Democracy In Albany

SIC Stuff

By DIA, Section News
Posted on Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 04:29:40 AM EST

I was never expecting anything to come out of the potential SIC review of the APD. However, I figured if they did do an "investigation" they might pretend that it was legit and maybe have some recommendations on things the APD could do to improve. Nope. Apparently the APD is perfect. This is my favorite part.

A public safety committee exists within the Common Council and it has direct and regular contact with APD. Issues such as those raised in your letter are best addressed through that committee, or directly with the chief of police

See, if we as citizens want to get to the truth, we should use the common council. That is the great advice from the SIC. Because there is a Public Safety Committe that will help us. So, if for instance we wanted the truth about the machine gun issue we should ask them to look into it. Remember when the head of the Public Safety Committe shouted down the President of the Council when she tried to question Tuffey about this? I believe he is pretty clear about saying there was no point in looking into this.

"What's the point of bringing this up 10 years ago, all kidding aside," Scalzo can be heard asking Morris on a tape of the meeting. "You smell blood in the water and now you want to go for the blood, that's what it's about."

Last week, Scalzo defended his actions, saying he didn't believe it was proper to talk about the machine guns during a finance meeting. He said the Public Safety Committee, which he heads, will continue to seek answers.

If it wasn't for the judge's findings that Chief Tuffey has failed in his duty in this investigation, this might be frustrating. Instead it just confirms that we are right and we need to get these crooks out of office.

And now as a reminder and to try to do the impossible, that being to publically humiliate the shills at the SIC for insulting the citizens of Albany with this tripe, I will reprint Albany Layman's piece on this issue.

In Oregon, Texas and Michigan, police officers and two prosecutors have been charged with federal firearms and tax evasion crimes for buying guns through their departments[...] [TU, 101707]
Say ... what do you suppose would happen if that same thing happened here in Albany? Cops obtaining illegal firearms, and doing it through the police department to avoid paying taxes on them?
What's that you say? You would guess that nothing would happen, no prosecutions, no comment from The Tan One? So cynical of you. So jaded. And so correct.
Brendan Lyons of the TU has written an excellent series of articles on this scandal. In the spirit of DIA's dysfunction posts, the following is a chronological look at how we've gotten to this point of Santa not delivering any indictments for the guilty parties. (Excerpts from the TU articles in italics.)

1993, 1994 and 1995 [TU, 102807]: multiple purchases of federally banned weapons [...] purchased at tax-exempt, discount prices. [TU, 100807] [F]ormer assistant chief, William M. Murray, [...] signed official departmental letters [stating] "These weapons will be used for official duties only, purchased by the department for departmental use only [...]" [TU, 102807]
December 2002: ATF agents find a machine gun for sale at a local gun dealer. The gun was registered to the Albany police force [and] had been brought to the store by Michael Romano, who is now a detective with internal affairs. [TU, 100807]
January 2003: Then-Police chief Robert Wolfgang sends a letter to ATF: "Please be advised that the following weapons, registered with BATF to the Albany City Police Department ... are not accounted for," the letter states, listing 12 guns. "Currently the departmental records identifying the officers who possessed the weapons cannot be located." [TU, 102807]
Unknown 2003: The U.S. attorney's office in Albany was briefed about the matter [...] by the ATF, according to sources familiar with the investigation. U.S. Attorney Glenn T. Suddaby said: "ATF never brought a case to our office. [TU, 100807]
January 2004: Former assistant chief Murray dies. [P]rior to [his] death he was visited by an Albany assistant police chief, Anthony Bruno, who removed an assault rifle that day. [TU, 112507]
April 2004: Wolfgang out as chief.
July 2004: John Curry, a part-time sheriff's department inspector, [...] went to Murray's home [...] at the request of Wolfgang. Curry [...] was asked to remove three large artillery shells, including a live one, from the basement. Curry may or may not have had assistance from the State Police bomb squad. Curry said he went alone and never documented the incident or notified Watervliet police. [TU, 112507]
December 2005: Tuffey in as chief.
February 2006: The TU files a FOIL request. [TU, 101707]
April 2006: [T]he city denied the Times Union's [FOIL request], stating: "Disclosing the weapons that are used by the police force in fighting crime in the City of Albany could endanger the life of the officers using them against criminals."
At the time the letter was written, city officials would have known their own internal investigation determined the guns were unsuitable for urban policing, had never been deployed or used by the department in any official capacity, and that some of the weapons were missing and had been purchased by individuals other than police officers, according to interviews with people
familiar with the case. [TU, 082607]
August 2007: TU publishes first article about the scandal. [TU, 082607] After that publication, Tuffey acknowledged the guns were never used by the department and that there was no policy to use them. Departmental sources said the guns were unsuitable for urban policing and that no officers received formal training on their use. [TU, 102807]
September 2007: Tuffey goes before the Public Safety Committee and his statements led Common Council President Shawn Morris and Public Safety Committee Chairman James Scalzo [...] to believe all of the guns were recovered and destroyed[.] [TU, 102807]
October 2007: Oct 8: TU reports that there are an unknown number of guns still missing. [TU, 100807] Oct 10: At a Common Council finance meeting, Tuffey sez: "I never lie and I never will lie. ... I said to you that all the guns we had in our possession were destroyed," Tuffey said. "I don't know how many guns were purchased. ... I don't know. There's no records, guys." [TU, 102807]
October 2007: The [Albany Police Officers Union] served papers [...] seeking to intervene in a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by the Times Union, which is asking a judge to order the city to release the records. [TU, 101707] The union says that the identities of the officers who were in on the gun deals should not be made public as a matter of internal job performance or some such shit.
So...
What's you favorite aspect of all this? The city officially lying in its denial of the TU's FOIL request? The TU knowing more about how many guns are out there than Tuffey knows? Suddaby's non-responsive response? The artillery (artillery!) pick-up that was done at Wolfgang's request, months after Wolfgang resigned? So difficult to choose.

< Albany's Other Gun Problem | More gangs and guns >

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