Post by outgirl on Apr 28, 2004 12:05:34 GMT -5
The Hip-Hop Cop Unmasked
Lil Kim and Foxy Brown have had little musical impact over the last few years, but according to Derrick Parker they can take credit for the expansion of the NYPD's hip-hop surveilance squad.
In this week's Village Voice, Parker recounts a shootout that occured at NYC radio station HOT 97. "The February 25, 2001, shooting followed an on-air appearance by Lil' Kim and involved more than 20 people, five guns, and 22 shots fired. One person was injured. The incident reportedly stemmed from a beef between the two female MCs. "That's when the rap stuff went global. We found out every club the rappers attend, every bar, every place where they hang out, what kind of cars they drive; all that stuff came up."
Derrick Parker a 14-year veteran, who has climbed from patrolman to undercover narcotics officer says he noticed that rappers were mingling with criminals and kicked off his one man intelligence unit. "I saw a pattern," says Parker. "The pattern was that the rap music industry was becoming more like organized crime. It was running side by side with the traditional steps of organized crime. . . . What interested me was I saw a lot of these guys that were really bad dudes in Brooklyn starting to latch onto rappers and entertainers. So I used to monitor the incidents, department-wide, of anything that happened."
He would be on the scene for any and all hip-hop events, developing a database that became the foundation for the rap patrol. In 2003, Miami police contacted him to train their officers and he has fielded calls from detectives in Georgia, Chicago, L.A., Las Vegas, West Bubblefuck. "Everything got so big that all the chiefs knew who I was. Now everybody started dropping in like parachutes.." Since he began there are many more officers involved in rapper surveillance. Why focus on rappers? The theory is once they leave the neighborhood, the criminal element goes along with them. They may not be doing crimes themselves, but people around them are or were involved in crimes. Parker believes this makes it important to keep tabs on their activities. Nothing seems to be off-limits: photographs, videotaping, and he hints at wiretapping.
Ice-T once said that he moved out of his old neighborhood because once your making big money, it's like having a piece of meat in a cage with starving tigers. If you don't leave then your putting yourself at risk. In the article Dame Dash rubber stamps that analogy, "If you don't have enough money to take the proper precautions to where you know you're safe, you still kind of live like a criminal because you're still dog food for the wolves. You're the one who has more than the next, so people can come at you in that kind of way. A lot of these dudes roll with entourages because they feel safer like that."
When does this kind of investigating cross the line? Even if your doing nothing wrong, is it an invasion of privacy to have cops snapping pics of you wherever you go? On one hand Parker says they only look at people who were, or are associated with criminals, and claims that crimes against rappers are probably prevented because criminals know the rappers are being watched. On the other hand, you have the unsolved murders of Biggie, Pac, and Parker says, "you have over 100 incidents in different boroughs where [rappers] have either been the victims of crimes, or they've assaulted someone. There's been robberies, shootings, stabbings." He said that to legitimize the surveillance. Either the cops are letting these crimes happen or the rappers aren't being watched as tightly as it's being reported.
Jam Master Jay's murder remains unsolved as well. Parker is regarded as an expert but hasn't been given full control of the case, to which he says, "All I would ask them to do would be to supply me with the following [unnamed specifics] and I would have the case solved, and you can quote me on that," says Parker. "I know the case that well."
Whutup.com April 2004
Lil Kim and Foxy Brown have had little musical impact over the last few years, but according to Derrick Parker they can take credit for the expansion of the NYPD's hip-hop surveilance squad.
In this week's Village Voice, Parker recounts a shootout that occured at NYC radio station HOT 97. "The February 25, 2001, shooting followed an on-air appearance by Lil' Kim and involved more than 20 people, five guns, and 22 shots fired. One person was injured. The incident reportedly stemmed from a beef between the two female MCs. "That's when the rap stuff went global. We found out every club the rappers attend, every bar, every place where they hang out, what kind of cars they drive; all that stuff came up."
Derrick Parker a 14-year veteran, who has climbed from patrolman to undercover narcotics officer says he noticed that rappers were mingling with criminals and kicked off his one man intelligence unit. "I saw a pattern," says Parker. "The pattern was that the rap music industry was becoming more like organized crime. It was running side by side with the traditional steps of organized crime. . . . What interested me was I saw a lot of these guys that were really bad dudes in Brooklyn starting to latch onto rappers and entertainers. So I used to monitor the incidents, department-wide, of anything that happened."
He would be on the scene for any and all hip-hop events, developing a database that became the foundation for the rap patrol. In 2003, Miami police contacted him to train their officers and he has fielded calls from detectives in Georgia, Chicago, L.A., Las Vegas, West Bubblefuck. "Everything got so big that all the chiefs knew who I was. Now everybody started dropping in like parachutes.." Since he began there are many more officers involved in rapper surveillance. Why focus on rappers? The theory is once they leave the neighborhood, the criminal element goes along with them. They may not be doing crimes themselves, but people around them are or were involved in crimes. Parker believes this makes it important to keep tabs on their activities. Nothing seems to be off-limits: photographs, videotaping, and he hints at wiretapping.
Ice-T once said that he moved out of his old neighborhood because once your making big money, it's like having a piece of meat in a cage with starving tigers. If you don't leave then your putting yourself at risk. In the article Dame Dash rubber stamps that analogy, "If you don't have enough money to take the proper precautions to where you know you're safe, you still kind of live like a criminal because you're still dog food for the wolves. You're the one who has more than the next, so people can come at you in that kind of way. A lot of these dudes roll with entourages because they feel safer like that."
When does this kind of investigating cross the line? Even if your doing nothing wrong, is it an invasion of privacy to have cops snapping pics of you wherever you go? On one hand Parker says they only look at people who were, or are associated with criminals, and claims that crimes against rappers are probably prevented because criminals know the rappers are being watched. On the other hand, you have the unsolved murders of Biggie, Pac, and Parker says, "you have over 100 incidents in different boroughs where [rappers] have either been the victims of crimes, or they've assaulted someone. There's been robberies, shootings, stabbings." He said that to legitimize the surveillance. Either the cops are letting these crimes happen or the rappers aren't being watched as tightly as it's being reported.
Jam Master Jay's murder remains unsolved as well. Parker is regarded as an expert but hasn't been given full control of the case, to which he says, "All I would ask them to do would be to supply me with the following [unnamed specifics] and I would have the case solved, and you can quote me on that," says Parker. "I know the case that well."
Whutup.com April 2004
We enterprise well 