National
Eric Garner’s Wikipedia Page Was Edited from an NYPD Computer, NYPD Admits
On July 19, a memorial for Eric Garner rests on the pavement near the site of his death in Staten Island. (John Minchillo/AP)
Abby Ohlheiser, THE WASHINGTON POST
NEW YORK (The Washington Post)—The New York Police Department has confirmed that at least some edits to Wikipedia entries about people who died following confrontations with NPYD officers were made from computers on the department’s servers, Capital New York reported Sunday.
The department’s admission came two days after Capital first reported that hundreds of Wikipedia edits were made from computers on the NYPD network — and that those edits included tweaks to Wikipedia articles aboutEric Garner, Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo, all of whom were killed in police-involved incidents. Capital also identified edits from NYPD servers to a “stop-and-frisk” entry and the portion of Wikipedia’s NYPD entry that deals with allegations of misconduct.
New York police officials said they were only able to identify the editor for the “Death of Eric Garner” page because the department only keeps computer activity logs for about a year. In total, the edits identified by Capital New York span about a decade and include 85 IP addresses registered to 1 Police Plaza.
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