Joe Sánchez

Joe Sánchez (born Jose Manuel Sánchez Picon on January 16, 1947), is a former New York City police officer and author who published books about corruption within the New York City Police Department (NYPD).

Upon exposing the illegal acts committed by some high-ranking NYPD officers, Sánchez was arrested on the basis of false allegations which were highly publicized by the news media, then subsequently refuted. When his initial conviction for assault was overturned, his case exposed the existence of a code of silence among police officers known as the "Blue Wall of Silence".

Early years Sánchez is a native of Santurce, Puerto Rico, and one of five siblings born to Jose Sánchez and Clotilde Picon. In the early 1950s his parents moved to New York City in search of a better life, and settled in Manhattan. When his parents divorced, his mother remarried and moved the family to the South Bronx. There Sánchez received his primary and secondary education. Upon graduation from Theodore Roosevelt High School, he joined the United States Army.

Military service

Sánchez attempted to enlist, but for reasons unknown to him he was not accepted by any of the four military branches at the induction center at Whitehall Street. He then signed up for the selective service and in 1965, he was drafted into the United States Army at the age of 18. On January 16, 1967, on his twentieth birthday, he found himself with Company D, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry of the 1st Air Cavalry Division (Mobile) (after being transferred from A Company, 5/7) deployed near the village of Phan Thiết, in South Vietnam. On that day, his unit was engaged in a firefight with the Viet Cong. Sánchez and three of his comrades were seriously wounded by the shrapnel of an enemy grenade during that firefight. He was awarded the Army Commendation Medal and Purple Heart medals.

New York City Police Department Sánchez graduated from the New York Police Academy after six months of training and was assigned to the 90th Precinct in Brooklyn. The 90th Precinct is located in northern Brooklyn in the Williamsburg section.

During his years as a police officer, Sánchez learned that there were good police officers as well as corrupt ones. He also noticed that illegal acts committed by some of his fellow officers were often ignored and seldom reported by others, including some of his superiors who believed in a code of silence known amongst them as the "Blue Code of Silence" and the "Blue Wall of Silence." According to this code, reporting another officer's misconduct or crimes is regarded as a betrayal.

"Arrest machine" nickname Sánchez served in various precincts before being transferred to the 30th Precinct, a primarily residential area in Harlem with a commercial strip on Broadway. The neighborhoods in the precinct are Hamilton Heights, Sugar Hill, and West Harlem, all of which, during Sánchez's tenure, had a lot of drug use, gang activity, and turf wars.

According to the New York Daily News, Sánchez was highly dedicated to his police work at the 30th Precinct. One story has it that Sánchez once walked into a shop on 158th Street and Broadway to get some coffee. A local gentleman took one look at Sánchez, put his hands on the counter, and yelled, "Okay, Sánchez, you got me. Don't shoot!" It turned out that the man was wanted for robbery and had a gun. Sánchez was considered "an arrest machine" in northern Manhattan. There, he was assaulted, and one inmate falsely accused Sánchez of mistreating him. However, the Department of Corrections supported Sánchez, and he did not receive any disciplinary action.

Sánchez's experiences were the subject of a Baltimore Post-Examiner article titled "Super Cop: Badge 3712, NYPD Officer Joe Sanchez’ tragic days" published on April 27, 2016. The article was written by Doug Poppa, a United States Army Military Police veteran, former law enforcement officer, and criminal investigator.

The Opera House

Sánchez was featured in the documentary "The Opera House" by Susan Froemke, which played in selected theaters on January 13, 2018. The documentary is about the history of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City and has nothing to do with his career in law enforcement. However, Sánchez who lived in the neighborhood where the opera house was built as a child, discusses what it was like living there and how the families who lived there were forced to move and relocate.

In 2019, the producers of Steven Spielberg's 2020 version of West Side Story included Sánchez in a special panel where the host and actors asked panel members questions about their experiences in the West Side of New York in the 1950s. The host shared the story of Sánchez's life in the West Side.