Racial Profiling in Ditmas Park

Racial profiling has been a concern to me after twice being a witness to it in our neighborhood of Ditmas Park in less than a six-month period. 

I want to say at the outset that I have an immense respect and appreciation for the job and the responsibility of the police force, but they also have a responsibility not only to enforce the law but also to respect our rights.     

Both occurrences I witnessed happened in broad daylight, with the individuals doing nothing more than walking and parking a car. In one case the person was quietly walking along, no more than 3 feet away from me, when their were stopped and questioned by the police as to what was in the contents of their pockets and where did they get the money that was on their person.  In the other incident the person was just pulling into a parking spot, that they were probably all too happy to have found, when the police officers walking the beat, came over and asked for identification and then proceeded to look at the contents of the vehicle with a flashlight through the window.  

I am not going to tell you the race or gender of those stopped or of the police, even though this is an article about racial profiling because if I did, it would make it all too easy for the reader to say “Oh yes, it’s happening to them.  And those things do happen to them.” And when we say those things to ourselves, we somehow accept it as the way things are, and what can do about it?  It’s unfortunate many times if a situation has not happened to us then we can’t always identify.  But this article isn’t about them; it’s about us. When one person’s rights are violated then all Our rights are violated.  And it is happening daily, right here in our neighborhood, in our city and in our country.  The very same rights we all feel we have already fought for, the right in the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution against unreasonable searches and seizures. When did we give up that right? Why is walking and parking a vehicle become probable causes for the police to stop citizens in their daily business?

Imagine for a moment you are walking home late at night and having two people jump out of a car behind you, yell “Yo Yo, STOP!”. The first thought going through your mind, is that you are about to be mugged and you move to put your hand in your pocket to use anything you have on you as a weapon, knowing that you might have to fend off a physical attack to save your life, and then two guns are drawn and pointed in your face, only to have the perpetrators pull out their police shields and say “FREEZE!”  Your crime is that you had leaned into a doorway to text a friend rather than stand in the middle of the street and perhaps be the target of someone coming up behind you. You’re placed in handcuffs and then released.  What if you had actually had the time to reach into your pocket, then you would probably have been shot and we might be mourning your death as in the case of TRAYVON MARTIN, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/trayvon-martin-case-timeline-of-events/ . Is this really what it takes before change happens? This is not what I want and I know this not what my neighbor’s want. The imaginary story I have just illustrated was told to me by someone I know and it happened in Park Slope.

What exactly is going on here and why aren’t voices banding together to stop it? There are reasons – there are always reasons, and some stem from a feeling of helplessness, for others it might be apathy or a lack of awareness that the problem even exits.  Certainly, I did not know until I saw it with my own eyes. I am telling you the problem does exist and it is larger and more pernicious that I could have imagined. During my investigations into this phenomenon I was introduced to Mayor Bloomberg’s stop and frisk policy, which gives the NYPD the leeway to stop anyone, anytime for any reason. This policy is being used unrelentingly against Blacks and Latinos as reflected in the New York Civil Liberties Union statistics, stating that in 2011 there were 685, 724 stops by the NYPD, a 14% increase from the year prior and a 600% increase since 2002, when Bloomberg took office. Of those stopped in 2011 87% were Black and Latino, while 88% of the total number of people stopped were innocent.  Bear in mind that these are only the stops that have been reported. http://www.nyclu.org/issues/racial-justice/stop-and-frisk-practices

What I am saying is that this has to STOP!  I am yelling it just like the police officer yelled it, in the aforementioned story.  I am shouting it in any way that I can and I want everyone to hear me, because no matter who you are, you know this is wrong.  No one should have to be afraid to walk down the street and worry that you are going to be stopped by the authorities because of who you are, whether it’s for your race, your gender, your sexual orientation, your religion or your style of dress. And we as a society should not allow this to be a part of our culture. 

We cannot stand by and watch the rights of our brothers and sisters be crushed in order to feel secure.  Currently this hammer of injustice is falling heavily on those that are poor and without political strength. On May 10th I went to a forum of Mothers Speaking Out sponsored by Police Reform Organizing Project (PROP) www.policereformorganizingproject.org and I heard story after story of people being stopped for no reason by the NYPD and being treated in a provocative, demeaning and dehumanizing manner.  A story of children being taken from their homes in the middle of the night to be questioned by the police to investigate a crime for which they had no connection with in any way, basically a round up. Why, you may ask? One reason are the police quotas, that drive this engine of discrimination in order to meet their goals. A numbers crunching game and the ones really being crunched are the people being hunted down to meet these goals.  People in these poorer communities are being relentlessly persecuted daily by the NYPD without respite.  Currently there is no outside entity that polices the police in New York City.

It is imperative that we all—including those that have had to enforce this policy—speak out.  If we do not, then we are supporting a legalized system of discrimination that targets specific groups for persecution/oppression and incarceration.

We come from all walks of life and we need to protect everyone’s civil rights, because when we allow anyone to be stopped without probable cause, and instead we allow the method of cause to be that of I don’t like the way you look/we have the power and what are you going to do about it, we are willingly giving up our protection under the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment against unreasonable searches and seizures, which we cannot allow to continue. 

Discrimination comes in all shapes and sizes, and one major criteria being used by the NYPD today is by race, but blink and it will be you tomorrow and who will be there to defend you, if you do not defend your neighbor today? One voice alone won’t make the change, but many voices crying out loud together make a thunderous roar that can and will make this change. Add your voice to this thunderous roar.  It’s starts today in New York City today and let it go on…..

If you feel the same way that I do, then let it be known and sign this petition requesting an end to this systemic abuse of power and the creation of an independent organization to monitor and punish misconduct by the police.

http://signon.org/sign/stop-harsh-and-unjust?source=c.em.cp&r_by=1247930

“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

                                    Benjamin Franklin

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.

                                             Pastor Martin Niemoller

                                             German Anti-Nazi Theologian