A recent report by Capital New York claims that for the past ten years, thousands of edits to Wikipedia pages related to police brutality have been occurring and can be traced directly to the New York Police Department.
The report says in part, “Computer users identified by Capital as working on the NYPD headquarters’ network have edited and attempted to delete Wikipedia entries for several well-known victims of police altercations, including entries for Eric Garner, Sean Bell, and Amadou Diallo. Capital identified 85 NYPD addresses that have edited Wikipedia.”
Pages referencing the department’s stop and frisk policies, as well as pages detailing certain political leaders, have also been altered:
“Garner raised both his arms in the air” was edited to “Garner flailed his arms about as he spoke.”
“Garner, who was considerably larger than any of the officers, continued to struggle with them,” was added to Wikipedia’s description, and “Use of the chokehold has been prohibited,” was changed to “Use of the chokehold is legal, but has been prohibited.”
The edits appear to minimize controversy and bolster the image of the people and actions connected to the NYPD.
A spokeswoman for NYPD told Capital the incidents are under review.
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