NYPD Anti-Semitism?

Do NYPD Detectives vary their zeal according to the ethnicity of the crime victim? Do they discriminate againt Jewish people, for example, in their decisions which cases to take the time and trouble to investigate, and which to let die of neglect? What percentage of Jewish crime victims see their cases investigated and solved, and what percentage get only a patronizing phone call from a detective saying, “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing more that can be done.” How does this compare with other ethnic groups?

Might there be a citywide pattern?

My suspicion stems from my own experience with the 6th Pct. which is detailed in my November 30, 2009 letter to Mayor Bloomberg, below. Have a look.

It grieves me to have to write such a letter as this because I've always had, and still have, the profoundest respect for the marvelous men and women of the NYPD. That much said, I'm concerned you may have a clique of anti-Semites in the 6th Precinct Detective Squad. They wouldn't pursue my case and the only explanation they would offer was a lame, "I'm sorry, there's nothing more that can be done," when the truth is, there was plenty more that could have been done. This was accompanied by exactly the same kind of patronization and smirking that a lifetime of street experience has taught me to associate with closet anti-Semites.

No I can't prove anything. You never can. A facial expression is just a facial expression. But on the other hand, if anti-Semitism really is the problem then there ought to be a pattern. Do crimes in the 6th Pct. get an earnest investigation less often when the victims are Jewish? My history with these people is attached, including my letters to the 6th Precinct Commander, which were ignored.

I'm requesting that you investigate please, to see if there's a pattern.

My case was an easy collar, Identity Theft, and I even went and got the evidence for them from Chase Manhattan Fraud Unit because 6th Squad wouldn't (to the bewilderment even of the Chase Fraud Investigator, Mary Shipman, 1-888-813-7092, ext.7567, refer to card #4266 8411 3650 9203). Then, when I got them the evidence, instead of sending it to Handwriting Unit to verify that it was the chief suspect's, 6th Squad said the matter was "domestic" and used this as an excuse not to send it along, even though I've never had any relationship with the people in question, neither domestic, romantic, commercial, nor any other kind. (They're a clique that lives in the same apartment building.)

Let me tell you about my case. I live in an artists' community in the West Village, a place called Westbeth. Maybe you've heard of it. Part of what goes on in this artists' community is that the ones who don't have talent spend their time trying to murder the ones who do. That's what's been going on with me for twenty years now with the same clique of losers and I can't get the 6th Precinct detectives to look into it or do anything about it, not even when I bring in the evidence.

I don't know the full list of who's in this clique, I know the obvious ones only, but it's a clique, that much I can say for sure. What they have in common, the ones that I know about, is that they're all failed artists who are embittered because the world didn't want their art, and they're taking it out on me, a neighbor whose continuous progress shows on his face and in his life. It's a hatred born of envy. Their careers are dead in the water and mine isn't. (You can see my work at my website, if you like, www.fredericklembeck.com.)

These are all very creative people, mind you. You're going to be impressed when you see some of the creativity and ingenuity they've come up with to try to smear me. Just because they failed as artists doesn't mean their creative powers disappeared.

It began in the late 1980's. From out of nowhere I was suddenly being accused by these people of all manner of crimes, pranks, and wrongdoing. In unison they all began accusing me of making harassing phone calls to their homes (although not one of them bothered to report these alleged calls to the police or phone company) and all kinds of other pranks, vandalism, graffiti, etc., always things that are impossible to disprove. That's been the pattern from the very beginning. From the start they took the approach that if all of them stuck together nobody would believe it was all of them who were lying and me who was telling the truth. Most insidious by far were accusations that I was molesting women, including people's teenage daughters. None of it was true, but because it was a whole bunch of them persisting over time, and only one of me, it worked. It got over.

When I pointed out to people that if their accusations was true I'd be in jail, they got together in a huddle and had one of their members (a failed singer who had to settle for being a music teacher in the public schools) go to the 6th Precinct and lie to them in order to generate a civilian complain report, which they then showed around the neighborhood as if it were proof that I was some kind of a criminal. It was creativity at its best. In truth the police could tell from his vibrations he was a liar and it was some kind of scam and never even bothered to phone me. I learned about it later when I sued this guy in Small Claims Court when his slander cost me a freelance ad copy assignment. (I lost because there was no written contract.)

