|
Barnard
Security Chief William Plackenmeyer is Featured in New Book
about Undercover NYC Police Case
 William
Plackenmeyer, Barnard's Director of Safety and Security, is
a featured figure in a new non-fiction book, The Brass
Wall: The Betrayal of Undercover Detective #4126.
"I thought the book was excellent," said Plackenmeyer,
a former New York City police captain. "I think that
my representation in this book is really on the money."
The Brass Wall by David Kocieniewski, a police bureau
chief writer at The New York Times, is the true story
of undercover agent Vincent Armanti (a pseudonym). To avenge
a firefighter killed in an arson blaze, Armanti infiltrates
a deadly mob crew. While on the job, he encounters high-level
bureaucratic backstabbing that threatens to compromise his
mission and his life.
In a desperate search for allies, Armanti is introduced midway
through the saga to then-Captain Plackenmeyer, described by
Kocieniewski as a "highly respected commander who oversaw
five detective squads in South Brooklyn." Plackenmeyer
consented to meet Armanti clandestinely in the back room of
Brooklyn bar. Plackenmeyer, a former undercover agent himself,
offered to assist Armanti by asking one of the NYPD's most
powerful chiefs for help.
"I'm really glad that I was able to help the undercover,"
Plackenmeyer said. "I thought that it was incumbent upon
me to go to the upper echelons of the department and make
sure that they knew what was happening."
It is there that Plackenmeyer's mention in the story ends,
though the chronicle continues to recount Armanti's betrayal
by internal affairs and other higher ups in the department.
Throughout, Plackenmeyer continued his support of Armanti
and the two have remained close to this day.
"It's like a movie," Plackenmeyer said of the true
story. "You can't make that stuff up. It really is a
very Serpico-like story."
Plackenmeyer is no stranger to the true crime genre. In 2001
he was a central figure in the non-fiction book The Zaddik,
which recounted his investigation of the sensational kidnapping
of a Hassidic boy.
-Glenn Slavin
|
