When a New York police officer karate chopped Thomas Raffaele in the throat as the 69-year-old watched the arrest of a man in Queens, he probably did not think too much about it.

Certainly his fellow officers did not seem bothered. As revealed in the New York Times, Raffaele immediately sought to complain about being randomly assaulted by a man sworn to protect citizens, not abuse them. But the sergeant at the scene basically ignored him and Rafaelle went to hospital to check out his injuries.

Unfortunately for the New York police department, Raffaele was not your average bystander. He is a judge on the New York state supreme court. Not surprisingly, the NYPD is now taking the assault on him a bit more seriously and has begun an internal investigation.

But, really, if Rafaelle was not a judge would we have ever heard about this? How many other cases of flagrant disregard by the police for the laws they are supposed to uphold go unreported because their victims don't happen to sit on the state's highest court?

I have even had my own experiences. One afternoon several years ago, walking home from work through Chelsea, I heard a voice call out. I looked around to see two officers running towards me, hands hovering over their gun holsters in a way familiar from Hollywood films but much less so from real life. I was hustled over to a wall while they consulted over the radios. It quickly emerged someone wearing a grey shirt had been spotted shoplifting in the area.

I explained – perhaps a little sulkily (my mistake, I admit it) – that I was a British journalist not prone to theft and, much more importantly, was not actually wearing a grey shirt. They let me go. I gave them a dirty look as I walked away (again, my mistake, but dirty looks are not yet illegal). The two men chased after me, stood me against a wall and screamed abuse for several minutes. It ended with one yelling: "Why don't you fuck off back to your own country?"

It was, in the end, a trivial incident. But it revealed a telling attitude that seems to keep emerging at the NYPD: they may uphold the law, but they are also a law unto themselves. I saw it again while covering an Occupy march last year near the South Street Seaport. I watched as a muscular, bald-headed man yelled abuse at the marchers. That was fine. It's called his democratic right to disagree.

But he then hurled a glass bottle at them. It missed, but landed just a few feet away from several of them, sending shards of glass everywhere. Two police officers sat in a nearby van and watched the whole episode. They did not move. I went over to them and pointed out that the man who had chucked the bottle was still there. They shrugged. I pointed out that I was a journalist and taking down their badge numbers. They shrugged again. They did not care. But imagine that an Occupy marcher had thrown that bottle. Does anyone think those two officers would not have leapt out of their van, nightsticks at the ready?

The list of disturbing events seems endless.

Just watch NYPD officer Patrick Pogan randomly decide to assault a Critical Mass cyclist.

Or Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna reaching over to pepper-spray young women in the face at an Occupy march.

Or watch police throw Brooklyn City Councilman Kirsten John Foy to the ground during a West Indian Day parade.

http://gothamist.com/2011/09/06/video_city_councilmans_chaotic_arre.php

Or the brutal beating meted out to Iraq war veteran Walter Harvin.

Or check out the statistics on the NYPD's stop-and-frisk tactics where in 2011 some 685,000 stops were made: a staggering 84% of them involving blacks or Latinos.

If you think that sort of thing does not matter in the name of effective law enforcement, read New York student Nicholas K Peart's emotional account of what it feels like to be continually targeted by the NYPD simply for having darker skin.

Or check out coverage of Jateik Reid, beaten on the street by NYPD. His family were then also beaten at the precinct when they went there to complain.

Or the disturbing killing of Ramarley Graham, unarmed but shot dead in his own home by NYPD. Police said he had run away from them. Surveillance footage showed that to be untrue.

Or read about how police arrested journalists for simply doing their job.

After all that, it is salient to remember that the slogan painted on NYPD vehicles reads "Courtesy, Professionalism, Respect." What a great slogan. Pity that all too often it has little to do with reality.