Mayor Adam's Broke Another Promise Made to NYC Residents Re:Policing
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Rashaan Brown captured his interactions with police officers after the car he was in was pulled over.
A Word from Adamfoxie's Publisher
Policing is very important to me because as I was an active New Yorker who used Mass Transit 6 to 7 days a week and walked the streets of New York as a younger New Yorker hoping to join the force I know about policing. I know how different types of New Yorkers feel about it because most of my family including myself grew up in New York City, Native of Puerto Rico. I was so disappointed at the way cops treated any New Yorker they came in contact with, I stopped the process of becoming a Patrolman after Taking the exam, put it on the list, and called for my physical tests which were stressful but I enjoy them. I was very gun-ho and both my parents were in the mindset for me. But I stop trying to be a cop. I could not see myself becoming part of a force that the public did not respect and did not trust. Then to put the icing on the cake I'm gay. Even though I was closeted then and wanted to stay that way I knew cops would out me and then what? Jokes and disrespect from my peers make me quit. No way would even though I had already gone through the hardest part. All I needed was to enter the academy.
Eventually, when my company asked to move out of New York City I did it sadly but gladly. In my senior year, I see no change. A different force but the patrolmen about to enter the Academy with me if they stayed they are now officers in the dept. all the other ones are gone but still seem like are the same guys. I saw a change this past summer in the rookies to be friendlier and more than once we even exchanged smiles which back in my days would be enough to be stopped, smiling with a cop would be laughing at that cop. But I'm talking about rookies. With the type of mayor, this city elected full of scandal, someone who is a landlord of a building full of rats or at least according to the Health Inspectors that keep giving him summons to pay. I don't see what he is told the force there would be any change. When you read below you should be able to judge what Ive seen and what Maria Cramer and saw.
Edwin Raymond doubted he would ever be promoted to sergeant after he sued the New York Police Department over arrest quotas that fell hardest on Black and Latino men. But he had a prominent ally.
“What you’re going through is what a warrior goes through,” Eric Adams, then Brooklyn’s borough president, wrote him in a text, Mr. Raymond recalled.
When Mr. Adams became mayor in January 2022, Mr. Raymond — who was eventually promoted and later rose to lieutenant — hoped the city’s new leader would end the tactics that had attracted civil rights lawsuits and federal scrutiny. Instead, the mayor embraced them.
Since Mr. Adams took office, the police have pulled over disproportionate numbers of Black and Latino drivers, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union. Officers stopped and frisked 41 percent more pedestrians in 2022 than in 2021. In June, a federal monitor said that anti-crime units activated by Mr. Adams were conducting too many unlawful stops, searches, and frisks.
Also up: the number of complaints filed with the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the independent agency that investigates misconduct. During the first half of 2023, the board reported, there were 40 percent more complaints than during the same period last year.
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Mr. Adams, a former police captain who campaigned on fighting crime while protecting the rights of New Yorkers, has been unapologetic about his approach.
Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain, has been deeply involved with the department. Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times
“Whenever I’m cracking down on them, everyone says, ‘OK, there go Mayor Po Po again trying to be heavy-handed on everyone,’” Mr. Adams said during a recent meeting with residents in southeast Queens, one of his political strongholds. “You’re not going to just do whatever you want in this city anymore. Those days are over.”
Interviews with half a dozen current and recently retired officers revealed a duality in how they view this change: After years of feeling undermined following protests against brutality and calls to defund the police, many officers said Mr. Adams’s new tone felt supportive. Others worried about whether the support would hold when officers were accused of misconduct.
And then there are officers like Mr. Raymond, who was among 12 police officers who sued the department in 2015 over arrest quotas that the department says do not exist. He had hoped an Adams administration would promote a different style of policing. His disappointment was partly why he left the department in May.
A Police Department at a Critical Moment
The New York Police Department is facing challenges on several fronts.
Response to Protests: The N.Y.P.D. agreed to a sweeping settlement that will overhaul how it handles demonstrations, including banning the tactic of boxing in protesters and then arresting them.
A 400-Pound Robot: As part of Mayor Eric Adams’s push for more law-enforcement technology, the N.Y.P.D. will deploy the K5, a “fully autonomous” security robot, in the Times Square subway station.
