William Lawson
Jul 24, 2017 · 2 min read

In addition to my other comment. A few years ago I came upon the scene of a horrific accident on the Upper East Side in which a young French woman crossing 1st Avenue with the light was mown down by a speeding garbage truck driver who was according to multiple witnesses “driving like a bat out of hell” as he barreled around the corner without yielding to the pedestrian. The woman was literally cut in two by the force of the impact, he was going that fast. The NYPD failed to charge the driver with a single crime except driving without a license. No charges were filed in relation to the woman’s death, despite all of the witness accounts of his driving and despite the very obvious fact that the severity of her injuries were caused by a truck at high speed. No attempt was made to recover any security camera footage which might have captured the crash. The NYPD basically closed the case as a tragic accident, not the crime it was.

A couple of weeks later I came across the woman’s heartbroken French parents who had traveled to New York to find answers. They were putting up posters on 1st avenue appealing for witnesses to the crime, and were carrying out their own investigation “because the NYPD won’t help us.” The lady was in tears as she told me that the NYPD had basically refused to pursue any justice in relation to her daughter’s death and so they were forced to pursue a civil case against the driver and his company. She kept saying “how can this be, how can they do this?” All I could say to her was that it was unfortunate, but we don’t have a functional police department. We really don’t.

    William Lawson

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