Almost 90 percent of New York police officers said the city has become less safe under Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, according to a survey released by the police union. Morale for cops was also low, with the average survey respondent rating morale at 2.49 on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being highest morale. Fully 6,000 officers of the NYPD’s roughly 24,000 rank and file cops took the survey, which also showed that 86 percent of officers would not recommend the job to family members and 89 percent would leave the job if a better paid opportunity presented itself. Department officials said they had not seen the survey and that it was not scientific. (New York Post)
Nausheen Rahman, 28, of Staten Island was charged last night with the murder of an infant, as well as concealing a corpse. The child, who is believed to have been Rahman’s offspring (no information on sex, gender or age was released), was found in a trash can at her home on Saturday, police officials said. Emergency medical workers pronounced the child dead upon their arrival to the scene. (The New York Times)
Douglas Durst, the 71-year-old real estate mogul behind projects stretching from One World Trade Center up to Times Square, has talked about his decision to undergo elective amputation surgery last summer to remove a leg that had troubled him since 1972. Mr. Durst, at that time living with his wife, children and au pair in Woody Point, Newfoundland and Labrador, suffered a severe injury to his leg when he attempted to repair a wood-fired heater that exploded, lodging a chunk of cast iron stove in his calf. After suffering from a variety of ailments for years, Mr. Durst convinced his doctors to chop of his leg and replace it with a prosthetic—and he even got his insurance company to pay for it against their wishes. (Politico)
William Fields, a 53-year-old who has been imprisoned for almost 30 years since pleading guilty to sodomy in the late 1980s, was released late last week following a confrontation between an expert witness and Judge Daniel Conviser. Mr. Fields, who allegedly raped an 11-year-old boy and a 12-year-old boy, was released after John Thomassen, a psychologist paid to determine Mr. Fields’ fitness to live within society, filed a report filled with errors (including misstating the number of victims of Fields as 23 instead of two) and angered Judge Conviser by stating that the judge had restricted his ability to answer questions, an accusation Judge Conviser called “completely inappropriate.” (Daily News)
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A high-end bespoke tailoring outfit opened its first store in Brookfield Place today. Hickey Freeman, whose suits go for between $1,800 and $5,000 and are made-to-order, has long been a bastion of menswear in Rochester and now plans to expand rapidly in New York. Those looking for a sartorial aesthetic could do worse than Hickey Freeman, which opened its doors in Rochester in 1899. The will feature both ready to wear items and custom fitting. (DNAinfo)
