Group Vows To Highlight NYPD Misconduct In 2013 Mayoral Race
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Concerns of police misconduct and excessive ticketing may become an election day issue as members of the Urban Justice Center begin a new campaign aimed at reforming the way officers interact with the public. NY1's Dean Meminger filed the following report.Enmanuel Candelario says he's been stopped and frisked by New York City Police Department officers 10 to 15 times, but never arrested. He says the officers are often aggressive and disrespectful.
"One officer was very angry and he was, you know, 'Get the f*** out the car," said Candelario.
Activists and community groups say it's time for that sort of NYPD behavior to stop. The Urban Justice Center has started a campaign called Police Reform Organizing Project, or PROP. It wants to pressure candidates in the 2013 elections to face the issue it claims Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly have failed to address.
"As long as they are in power there is going to be no modification of those practices. So we are giving ourselves a year and a half run up until the election season to get ready for the election, for educating and making contact with a broad segment of the public," said Robert Gangi of the Urban Justice Center.
The group say it's gathering steam, with more and more people joining their meetings.
Joseph "Jazz" Hayden charges Harlem residents are constantly harassed. He has posted videos of stop and frisks on his website allthingsharlem.com -- stops which he says turned up nothing criminal.
"They act like they on safaris in Africa, and you might see them with 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 kids lined up against the wall," Hayden said.
Gangi says arrests and summonses for things like riding a bike on the sidewalk, marijuana possession and drinking are unnecessary.
"In 2009 the New York city Police Department 132,000 summonses for open alcohol containers, that is 362 summonses a day for open alcohol containers," Gangi said.
Gangi says the stops have a harmful effect on poor communities and does little to prevent serious crimes. Others say it makes people scared of the men and women in blue.
"Any time a young person of color, almost any person of color has one of these interactions we are fearful for ours lives. We don't know what is going to happen," Candelario said.
NY1 has reached out to both the NYPD and City Hall for comment.