Chaos in Union Square: The mayhem caused in the Manhattan neighborhood by a social media personality’s game console giveaway tested the N.Y.P.D.’s response.
A Shake-Up at the Top: Edward Caban, the first Latino officer to lead the N.Y.P.D. in its 177-year history, announced the resignations of several senior executives in the department.
“New York has the opportunity to be the model and leadership for reform and we’re completely dropping the ball,” Mr. Raymond said. “The irony is that it’s happening under Mayor Adams.”
In a statement, Charles Kretchmer Lutvak, a spokesman, said that since Mr. Adams took office, the police have taken more than 12,200 illegal guns off the street. Shootings decreased by more than 34 percent in September 2023 compared with the same month a year before.
The Police Department said homicides, rapes, robberies, and burglaries were down citywide thanks to “engaged and focused” officers. That continues a decades-long decline in crime in New York.
“They are eradicating violence and writing more summonses, all while improving our engagement with the community,” the department said in a statement.
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Roslin Spigner, in a yellow jacket, leans on a telephone pole.
Roslin Spigner is happy for police officers to keep the peace in southeast Queens. Credit...Laila Stevens for The New York Times
In southeast Queens, where Mr. Adams has roots, Roslin Spigner said she trusts her precinct commander and knows whom to call when she sees beat-up cars with fake plates and illegal smoke shops selling marijuana.
Mr. Adams’s Police Department, she said, is attuned to her neighborhood.
“He’s doing a great job,” Ms. Spigner said of the mayor. “He knows I will hold him accountable for anything that he does.”
Ms. Spigner, who marched with her sorority to support the Black Lives Matter movement, said she worried about officers abusing their authority and added that they should “treat people with respect.” But she also feels estranged from progressive New Yorkers who express apprehension at any police activity in their neighborhoods.
“You’re going to have the more liberal side of New York that feels that nobody should live in a police state,” Ms. Spigner said. “And then you’re going to have people from Queens, more or less, who are like, yeah, police the state.”
In Brownsville, Brooklyn, Rashaan Brown, who works for an anti-violence group, had a different perspective on recent community-police relations.
He was in the back seat of a car on Labor Day when two officers pulled it over and saw that Mr. Brown wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. Mr. Brown got out but refused to lean against the car.
“Do what you got to do,” he told the officers. They pulled him to the ground and handcuffed him and his two friends.
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Rashaan Brown captured his interactions with police officers after the car he was in was pulled over.
“You got ID on you, brother?” “Of course. But why do I need ID?” “You’re not wearing a seatbelt.” “Huh — that’s the new rule. That’s what y’all talking about? I’m in the back seat and y’all talking about a seatbelt?” “It’s been, all right —” “No, no, no. Stop touching me. Don’t touch me.” “Give me your ID.” “Don’t touch me. Don’t touch me. Don’t touch me. Don’t do that. You ask me for my ID, I’m going to give you my ID, but don’t touch me. Here, take this.” “No this isn’t — this isn’t your ID. Give me your ID.” “For what?” “My attitude is because you’re pulling —” “My ID for what? What did I do? I ain’t got no — no seatbelt in the back seat. When was that a rule? Can I get out?” “No.” “I’m nervous.” “I’m nervous, too. That’s why you’re staying —” “But I got my hands up and I got my phone in my hand and my ID’s in the car.” “You’re acting angry, very angry.” “I’m not acting angry. You touched me. You put your hands on me. You just touched me. You asked me for my ID, then you touched me.” [unclear] “You came to the car and you just touched me and pushed my phone to the side because I was recording. Come on, now. That’s [expletive], come on now — Mr. Delaney, can I get out the car? Because I got to pee. I got to pee.” “He’s not a teacher.” “I got to pee. “Now you have to —” “Can I get out? Yeah, I got to do that. Yeah like, y’all, y’all making me nervous. Like, yeah, I got to do that. Like, y’all making me nervous. Mr. Delaney? Can I get out the car?” “Give us a second.” “I got my IDs in my hand, and I got my phone in my other hand.” “Come to the bumper. Any weapons on you, sir?” “I just showed you my ID. Don’t touch me. Don’t touch me. Don’t touch me.” “Come to the back. Come to the back.” “Don’t touch me. Stop touching me.” “Keep your hands out of your pocket.” “Stop touching me.” “Keep your hands out of your pocket.” “Stop touching — my hands are in my pocket. I put my IDs in my pocket. Stop touching me.” “Hang out right here. Sit, on the bumper.” “I’m not doing that.” “Excuse me.” “I’m not doing that. Why I got to sit down? I’m in front of you.” “You know who you’re talking to you right now?” “Yeah, I know who I’m talking to. Yeah, Mr. — Vasquez.” “Sit right here.” “I’m not doing that. Do what you got to do.” “Please, please, please, stop, stop, stop. Guys, please, guys, stop, stop, stop.”
