NYPD Whistleblower Retaliation †Detective Labeled A Rat...

In 2005 NYPD Detective, first grade, James E. Griffith called internal affairs to report he was being pressured by a fellow officer to lie and take the blame during an internal inquiry for the mishandling of a homicide investigation by his unit (Goldstein, 2012). Another detective and union official claimed in his deposition that Griffin was a rat because he went to internal affairs instead of the union (Marzulli, 2013). According to the United States District Court Eastern District of New York’s memorandum of decision the retaliation was immediate, included adverse personnel actions and continued though out his career in different units until Detective Griffith was effectively forced to retire due to the harassment in 2009 (James Griffin†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"...while few indulge themselves in outright evil and fewer still in righteousness, people are evidently influenced by authority, by apathy, by thoughtlessness, and by their environment (Geuras Garofalo, 2 011, p. 112).The immediate supervisors at every post Griffith was assigned or escaped to participated in the retribution by instigating and allowing the personal slurs, destruction of property, the withholding or denial of benefits, and the refusal of other officers to work with Griffith diminishing his ability to do his job. The very division Griffith went to in the first place, internal affairs, was unable or unwilling to step in and hold anybody accountable for this behavior which created a hostile working environment and promoted a universal unethical culture. In this instance, Griffith would not be sheltered from retaliation under the traditional state and federal whistleblower laws. Federal laws generally protect those that disclose fraud against the government and state law NY Code 740 covers private sector and only when the complaint has been brought to the supervisor first. In the complaint against the State of New York et al the District Court ruled that Griffith’s first amendment rights and first amendment retaliation claims would not be summarily dismissed. For four years, NYPD Detective first grade, James Griffith was ridiculed, belittled deprived of benefits and generally persecuted for disclosing unethical and possibly illegal conduct to internal