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FREEDOMWAYS                  SECOND QUARTER 1972

Because the D.A.'s office must not only prosecute suspected criminals, but must also obtain necessary evidence on which to base its prosecution, it therefore becomes dependent on other agencies to aid it in its quest. And because that office occupies the top rung in the echelon of the People's Protective Institutions, it does, by virtue of this position, weave an influential chain through a staff of assistant D.A.'s and criminal investigators, on down through detective divisions, the police, the Tactical Patro Force (TPF), and that elite of forces, the Bureau of Special Services (a euphemistic title for what is New York's equivalent to the FBI). Both of these last two organizations have been instituted during the last ten years, created as a result of Hogan's penchant for law and order.

Mr. Hogan, like the analogous Mr. Hoover, entered the arena in which he evolved to the stage of a pedagogical deity, as a reformer and champion of noble causes. During his first twenty years as district attorney, Hogan made himself popular as a rackets buster and cleanser of the corrupt Tammany Hall machine which then controlled the political spectrum. He was, thus, one of those out of power, in a relative sense, who sought to be in power-and gained it. And, on the strength of this early record, he has gained the endorsements of both Republican and Democratic parties for eight successive terms of four years each, the last being in 1969.

It is, however, in the opinion of civil rights attorneys and others involved in the anti-war/civil-rights movement, that the 1960's heralded the beginning of a repressive philosophy that has become associated with Hogan office. It was that decade that saw the prosecution of Lenny Bruce, a prosecution that Hogan's office carried on with unrelenting vigor-making use in large part of BOSS (Bureau of Special Services)-and which had the tone of a posse of vigilantes out to restore American virtue and rid our society of all that was undesirable-undesirable in the eyes o Frank Hogan. There was the original May 2, 1964 March Against the Ware that saw hundreds of people arrested in Times Square and charged with every conceivable violation, from loitering to resisting arrest. There was the march down 125th Street in 1964 that protested the killing of black youth Jimmy Powell by an off-duty detective Thomas Gilligan, that brought police out in hordes, and who made a human barricade across the street. [One of the leaders of that protest march, Bill Epton, then head of the Harlem Defense Council, was charged with criminal anarchy, and, as of last spring, the case was still pending.] That year also saw the arrest of the Harlem Six, thought to be the spearhead of a race
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INSIDE THE SYSTEM
COOPER

movement that spurred the Harlem Riots of that summer. It was events such as these that brought Hogan out from behind his cloak of officialdom into the public arena, making speeches on the "disruptive elements" that were besieging the fabric of our society, calling for, naturally, greater law and order, defined as more police. Thus, New York got No-Knock/Frisk laws, later repealed-Washington, D.C. still has them-the TPF, which inundated ghetto areas like Harlem and Bed-Stuy.

1968 saw the disturbance at Columbia, an event which was reported as particularly odious to Hogan since Columbia was his alma mater and he was one of its trustees, that brought charges of attempted murder (reportedly of a BOSS agent on the campus who, when his identity was discovered, elicited a "Let's get him." However, he was not harmed). Other charges, such as riot (a felony), and various misdemeanors, all of which remained pending until late March, 1972 when all were dismissed, except for one defendant who received a fine for trespass.

Another of Mr. Hogan's functions, which more directly affects the functioning within the courtrooms at 100 Centre Street, is the moving of a particular case that is to be prosecuted by one of his assistants to a specific courtroom, called a Part. While in theory it is the Appellate Division, the first court to which a conviction may be appealed, that assigns a particular judge to a certain part, Hogan receives a copy of the Appellate Division's assignments for a certain month, and knowing the various reputations or dispositions of judges, may then assign the case which his office will prosecute to whichever part and that judge he may consider most beneficial. Under the rules of Judiciary Law for New York County, this function is a legitimate part of Hogan's duties. Yet, in other countries, Kings and Bronx for example, assignment of cases to a part is done by throwing into a hopper. While this may be a random method for handling a process that is backlogged with a bulk of cases awaiting hearing, it does nevertheless remove the human element of an individual making an individual decision. If the symbol of the blindfolded lady balancing her scales could be considered a realistic position for man to take, with all his foibles, predilections, psychological hangups, then the delegation of any person as an ultimate authority might not bear such subjective consequences. 

A specific case which deals with this issue of judge selection, or influence thereof, by Hogan was the New York 21 - which finally boiled down to 13 Black Panthers who stood for "conspiracy, attempted
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