Crisis of confidence in the NYPDby NAYABA ARINDE
Amsterdam News Editor
Originally posted 7/17/2008
Is there a crisis in confidence in the NYPD in the inner city? To some, the question is a no-brainer; others point to COMPSTAT numbers and say that overall, the city is doing better in the crime-fighting arena than in years hence. Subways and streets are safer, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly assure New Yorkers. Hard to convince the families of Jayson Tirado, Nathan Allsbrook, Ronald Battle, Brandon Bethea or Sean Bell, though-these being victims of police and community violence all gunned down fairly recently on city streets.
After Friday's grand jury decision to not indict Officer Sean Sawyer, who shot an unarmed Jayson Tirado and only turned himself in some 19 hours later, as well as April's controversial bench trial acquittal of all three indicted officers in the Sean Bell 50 bullet police shooting case, many Black and Latino activists, teens and young adults, or family members of police brutality victims no longer even debate the point. To them it is clear: an unhealthy "us and them" situation exists. Long held has been the complaint that the prevailing attitude of the NYPD has been not so much to "protect and serve" but a policy of "containment."
Retired Detective Marquez Claxton told the AmNews, "There is a crisis of confidence in the New York City Police Department. It is true, and it has been true for a long time. But it is ignored by the people we trust to correct it. Elected officials and community leaders are charged with establishing a better relationship with NYPD. For years certain people have been trying to create a mutually respectful relationship with the police department, but the missing part is the NYPD. They are not looking to establish a respectful relationship with the community they police, they just want to impose their methods of law and order and ignore the consequences of some of their most drastic actions and policies."
Referencing the Tirado case, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Paul J. Browne told the AmNews that with regards to an AmNews question of the "NYPD, Black community relations…the officer in this case was Black and the person who was shot and killed was Hispanic. This incident comes at a time when the Police Department is the most diverse in history, with a higher proportion of African-Americans in command posts than ever before. Commissioner Kelly has also instituted revised police training at the Police Academy and in the field, with renewed emphasis on community understanding and sensitivity, some which the Amsterdam News covered at the Advancing Community Trust program at the Apollo."
But civil rights attorney Norman Siegel told the AmNews, "Last weeks decision by the Manhattan Grand Jury not to indict the New York City cop in the case of 25-year-old Jayson Tirado raisies questions about how New York handles these important and often times high profile cases, like: the Sean Bell case, the Tirado case, the Amadou Diallo case, the Gideon Busch case.The verdicts, the no bills, the lack of accountability ripples through the community,
especially communities of color, and increases the mistrust of the police and the criminal justice system."
Siegel continued, "The time to create a new special prosecutor for police misconduct is now. We must challenge Gov. Paterson to lead a statewide effort to bring changes to how we investigate and prosecute officers charged with illegality. Anything less will allow history to repeat itself time and time again; and increase a lack of confidence in monitoring police misconduct."
In defense of Tirado shooter Officer Sawyer, NYPD spokesman Browne told the AmNews, "The police department suspended the officer as soon as his involvement was known. As with all cases in which a police officer is the subject of a grand jury investigation, the police department had to wait until the grand jury rendered a decision before the
department's administrative review could proceed. Now that the grand jury has ruled, the department's review is underway. The officer remains suspended and he faces sanctions up to and including termination. Since the police commissioner is the final arbiter in such cases, he is constrained from commenting on the case until a final determination is made."
Claxton, who retired from the NYPD after 20 years,said, "The Tirado case is another example of why there is a crisis of confidence with the police department. If you can't prosecute an off-duty officer who shoots an unarmed man, leaves the scene and turns himself only after he sees a news report 19 hours later, how do you expect a community who is mourning that death and others to have trust in a department which seems to put little value on Black or Latino life? The NYPD will talk about programs and so-called initiatives, but we can't have one-sided conversations and public relation exercises. A substantive and meaningful dialogue should be sought and result in a negotiation between
the department and the community."
A crisis in confidence is fed by the repeated perception of a people not receiving justice, Claxton said. "There is no compassion or sense of the acknowledgement of the personal impact that is felt when justice is denied to a family and the larger community. Policing in the Black and Latino communities lacks respect, compassion and understanding." As a result, the spokesman for 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement said, "People feel imposed upon. You can't expect people to embrace any police department that they see as an oppressive force. That's going to result in an 'us against them' scenario, even among those who respect law and order."
Patrol, unmarked and private police cars parked at angles on public sidewalks is one of the forms of disrespect that aggravates Sean Bell parents' attorney Neville Mitchell. "Outside the 28th Precinct on Frederick Douglass Blvd. and at the 26th Precinct on West 126th Street, the police park on the sidewalk, forcing people to have to walk in the traffic or cross the street and walk on the other sidewalk. It is just disrespect. It builds up from there, "he told the AmNews. "I think the shootings have gone up since the Sean Bell killing. If they knew that they'd be prosecuted fairly or there'd be real repercussions, they'd be more circumspective of using deadly force."
According to Claxton, spokesman for 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement, "The NYPD that is led by Ray Kelly has checks and balances. The department acts as if they are a separate wing, since the mayor has abdicated his responsibility to rein in his police commissioner. If the policies and practices of the police department are not in the best interest of the community, that contributes to the erosion in confidence and trust in the NYPD." Neither Bloomberg nor Kelly returned AmNews requests for comment.
As for the Civilian Complaint Review Board, Claxton said,"It is alarming the amount of cases that are founded by the board that Ray Kelly refuses to act on, and recently one of the mayoral appointees on the Commission to Combat Police Corruption-Willa Bernstein-was fired after pressure was put on by the NYPD. All she did was her job, raising the issues of police corruption. The police department pushed to have the mayor's appointee fired, and she was."
Claxton said police corruption is greater now than when Mayor David Dinkins empanelled the Mollen Commission to look into police crime in 1987. Dinkins did not return AmNews requests for comment. "This phenomenon didn't even play out under Giuliani, who was a micro manager," said Claxton. "Kelly acts like he is running a second wing of government-you have the mayor, the City Council and the police department. There are laws on the books that are supposed to be imposed by the City Council, such as the regular release of stop-and-frisk data, [but] the NYPD decides that they are not going to release this information." After much legal to-ing and fro-ing,the police had to release some information.
Following their analysis, the New York Civil Liberties Union made the revelation that in 2006, of the 508,540 individuals police engaged in stop-and-frisks, 85.7 percent were Black or Latino. Apparently, only 50,000 ended up getting arrested or getting a summons. "When you target young people, and you are harassing them, throwing them against the wall and harassing them," said Mitchell. "If enough of those kids are innocent, that's when we are talking about psychological warfare." From blatantly provocative to disrespectful disregard, Mitchell said there exists an attitude held by some cops of almost continuous confrontation.
"When Officer Rusel Timoshenko was shot and they were walking the suspect out, the police came out in a show of force, a sea of blue. It was done to intimidate the community," said the Manhattan-based attorney. "It was unnecessary. They were saying, 'This is who we are.' They are like a paramilitary force. They engage in this psychological war fare with the community."
With the Sawyer/Tirado case, Mitchell noted, "Cops believe that they can shoot at will. If you can't convict in the Sean Bell case, which was so clear, they feel that they'll never be convicted of anything. "We don't have credible leaders who will stand up and speak on behalf of Black youth consistently. Everything is done on an ad-hoc basis where there is real passion when something happens, then it is controlled and made to dissipate until the next incident."
