I Testified at The Stop and Frisk Hearing

I testified October 23, 2012 at the City Council's first public hearing regarding NYPD's stop and frisk policy, held at Brooklyn College. I debated with myself about whether I should go and whether what I had to say was so important, but the more I thought about it I realized everyone has a right to speak and be heard. When I got there the room was empty, but soon became packed with people. One by one panels consisting of four people were being called, and I realized that many had written statements and I had just come with some notes with points I wanted to make. And then my turn came and because other testimonies had gone over their 3 minute allotment, I was cut down to two minutes, and I knew that there would be no time to touch on the facts and figures I had brought. I needed to tell my story and just speak from the heart.

As I have written about in my blog before, and I told the Council representatives  that I have personally witnessed people who weren't doing anything getting pulled over by the police and questioned. I felt that it was wrong and that I needed to do something about it, which prompted me to became a member of PROP (Police Reform Organizing Project). I told them (but had only mentioned in my blog that it was someone I knew) that I had spoken to my son about how I felt about this issue, and then he told me that it had happened to him. I told them, he said he had been coming home from a club and that two plainsclothed police officers yelled stop and pulled out their guns. There was no more time to give details, my two minutes were up. In two minutes I had to plainly say what had happened, but in my mind I relived hearing my son and feeling how close he had come to being shot. If he had just decided to move to protect himself, because he indeed felt that he was going to be mugged. I would be talking about him in the past. My son and I have forgiven the police officers that did this because that is our our nature. What seemed apparent to us was that this was part and parcel of a systemic police practice of “guilty first, ask questions, let's check your pockets and see what we can find” called “stop and frisk.” My son said the police kept repeating the phrase “We are not arresting you.” Well if they had no intent of arresting someone, why did they stop and proceed to go through the contents of his pockets?

We have heard that there are just some bad apple cops, but how can a few rogue cops stop 685,724 people in 2011 and where 88% were Black and Latino and 88% of this number were innocent. Again these statistics come from the police themselves and not all police officers file these reports, so there are actually more stops and frisks that are not even being reported. You can hear the sincerity and the anguish of the people as they testified over and over again, how not only are they being stopped, but the use of degrading language and physical threat and or abuse is affecting them, and ultimately us all as a society. It affects those that are living under this oppression to either allow this subjugation or it will eventually force them to rebel, and it affects the society as a whole if we allow the abuse of power by the police to polarize our city and it's inhabitants into two camps those that are abused and those that are not abused. As one young boy (15 years) said at the hearing, that after he and his friends were told with abusive language to get out of the playground when playing basketball, his friends said they won't go back to the playground because they felt like criminals. Stop and frisk is most egregious in poorer communities, so that they feel they can't even send their sons to the store because they don't know if they are going to come back or get picked up by the police.

Before I give you a brief synopsis of some of the powerful testimony, I would like to relate what others had said, and my own thoughts, that bring home some truths that can help in changing the dynamic of this situation and bring us closer as a city and as a nation.

The mistakes of the past cannot be rewritten, but we now have an obligation to write a new future of our choosing. - Raquel Irizarry

Firstly, we no longer have the cop on the beat that knows the neighborhood and the neighbors, someone that is a part of the community, (what we have now are cops in cars patrolling that jump out and interrogate people because they don't know who they are and are suspicious of their motives). When the police officers know who people are, then they know Ms. Ferguson goes to church every Sunday and her son comes and visits her a couple of times a month, and conversely he knows when sees a stranger leaving her house, because he is a part of their community. We want police officers that are invested in the community they serve, and given that opportunity to make a connection with the leaders on the block and the local pastor. This helps to create community and a binding trust. Secondly, a beat police officer who is a respected member of the community, is a role model for children as they grow, which they do not have now because they are in their cars. Also a community that feels protected by the police, will in turn will feel protective over this police officer, because they are building a life together. Thirdly, let us take our hard earned resources and instead wastefully paying out $78 million dollars in lawsuits brought against the NYPD in 2010, let's put it to good use in creating opportunities for young people with centers that give them activities that keep them clear of the jails and courts, and helps in building their future and all our futures as we go forward together.

Many that testified asked that Community Safety Act be passed. The Community Safety Act is a bill asking for an Independent General to oversee the police as well as statutes that will prevent biased profiling by the police department. Supporters of this bill are Council Members Jumaane Williams, Brad Lander, Letitia James, Helen Foster and Robert Jackson.

To see the details of the bill go to http://changethenypd.org/community-safety-act

I will relate some of the testimony as I remember it.

There was a woman in her 60's that standing in front of her home, talking to her young neighbors when a police officer came out of his car that had been circling. The officer said to them that the kids were smoking weed. The woman said to the police officer that this was not the case. The police officer started to take the boy into custody. This woman's neighbor said to the woman “What are you going to do about this,” because as she explained she was a leader in her community. She said she was going to get her phone to videotape was going on. As she went for her stairs the police officer drag her down the stairs. The police officer then proceeded to call in as she said a 1013 (forgive if I have gotten number wrong) , which means an officer down. Shortly thereafter she said they were surrounded by police cars. She said a high ranking officer got out of the car and started punch and kick her, along with other officers.

On Columbus Day of this year another woman in her 50's was going home and she was in front of the door of her apartment building. She told the officer I am just going inside. Her daughter heard the commotion from the window and came down. The officer beat the woman, her daugther and a male friend and neighbor that came over to tell the officer that she was good neighbor. The woman, daughter and man were hospitalized, the man nows walks with a cane. This man said he had to intervene because he said this has to stop and he had to come and testify, because he did not want his child to grow up like he has his whole life, with being stopped like he was a criminal when in fact he is not.

A 14 year old girl was stopped.

A witness testified she observed women being fondled when stopped the police.

Muslims being watched and being baited by the police.

A man losing his job and place to live because he was arrested because of time it took to fight the case in court (and now because he has a police record he cannot find a job). The dynamic of this abuse as illustrated in this testimony, causes an effect that is destructive to our society as a whole because now we have decided to criminalize a segment of our society, and thereby making it almost virtually impossible for them to be a productive part of our society.

Two women going to the store and being followed by the police, they felt frightened because they thought that this person who in plainsclothes was actually some kind of weirdo.

It was very clear from the testimonies that the police are very closely watching Blacks, Latinos and Muslims, abusing their power with verbal, physical abuse and the mental abuse that is pursuant to the two former abuses, making one a physical prisoner in their home, and a mental prisoner, because if you go out, they the police will be out there waiting to get you.

Who are watching and stopping the police? There is no one.

To see the hearings in their entirety please check the program listing NYC Channel 25.