How the System Treats a Good Cop

by Will Grigg
Mar. 18, 2013

As a New York City Police Officer assigned to the 81st Precinct, Adrian Schoolcraft became disillusioned when supervisors talked about manipulating crime statistics and carrying out illegal arrests. After covertly recording some of those conversations, Schoolcraft blew the whistle – and immediately paid a steep price.

On Halloween night in 2009, a police strike force raided Schoolcraft’s apartment and forcibly confined him to a mental ward at Jamaica Hospital under the care of Dr. Isak Isakov, supposedly to prevent him from harming himself. He was held there for six days.

As Schoolcraft told the New York Daily News, “I wanted to leave because they had no reason to keep me. The doctor said to me and my father, `He’s not here against his will, but we are waiting to hear from the NYPD.’”

New York State law forbids the psychological commitment of any individual unless it is proven that he is a danger to himself or others. The only danger Schoolcraft posed was to the corrupt police functionaries whose deeds he had exposed. An internal investigation validated nearly all of Schoolcraft’s claims – yet nobody has ever been punished for his abduction and false imprisonment.