bmaz says:

    @stephen dossick:

    Stephen, welcome!. Not sure why, but your first comment unfortunately got caught up in our filter. As you can see, I corrected that and hopefully it will not happen again.

    Thanks for relating the story of what you witnessed; the stories are important; and they are starting to take hold. But, that said, do not be a stranger here; we thrive on new and different perspective and professional skills. It is what distinguishes our comment section from most others. Join in!

  20. Old Atlantic says:

    One of the issues that should be investigated and asked in court is whether these high level police officers look at this tape in their private office or home for purposes of gratification? That could be part of the underlying reason this happened.

    Such a sequence of actions might be given a name. So if an officer brutalizes someone, especially a woman, especially an attractive one, and it is videotaped, and then later they or other officers view the tape for purposes of gratification, this would be called doing a Tony Bologna, Bologning or Kellying or Bloomberging.

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