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NYPD caught editing Wikipedia pages related to police brutality

It's been occurring for over 10 years.

By Thor Benson
NYPD Police Officers. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
NYPD Police Officers. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

NEW YORK, March 14 (UPI) -- A new report from Capital New York claims thousands of edits to Wikipedia articles related to police brutality can be traced to the NYPD headquarters.

"Computer users identified by Capital as working on the NYPD headquarters' network have edited and attempted to delete Wikipedia entries for several well-known victims of police altercations, including entries for Eric Garner, Sean Bell, and Amadou Diallo," the report says. "Capital identified 85 NYPD addresses that have edited Wikipedia."

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The report claims the NYPD edits also applied to pages referencing the department's stop-and-frisk policy and certain political leaders. The edits appear to have been occurring for the past 10 years.

"Garner raised both his arms in the air" was changed to "Garner flailed his arms about as he spoke," the report claims. "Garner, who was considerably larger than any of the officers, continued to struggle with them," was also added to a page referencing Eric Garner's death at one point.

All of the edits appear to be an attempt to minimize the controversy related to police killings and to improve the image of people connected to the police department.

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An NYPD spokeswoman told Capital the incidents are under review.

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