I crossed paths with his dishonest daughter in the laundry room and told her I was going to let everyone in the building know she was a liar. They then got the idea of seizing on this as a pretext for an incident. They sent her and her father to the police to claim I threatened her with the words, "I'm gonna get you," when what I said was, I'm going to let everyone in the building know you're a liar." But because there were no witnesses they were free to lie, generate a complaint report, then show it around the neighborhood as proof that this neighbor they're privately jealous of is some kind of a criminal. As I said, they're very creative people, and this is but one example. Had they been truthful about what I said there wouldn't have been anything to write a report about.

(The daughter paid a bitter price for her dishonesty, interestingly. At the time, she was applying to Princeton. One of the women in the building, Olga Cabral, stopped me in the hall and told me she was going to write to the Princeton Admissions Committee and ask them to look into it. Soon afterward the daughter's Princeton application was rejected. Was Olga's letter the reason? Did they call her in and smell a bad smell? See if the daughter wants to talk about this.)

But they didn't know when to quit. They kept it up until two of them started creating hard evidence (detailed below). But 6th Squad won't act. They just smirk.

My surmise about bigotry means nothing, I realize that. But a pattern of discrimination, on the other hand, would be detectable by an honest investigator. An honest investigator, in turn, requires an honest mayor. I believe we have one. I hope I'm not as naive and witless as I'm afraid I might be.

One of the ringleaders for sure is a guy named Randall Bassett. He's a salesman who wanted to become a writer but who, for whatever reason, didn't have it. For more than fifteen years now the clique has been telling the community that Bassett and his wife have a court order against me for molesting their daughters. But this is a lie, and always has been. There's no court order. There NEVER was a court order. (Nor was there ever any molestation.) The whole thing was more BS.

The truth is, they used all their imagination to try to find some way to come up with a court order against me but couldn't. They sent the Bassetts downtown with a whole memorized script and the result was that the court clerks wouldn't even process the paperwork. They could see at a glance he and his wife were lying, that something stunk to high heaven. They referred him to a mediation center outside the court system.

The mediation center had the Bassetts and I sign a balanced, evenhanded mediation agreement to keep away from each other, period. The word "court" doesn't appear even once in the mediation center agreement, not even in the heading. Nonetheless, the clique continues to this day to tell people (referring to this mediation agreement) that Randall Bassett and his wife have a court order against me for molesting their daughters, and this is what I have to live with because of the smirking detectives in 6th Squad who won't put a stop to it.

Bassett even went so far as to put his lie about having a court order in writing (in a Westbeth Security Desk Log entry). I made a Xerox of the fraudulent log entry and brought it to 6th Squad. Again the smirks and a refusal to act. I've attached a copy.

Another definite ringleader is Cathy Revland, a former supermodel whose looks collapsed when she hit middle age. She's one of the three women in this clique whose real complaint is that I didn't want to have sex with them. As you go through the attachments you'll see all the pranks she's pulled on me over the years, phone calls to Africa and China charged to my phone (for hundreds of dollars a piece), merchandise orders I never placed, etc. She's the prankster of the clique. She joined in claiming, again 100% falsely, that I molested her in the elevator, that I molested her daughters in the elevator and her friends' daughters and on and on, a standard drumbeat that every one of them puts out to this day.

When I first heard the scale of the lies Cathy Revland was making up about me attacking her and her daughters I used the word "bitch" in a message on her answering machine. The clique then had her file a case in the same arbitration center, claiming my use of profanity was harassing her. (Interestingly she didn't say a word about any of the alleged attacks in the elevator nor any of the other molestation during the Arbitration proceeding, when you would pretty much expect it to have been the central issue. The reason, of course, is that it would have been a felony to lie under oath. That's why no mention. Very creative, as needed, all of them. Except that the pieces don't fit. How can it be that as soon as it's under oath the woman suddenly makes no mention of having been attacked in the elevator?)

It's all there in the record somewhere, but 6th Squad won't budge. They won't even ask her why she neglected to mention the attacks and molestation when she had the chance.

