Have you been illegally stopped and frisked or harassed by the NYPD? Tell Your Story!
Saturday, February 11th, from 11am-4pm
PROP Presents: A Public Forum on Police Problems and Policies for Reform
Thursday, February 16th, from 6 – 8 pm
PROP’s new op-ed – “Whose Police Department?”
by Robert Gangi
According to PROP, “every day, the city’s police engage in objectionable practices that harm people and communities.
Young Black and brown men stopped and frisked for no apparent reason. LGBTQ persons called derogatory names, inappropriately touched, or harassed as they enter a local community center. Sex workers arrested for simply carrying condoms or forced to have sex in return for their release.
Street vendors hassled, fined and arrested for violating arbitrarily enforced minor rules. Homeless people roughed up – their belongings destroyed – and apprehended for begging on the subway or sleeping on a park bench.
One characteristic joins the people subjected to these practices – they are members of marginalized groups viewed as powerless to effectively oppose police abuse. NYC should help and protect the vulnerable individuals in its midst, not employ its police force to ostracize and punish them.”
Have you been illegally stopped and frisked or harassed by the NYPD? Tell Your Story!
We want to hear from you!
(This video is just one of many of the examples of the unjust, wasteful, ineffective, illegal, bullying and racially biased practices of the NYPD.)
Join us at the Urban Justice center on Saturday, February 11th, from 11am-4pm to take part in the PROP Narratives Project next filming day. Participants will be interviewed by the PROP staff and asked to share their stories about police abuse and harassment that they have experienced or observed. We will use these testimonies as part of our aggressive public education effort on our Youtube channel (PROPNY).
(Mott Haven Houses, South Bronx. The NYPD will use any excuse to arrest you or give you a ticket.)
Anyone interested in participating, helping out, or learning more, should contact PROP’s Policy Advocate, Rosa Squillacote, at rsquillacote@urbanjustice.org or 646-602-5624. And check out the facebook event!
PROP Presents: A Public Forum on Police Problems and Policies for Reform
When: Thursday, February 16th, from 6 – 8 pm
Where: The LGBT Center Located at 208 W. 13th St. NY, NY
What: The event will consist primarily of a conversation among academics, policy makers, journalists, and eventually you the audience about current abusive police practices and how all of us agitating together can address and correct them.
The Event Will Include:
CUNY Professors – Dolores Jones-Brown and Eli Silverman, from John Jay, and Harry Levine, from Queens College
State Assembly Member – Jeff Aubry from Corona, Chair of the Corrections Committee
City Council Members – Danny Dromm from Jackson Heights, Letitia James from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Rosie Mendez from the Lower East Side, and Jumaane Williams from Flatbush
Journalists – Andy Humm from both the Gotham Gazette and Gay City News, and Liliana Segura from The Nation.
PROP’s new op-ed – “Whose Police Department?”
Plainly racist comments made by NYPD officers were recently published on a Facebook page for the world to see. “Savage Day”, “this coconut parade”, and “pure savagery” were just some of the scurrilous terms posted. While these ugly comments targeted people who participated in the city’ West Indian American Day Parade, they do not merely reflect an isolated incident – rather, they represent a daily reality for communities of color in NYC, and are emblematic of widespread and toxic NYPD attitudes and practices.
Late last month, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg told an audience of MIT students, “I have my own army in the NYPD,” referring to the city’s police force as the 7th largest army in the world. The Mayor’s words raise the question – whose army truly is the NYPD? Shouldn’t it be the people’s, whose taxes provide the funding for the Department, and whom police officers pledge to honor, serve, and protect? “Army” denotes an agent of war, one that applies force to achieve its ends, rather than an instrument of solving problems and keeping the peace. What does it mean for the communities where the city’s officers are mostly deployed – namely, low-income neighborhoods of color – if the city’s mayor views the cops there as part of an army, soldiers in a war?
Critics of the NYPD often cite its harsh, arrogant, sometimes violent conduct, as if its officers see themselves as outside the rule of law. Perhaps the proprietary and aggressive tone set at the top of New York City government sends an ‘enabling’ message to cops on the street – that they are not accountable to the people, but rather that they are members of an occupying force and the people are the enemy.
This powerful blend – the permission to be aggressive and the message of immunity – helps to explain the numerous stories police reform organizations hear about abusive police practices, especially from members of New York City’s marginalized groups: Young men of color arrested and ticketed for trespass while standing in front of their own building. Sex workers pressured to provide sex in return for their release. Gay or transgender people roughed up and touched inappropriately while congregating on a street corner.
The approach of acting aggressively with virtual impunity that characterizes much of the NYPD’s practices may also help explain these damning statistics: in 2010, the NYPD reported making about 614,000 stop and frisks, nearly 90% involving people of color; a resident in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brownsville is 150 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than someone living on the Upper East Side in Manhattan.
The pressure of being, in effect, always in battle mode leads some officers to object to the tactics they are expected to employ. “I’m not going to keep arresting innocent people, I’m not going to keep searching people for no reason, I’m not going to keep writing up people for no reason, I’m tired of this,” was one such statement made by a street level cop.
These stories, statistics, and quotes together present a disturbing and all-too-real picture of a police department that engages in harsh and objectionable practices that harm people and communities, and seriously compromise the quality of life of hundreds of thousands of the city’s residents. Perhaps if Mayor Bloomberg refrained from referring to the NYPD as an army responsible only to him, and instead reframed their purpose and presence on the city’s streets as peace-keepers and problem-solvers, they would cease their bullying and badgering tactics and use of verbal slurs and take positive steps to create a liveable and inclusive city for all New Yorkers.
by Robert Gangi
published by Alternet, on January 3, 2012
Mission of Police Reform Organizing Project (PROP).
Through research and analysis, public education, policy advocacy, and coalition building, PROP aims: to stop the current wasteful, ineffective, unjust, illegal, bullying, homophobic, and racially biased practices of the NYPD; to create a strong, independent entity that monitors and assesses police priorities and policies and that effectively investigates and punishes abusive conduct; and, to establish and implement local problem solving measures that strengthen communities while reducing crime.
More info on PROP’s website and their facebook page.