Not One Social Distancing Ticket For All Of Park Slope: Data

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Social distancing isn't far from Park Slopers' minds during the coronavirus crisis. Its residents have shouted warnings from balconies, waited hours to shop at the beloved co-op and get called out on Twitter for not wearing masks.

But as low-income communities of color apparently bear the brunt of harsh NYPD social distancing enforcement how many summonses went out in the 78th police precinct covering Park Slope?

Zero. Nada. Zilch. Not one.

What's more, the 78th Precinct doesn't just cover Park Slope. It also contains Prospect Park, where throngs often gather on its lawns to much social distancing concern and consternation.

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The 78th Precinct is one of 27 precincts citywide in which officers didn't hand out summonses over social distancing violations, according to NYPD data released last week. That means Park Slope joined tony neighborhoods like SOHO and Tribeca and relatively-cozy parts of Staten Island as havens from social distancing crackdowns.

Meanwhile, a police precinct covering Canarsie issued 66 summonses for social distancing violations as of May 5, according to the data. About 80 percent of all social distancing tickets went to people of color, the data shows.

And, in Brooklyn, of 40 people arrested over social distancing, only one was white. None of those arrests were in Park Slope, the New York Times reported.

Some officials such as Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams have called for the NYPD to get out of social distancing enforcement in the wake of violent arrest videos and stats showing disparities. But Mayor Bill de Blasio has maintained police enforcement will remain active, even as he looked to shift the emphasis on 2,300 "social distancing ambassadors" he'll dispatch across the city.

"More and more the emphasis will be on a communicative encouraging approach through these social distancing ambassadors," he said Sunday.

New NYPD data released Tuesday for non-social distancing but coronavirus-related arrests show 66 percent of those arrests citywide involved African-Americans. In total, black and brown New Yorkers comprised 90 percent of all coronavirus-linked arrests.

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