NYC NOW - September 10, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: September 10, 2024

The New York Times reports that City Hall is pushing for the resignation of NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban, according to two unnamed sources. Meanwhile, disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein is recovering from an emergency heart surgery on Monday, though his condition remains unclear. Plus, Mayor Eric Adams will not attend any 9/11 memorial ceremonies on Wednesday after testing positive for COVID-19. Finally, WNYC’s Bahar Ostadan provides further details on NYPD Commissioner Caban amid reports that City Hall is pressuring the him to resign.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Tuesday, September 10th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. The New York Times report, City Hall is pushing for the resignation of NYPD Commissioner Edward Cabon. The report cites two unnamed people with knowledge of the matter. Federal investigator sees Cabon's mobile phone and those of some of his close associates last week. At least two city council members have also called for the commissioner's resignation.

The municipality's first Latino police commissioner, he's served in the role since July of last year. Double-N-MIS Baha'Ostenon will join us later with more on this. Disgrace, movie producer Harvey Weinstein is recovering from an emergency heart surgery yesterday. Double to NIC's Charles Lane reports, his condition is unclear. According to his lawyer, prison consultant, and publicist, Weinstein was rushed from his cell on Rikers Island to a Manhattan hospital, Sunday night. They said the 72-year-old suffers from a plethora of health issues that require ongoing treatment. His representatives praised jail staff for their quick response. Weinstein was

convicted of sexual assault in New York and California. His 23-year prison sentence in New York was recently overturned, where a retrial is slated for November. Mayor O'Cadams has tested positive for COVID-19. Most of the events on the schedule, his schedule yesterday, were canceled. to accept an NYPD briefing on a recently thwarted terrorist attack. A spokesperson for the mayor also told 10-10 wins. Adams will not attend any of the 9-11 memorial ceremony is planned for tomorrow across the five boroughs. The news comes as COVID cases fall in New York City. They rose over the summer thanks to a highly contagious variant of the virus.

Pharmacies and doctor's offices are just starting to get shipments of the latest vaccine, which the FDA approved last month. Sunny and 78 today and mostly sunny and 77 tomorrow. The theme continues all the way through Sunday with temperatures in the 80 degree mark. Stay close. There's more after the break. All eyes are on the NYPD this week as the IRS and federal prosecutors investigate the police commissioner and his inner circle. And now there are reports that City Hall itself is pressuring the commissioner. to step down.

WNIC's NYPD reporter. Bahaar Osteron joins us now. Bahaar, let's start. What do we know so far about these ongoing investigations? So first last week, we learned that federal investigators rated several top officials in Mayor Adams' inner circle. Those officials were first deputy mayor, Sheena Wright, Bill Banks, the deputy mayor for public safety, his brother, David Banks, the city's school chancellor.

and Tim Pearson, who's a top mayoral aide and a former high-ranking NYPD official. And then it came out that the IRS and federal and prosecutors seized the phones of NYPD Commissioner Eddie Caban, his brother, his chief of staff, and three other police officials. You reported on a culture of special treatment toward top police brass under Mayor Adams. Tell us more about that. That's right. Critics say that top brass have sort of always been awarded immunity within the NYPD. But I think what I've been told is unique about this administration is Adams being a former cop himself

and installing other former law enforcement officials in top seats at City Hall, like Banks, like Pearson, has sort of emboldened that culture. One example is the NYPD's chief of department, Jeffrey Madre. A retired cop actually chased in 2021, chased a group of boys through Brooklyn with his gun. It was this chief of department Jeffrey Madriy who intervened in that former cop's arrest, ordering police to void the arrest and dropped criminal charges against him. At the time, the city's police oversight agency recommended that Madri forfeit 10 vacation days for sort of abuse of his authority. But Adams, who appoints the NYPD commissioner, personally asked then-Commissioner Gishant-Soul not to discipline Madri. She did anyway and resigned just two weeks later.

Now, the new NYPD commissioner, Caban, who's currently being investigated, decided to drop disciplinary charges against Madri. The other sort of example of this, I was actually at the NYPD headquarters last week when a lot of the news about these investigations. broke out, and the head of public relations there ended up kicking out two reporters, the New York Post police reporter and the New York Times police reporter. Now, they said at the time it was because those reporters had reached out to police unions for help scheduling interviews. How has that affected policing on the ground? What's the impact to everyday New Yorkers? Adams has really focused on cracking down on low-level crimes, like jumping the turnstops. And, public drinking. Arrests are up on all of those fronts. There have been tens of thousands of people

arrested for those crimes. Stop and Frisk is another great example. The NYPD has stopped one million drivers and tens of thousands of pedestrians since Adams took office. Just 5% of those pedestrians stopped were white. That's actually a much starker racial disparity than existed in the height of stop and frisk under former lawyer Bloomberg. The New York Times citing an anonymous source reports the Adams administration is capturing the bond to resign. What can we expect to see this week? That's right, Michael.

So two city council members last week have already called for his resignation. That's city council member Bob Holden and council member Tiffany Caban, no relation to Eddie Caban. Like you said, Politico reported yesterday in the New York Times today, citing anonymous sources that his resignation is expected in the coming days and that City Hall itself is calling for Caban's resignation. So we'll just have to keep following the news and see how this plays out. Well, I'm kind of wondering what's going to take place or what's even possible this week because we understand the mayor has been diagnosed with COVID-19. So is he even going to be

in action or is he someplace recuperating? Do we know? It's a good question. You know, we'll have to see exactly how this plays out. Police Commissioner, Kiband was actually speaking publicly at one police plaza yesterday. There was a security briefing for the high holidays. I think after Mayor Adams, you know, release some updates to his schedule, people were wondering, well, will Kaban show up? He, in fact, did. He spoke for several minutes.

He did not address, you know, any of the ongoing investigations or rumors about his potential resignation. But, you know, here in the newsroom, we're going to keep looking into what the IRS may be investigating and certainly any connections with his brother, who, like I. said his phone was ceased last week as well. And right now, Bahar, as best we know, just two council members who have called for the resignation, it's not expanding. It's not going beyond those other two, as we know of this morning. Not yet. Yeah, just those two. Like I said, you know, as we were reporting out the story about the NYPD culture under Adams, there have been critics,

both on the advocacy side, but also former law enforcement officials, including former heads of departments. You know, when Caban first took office and then again, about six months later, he has fired several top officials. And that's not totally uncommon for, you know, new commissioners to bring in their own people. But there's certainly a small group of former heads of department who are looking back and saying, you know, there's sort of a level of combative behavior and lack of professionalism in this iteration of one police plaza, then past administrations. NYC's NYPD reporter Bahar, Osterdam Bahar. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Michael. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Check us out for updates every weekday, three times a date, for the latest news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.