The feminist arbitrators drafted an arbitration agreement with language slanted to make it sound like I was the bad guy for using a profane word. Det. Leahy of 6th Squad seized on this slanted language as an excuse not to investigate her later theft of my identity. Keep reading please.

As I said, the prankster side of Cathy Revland's nature finally moved up to Identity Theft. She tricked Chase Manhattan into issuing her a credit card in my name. Even when she graduated to Identity Theft 6th Squad wouldn't look into it. It was me who had to contact Chase Fraud and arrange for them to pull the original application with the identity thief's handwriting) and send it along to 6th Squad so they could send it along to Handwriting Unit for analysis. Once the original arrived, 6th Squad refused to send it along to Handwriting to confirm that the handwriting was Cathy Revland's, and refused to explain why. All their Det. Leahy would say was, "I'm sorry, there's nothing more than can be done." The all-important original is there in 6th Squad to this day. (I hope it hasn't been lost or misplaced.)

Sue Elliott, part of the clique, used to slip notes under my door offering me sex. (I'd be a cad if I sent along Xeroxes but if I have to I will.) When she didn't get what she wanted she also started claiming I was harassing her, the exact same script as Revland. Someone (what do you want to bet it was Cathy Revland?) talked her into sending herself typewritten death threats with "Fred" typed on the bottom so she could complain she was being threatened. This kind of stuff continues to this day.

These people are slowly but surely destroying my life and the detectives in the 6th Precinct are watching and enjoying every minute of it. The fraud this clique is committing is destroying my place in the community and the respect my neighbors have for me. This is dishonest and unfair, and also very cruel. Their various lies are becoming widely-believed truths because of endless repetition and lack of anyone ever asking about the other side. And they're getting away with it because a handful of smirking anti-Semites in the NYPD's 6th Squad are letting them. Even when we're talking about an arrest so easy they could do it over the phone, they still won't proceed.

Why please, Your Honor?

As I said, I can't prove anything. One never can. A facial expression is just a facial expression. Interpretation is in the eye of the beholder. But on the other hand, if anti-Semitism really is the problem in the 6th Precinct then there ought to be a pattern. Do crimes in the 6th Pct. get an effective investigation a smaller percentage of the time when the victims are Jewish?

Is the pattern citywide?

Item #1: THE PHONY COURT ORDER

For more than nineteen years now the clique has been telling the community that their pals Randy Bassett and his wife Mary have a court order against me for molesting their daughters. But this is a lie, and always has been. There’s no court order. There NEVER was a court order. (Nor was there ever any molestation.) The whole thing was more BS.

The truth is, they used all their imagination to try to find some way to come up with a court order against me but couldn’t. They even sent the Bassetts downtown with a memorized script but they still bungled it. The court clerks refused to process their paperwork. They could see it was a script. They could see Bassett and his wife were lying.

The clique then turned to a mediation center outside the court system. The mediation center had the Bassetts and I sign a balanced, evenhanded mediation agreement to keep away from each other, period.

The word “court” doesn’t appear even once in the mediation center agreement, not even in the heading. Nonetheless, the clique continues to this day to tell people (referring to this mediation agreement) that Randall Bassett and his wife have a “Court Order” against me for molesting their daughters, and this is what I have to live with because of the smirking detectives in 6th Squad who won’t put a stop to it.

Bassett even went so far as to put this lie in writing in a Westbeth Security Desk Logbook entry. Here’s a Xerox of the entry.

I brought the Xerox to 6th Squad, an arrest so easy they could do it over the phone. But they wouldn’t budge. Why?

Item #2 - FRAUDULENT CREDIT CARD

This is the monthly statement of a fraudulent credit card. It has my name on it but I never opened this account. An Identity Thief did.

The thief is one of the members of the clique. We’re talking about a very, very short list of suspects, but 6th Squad refuses to investigate. Even when I got the evidence for them from Chase Manhattan Fraud Unit (the original application with the Identity Thief’s handwriting on it) they wouldn’t send it along to the NYPD’s Handwriting Unit to verify that it was the chief suspect’s.

Incredibly, 6th Squad Detective Leahy’s exact words to me (when refusing to send the evidence along to Handwriting Unit) were, “I’m sorry, there’s nothing more that can be done.” He then cited the authority of a Lt. Hernandez.

What do you think? Was there nothing more that could be done?