UPDATED on 10/21/2012 3:30pm.
Friday, October 19th, 2012. New York City – I was at the train station on 103 St in Harlem. I saw a NYPD officer searching a young black man. I started filming them. A Latino man said I was retarded for filming them. A Black man said was illegal for me to film them. One of the officers told him something against me, then the Black man came to me and smacked my camera and as a result, my camera is not working properly now.
In case you don’t know, there are surveillance cameras at every train station. Those cameras recorded what the officers where doing. There are also surveillance cameras on some (or many) buses and subway cars in NYC.
According to the United States Constitution, its LEGAL to take pictures and make videos of public servants carrying out their duties.
“Taking photographs and video of things that are plainly visible in public spaces is a constitutional right — and that includes the outside of federal buildings, as well as transportation facilities, and police and other government officials carrying out their duties.”_ American Civil Liberties Union.
Luke Rudkowski of WeAreChange meets up with Jimmy Justice in Brooklyn, New York and gets some first hand knowledge about filming police officers. As you can see in the video, some officers know the law.
In 2011, NYPD officers stopped and frisked almost 700,000 Newyorkers. Most of them Blacks and Latinos. 9 out of 10 were completely innocent.
“The NYPD’s own data undermine many of the Bloomberg administration’s justifications for the stop-and-frisk program,” NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said. “Contrary to the mayor and police commissioner’s assertions, the massive spike in the number of stops has done little to remove firearms from the streets. Instead, it has violated the constitutional rights of millions of people and corroded the ability of communities of color to trust and respect the police.”
New York City spends $75 million each year arresting mostly Black and Latino New Yorkers for possessing small amounts of marijuana. In 2011, the NYPD made more than 50,680 arrests for the lowest-level marijuana possession offense, making 2011 the second-highest period for marijuana arrests in New York City history. Most of those arrested, nearly 85%, are Black and Latino, despite federal government data on drug use showing that Whites use marijuana at higher rates.
Under New York law, possession of 25g or less of marijuana [merely] brings a $100 fine. NYPD engages in unlawful practice of mischarging and arresting people for marijuana possession after an illegal search; or, the arrest occurs when the person complies with an NYPD officer’s directive to “empty their pockets.” Many people comply, even though they’re not legally required to do so. If a person pulls marijuana from their pocket or bag, it is then “open to public view.” The police then arrest the person for burning or possession in public view. These arrests are a violation of the fourth amendment and serve as pipeline for the nation’s bloated prison system. This also creates a criminal record of the person and it can affect his/her education, housing, family, job, etc.
“These biased, costly arrests are undermining civil rights and public safety,” said gabriel sayegh, New York State Director for the Drug Policy Alliance. “We cannot and will not accept a scenario where the law is enforced differently for different groups of people based on their race or ethnicity.”
Officers didn’t find anything on the young man but for some reason that I do not know, they arrested him. They were so concern about his privacy that they took him outside of the train station. More people would see him in handcuffs on the street than where he was.
On October 10, 2012, Communities United for Police Reform joined Council Member Jumaane Williams and other council members at a press conference preceding a City Council hearing on the Community Safety Act to outline the need for NYPD reforms.
They highlighted the 600 percent increase in the use of stop-and-frisk during the Bloomberg administration, contrasting it with the near constant and unchanged levels of gun violence during the same period, to illustrate the practice’s ineffective use and abuse during Bloomberg’s term as mayor.
The Community Safety Act will:
1. Ban profiling by the police.
2. Protect against unlawful searches.
3. Require police to explain their actions.
4. Establish an inspector general.
The October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation has been mobilizing every year since 1996 for a National Day of Protest on October 22nd, bringing together those under the gun and those not under the gun as a powerful voice to expose the epidemic of police brutality. There will be a rally and march at Union Square in New York City on 10/22/2012 at 4pm.
10/19/2012 – This is a short video.
A NYPD officer told me once, “a video can help both sides”, the person being arrested and police officers. If the person is innocent, the video can be use in court to show that he/she did not do anything wrong. If the person did something wrong, then the video can help officers.
As a photojournalist I go to different events. I know good officers. I thank those officers for their service!
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