STREAM EXCLUSIVE ORIGINALS

Report: NYPD Edited Wikipedia Pages of Police Brutality Victims

A report revealed several edits were made from computers located at NYPD headquarters.

The Wikipedia pages for stop and frisk in New York City, Eric Garner, Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo — all victims of NYPD-involved brutality — were altered on computers connected to the network of the department's headquarters at One Police Plaza, Capital New York found and revealed Friday.

There are at least 85 NYPD IP addresses responsible for changing the wording of these articles. Wikipedia allows users to edit articles anonymously, but the website keeps a track record of the IP addresses used to make changes for public view.

|WE'LL NEVER FORGET: VICTIMS OF RACIALLY CHARGED CRIMES |

Capitol New York created a program to pull up records of NYPD IP addresses on Wikipedia as well as entries that were marked with their activity. Capitol revealed an example of the revisions made to the "Death of Eric Garner" article: 

“Garner raised both his arms in the air” was changed to “Garner flailed his arms about as he spoke.”

“[P]ush Garner's face into the sidewalk” was changed to “push Garner's head down into the sidewalk.”

“Use of the chokehold has been prohibited” was changed to “Use of the chokehold is legal, but has been prohibited.”

The sentence, “Garner, who was considerably larger than any of the officers, continued to struggle with them,” was added to the description of the incident.

Instances of the word “chokehold” were replaced twice, once to “chokehold or headlock,” and once to “respiratory distress.” 

Read full story here.

Follow Natelege Whaley on Twitter: @Natelege_

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(Photo: Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

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