Dear Friends:
The Mayor de Blasio/City Council truly terrible budget deal will add nearly 1300 cops to the NYPD's headcount, thereby, as PROP's public response stressed, greatly enhancing the NYPD's already outsized capacity for pursuing its blatantly discriminatory and sometimes strangely surreal tactics. While this indefensible policy decision by our city's so-called progressive leaders is a setback to the movement, we at PROP and other reform activists are not deterred. Hardly pausing to take a deep breath and to shake our heads, we press forward with with our aggressive advocacy plans and actions — please check out the sidebar for some specifics.
COURT MONITORING
If anyone needs convincing about the deep racism and pure waste of the NYPD's quota-driven 'broken windows' policing, she/he should join us for an upcoming court monitoring visit. Here is a brief report on 3 of our most recent trips followed by some related stories of New Yorkers' all too typical negative encounters with NYC police officers;
PROP volunteers have recently monitored the arraignment parts in the Manhattan and Brooklyn criminal courts. Of the 104 cases that we observed, 98 or 94% involved people of color. Common charges included: open alcohol container, begging, park after dark, foot or backpack on a subway seat, and possession of real or synthetic marijuana. Officers had arrested all these defendants, cuffing and confining them overnight.
STORIES
On a recent PROP petition day, while standing with his child in a stroller and his wife, a young black man recounted the 3 times that NYC police arrested him over the years: once for walking between 2 subway cars; next for holding an open, though empty, alcohol container; and the third time for fare-beating after swiping his metrocard through the machine that reports how much money is left on the card. Officers cuffed and locked him up each time. He spent overnight in jail each time before appearing in arraignment court where the sitting judge each time dismissed the charges.
A police officer arrested a middle-aged, homeless black man near the Port Authority in Manhattan on the charge of "unauthorized opening and closing of taxi doors". The officer accused the man of expecting tips from the passengers, reasoning that therefore, the man was begging. The lawyer on the case explained that officers assigned to areas like the Port Authority seem to look for excuses to arrest homeless people if only to clear them from the vicinity. In this instance, the man refused to accept a plea offer that would have put an end to the case. His explanation was that he didn't do anything wrong. A bench trial was set and he returned to court 4 times before the case was heard. The trial took less than an hour and the judge found the man innocent.
Police arrested an elderly, handicapped black woman who, aided by a cane, walked slowly up to the bench. The charge was petty larceny in the 5th degree--shoplifting. In tears she pled guilty to disorderly conduct and hobbled out of the courtroom. When asked about her offense, she said that she had taken bacon and eggs from the Harlem Pathmark. When asked why, she explained that she was hungry.
Police arrested a Middle Eastern man on the charge of "unauthorized selling of smoothies" in Central Park. Saying that he had done nothing wrong, he refused to accept a plea offer, opting to have the case heard before a bench trial. Here's his account: he was setting up his cart in the park at 9:30 in the morning; he was not selling anything and had not made one smoothie. He told the officer that he was waiting for his boss who was supposed to arrive in about 10 minutes with the license that he, the vendor, could then display, thereby making it legal for him to make and sell smoothies. The officer arrested him anyway, cuffing and locking him up.
Please feel free to join us for any and all of the PROP activities described in the sidebar. Also, do not hesitate to contact us with questions or suggestions about our work. As always, many thanks for your interest and support.
Onward,
Robert Gangi
Director
Police Reform Organizing Project
Cell: 917-327-7648
Destinie Keyes
Project Coordinator
Police Reform Organizing Project
