Frank Palestro, the latest cop to call the NYPD out on corruption, has gotten serious reactions from his fellow police and the union, though he maintains he was performing his duties. The union delegate and nine-year police veteran was outed after secretly reporting Lt. Susana Seda for behavior such as telling cops to write summonses for traffic violations they didn’t actually see, not taking complaints and tampering with evidence at a crime scene. Since then, he’s been transferred so he won’t have to deal with the ire of his precinct peers “I was the [Patrolmen's Benevolent Association] delegate, and now I’m labeled a rat for doing what I was supposed to do,” said Palestro. “This will stay with me for the rest of my career.”
According to Palestro, union reps do not commonly report the infractions of their fellow officers. “I wrestled with it for a while because I’m a delegate and we don’t do things like this,” he told the Daily News. In the end he made three anonymous phone calls reporting corruption within his precinct, but the log of his calls somehow made its way into the vents of his locker at the stationhouse! “[Seda] told everybody I was a ‘f—— rat,’” he said, adding that the union has also reprimanded him. So far no action has been taken against the accused lieutenant.
Palestro’s allegations follow a study that revealed widespread and deeply ingrained corruption regarding how the NYPD’s crime statistics are obtained, as well as whistleblowing by several other members of the force.
Canadian Whistleblower Richard Colvin will get paid
Canadian Whistleblower Richard Colvin will get paid by the federal government for the diplomat’s legal fees. Richard Colvin is the Canadian who blew the whistle on alleged Afghan prisoner abuse.
At the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade an official said that two invoices from Mr. Colvin’s previous lawyer, in the amount of $20,000, are being paid and payment for a third invoice, which was submitted in December, has been met with approval.
Additional funds have also been set aside to a maximum of $50,000, to pay potential and additional legal expenses, according to Joffre LeBlanc.
In a letter sent to the Military Police Complaints Commission, Mr. Colvin’s Toronto attorney, Owen Rees, said his client believed the Canadian government was refusing to pay his legal bills as payback for Mr. Colvin’s revelations before a special House of Commons committee in the fall.
Mr. Rees said the government was basically not paying Mr. Colvin’s legal fees after his testimony.
Mr. Colvin, currently an intelligence officer at the Canadian embassy in Washington, revealed to the Canada committee that several senior government officials were aware that Canadian Forces in Afghanistan were handing over detainees to face likely torture by Afghani authorities in 2006 – 2007.
His allegations rocked the government and led to furious denials from generals, former generals and cabinet ministers, including Defence Minister Peter MacKay, who questioned Mr. Colvin’s credibility.
Conservative MPs on the Afghan committee made claims that Mr. Colvin had been a victim of fraud by Taliban propaganda.
Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh says it is ridiculous that Mr. Colvin has had to fight so hard to retain independent legal representation, and he doesn’t believe the department was merely slow to respond to the request for money.
“The Harper Conservatives did not hesitate to pay former prime minister Brian Mulroney’s legal fees,” said Mr. Dosanjh. “Taxpayers paid over $2-million to cover Mr. Mulroney’s legal costs at the inquiry into his dealings with [German-Canadian businessman] Karlheinz Schreiber.”
A spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office suggested politics played no role in either case. “In both cases, the decision to reimburse legal fees was taken at the departmental level,” Andrew MacDougall said.
At this time, two of the three opposition parties claim they’ve heard the government will not restart the committee on Afghanistan once Canadian Parliament returns from its forced hiatus. The committee is where the most attrocious revelations about the treatment of Afghan prisoners have been revealed.
Prime Minister Harper’s decision to prorogue Parliament dissolved all committees. It would take the unanimity from all parties in the House of Commons to re-start the opposition-dominated committee.
However a spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office said opposition parties are making a fuss about nothing.
“Afghanistan remains a public policy priority, and the special committee on Afghanistan will be reconstituted once the new session begins,” deputy press secretary Andrew MacDougall said Wednesday.
New Democratic MP Paul Dewar was cynical about this. “They shut down Parliament,” said Mr. Dewar, the party’s foreign affairs critic. “I don’t put anything past them. They could kill a committee. That’s nothing.”
The Liberal Party is also critical, but Bloc Québécois defence critic Claude Bachand seemed prepared to give the Tories the benefit of the doubt. “I don’t think they can stop the committee,” said Mr. Bachand.
Demands made by opposition committee members to see uncensored documentation in December created a standoff with the Conservative government.
The Liberals introduced a motion demanding that the records be put forward; failing that, Mr. MacKay could be called before the “bar” in Parliament to respond to questions, and could even be removed from his seat if found in contempt.
General Rick Hillier – Colvin Testimony on Detainee Torture Ludicrous
A whistleblower complaint got a little messy Tuesday morning as lawyers argued about whether Manitobans should pay higher power rates while things get sorted out.
Manitoba Hydro did ask the Public Utilities Board for a 2.9 per cent rate hike effective April 1. But it’s clear the “mega-hearing” needed to determine whether Hydro deserves a rate increase will take months longer than that, especially if the whistleblower’s concerns over Hydro’s financial and power supply risks spark an entirely separate hearing.
In the meantime, the PUB is considering whether Hydro needs more money from homeowners now – perhaps a 2.9 per cent hike, or something less than that.
But some intervenors at Tuesday’s hearing said Hydro shouldn’t be rewarded for stalling the regulatory process and releasing only a trickle of documents. The province’s big corporate power users said giving Hydro a rate hike without a real hearing would set an “injurious and unprincipled precedent.”
Whistleblower asks Manitoba Hydro about $160 million
Hydro argued it needed modest and regular rate hikes to maintain its good financial picture.
Meanwhile, at the downtown courthouse, Hydro began an appeal to force the whistleblower to hand over her reports to KPMG, another consulting firm Hydro has hired to test the whistleblower’s findings that Hydro could face bankruptcy and blackouts.
Yet another hearing is likely later this week to discuss a ban on publication.
According to Palestro, union reps do not commonly report the infractions of their fellow officers. “I wrestled with it for a while because I’m a delegate and we don’t do things like this,” he told the Daily News. In the end he made three anonymous phone calls reporting corruption within his precinct, but the log of his calls somehow made its way into the vents of his locker at the stationhouse! “[Seda] told everybody I was a ‘f—— rat,’” he said, adding that the union has also reprimanded him. So far no action has been taken against the accused lieutenant.