Rashaan Brown captured his interactions with police officers after the car he was in was pulled over.
“You’re not in charge. We are,” one of the officers said, according to a video Mr. Brown filmed of the encounter. Another official, a deputy inspector, could be heard saying, “Do you know who you’re talking to?”
The men were kept in a precinct jail in Brownsville for two hours before they were released with a summons for having an open container of alcohol that was later dismissed.
Mike Souffrant, a 38-year-old post office supervisor who had been driving the car, said the encounter made him “feel like an animal.”
The mayor’s office said in a statement that Mr. Adams’s personal experience with police brutality had made his administration vigilant in safeguarding against such abuses. “As a young person, Mayor Adams was beaten by the police, so he has personally experienced abusive policing and has spent his entire career fighting against it,” said Mr. Lutvak.
More than 15,000 pedestrians were stopped last year by the police, well under the almost 686,000 stops recorded in 2011 at the height of the “stop and frisk” era. Still, political and civic leaders said that such stops — and experiences like what happened to Mr. Brown and Mr. Souffrant — threaten to undermine the mayor’s professed aim of building trust among civilians and the police.
Mr. Adams has “the ability to do things with the N.Y.P.D. that perhaps no other mayor has ever had,” said David R. Jones, president and chief executive of the Community Service Society of New York. But, he said, “in an effort to tamp down on crime, they’re also over-policing and using techniques that may very well alienate the target communities they’re trying to serve.”
Kim Best, president of the 79th Precinct Community Council in Bedford-Stuyvesant, said teenagers told her that during the height of stop and frisk, they would come out of the subway with their hands up in anticipation of being stopped by the police. She doesn’t want to return to that, but she said young people need to learn to stay out of trouble.
Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said it was difficult to reconcile the mayor’s recent rhetoric and policies with the “scrappy, justice-seeking” captain she once knew.
“He used to be our ally, and now he’s our adversary,” Ms. Lieberman said.
As a candidate, Mr. Adams promised to publish a list of officers on watch for bad behavior, strengthen programs that would keep young people out of jail, and give communities veto power over the choice of precinct commanders.
But the promises have gone unfulfilled or have been undermined by cuts.
The list was never published. The city touts summer job programs to help young people, but in August, the probation department shut down a nine-month initiative connecting troubled 16 to 24-year-old New Yorkers to mentoring and therapy. The city explained that other programs provide similar services.
The mayor “understands that public safety is about more than just policing,” Mr. Lutvak said.
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| Derelict cars dumped in Queens Village contribute to a sense that lawlessness must be contained.Credit...Laila Stevens for The New York Times |
While the finalists for the precinct commander positions go before precinct councils for feedback, the chief of department and other executives ultimately make the selections.
Damaged vehicles on a street.
Julio Peña, chairman of Community Board 7 in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park, found out about a meeting to question two 72nd Precinct finalists just 30 minutes in advance. “Here was a perfect opportunity to implement this policy and instead it was kind of a sham,” Mr. Peña said.
Alexa AvilĂ©s, the city councilwoman who represents the neighborhood, said the administration’s last-minute approach risked alienating people like Mr. Peña who could be the department’s biggest boosters and who “take a lot of pride in being that liaison.”
“When those folks are saying ‘This is a sham,’ and ‘I feel used,’ what’s the point?’” she said.
The city said that 35 precinct commanders had been chosen following “highly successful” conversations with residents. Jeffrey Maddrey, the chief of the department, said in an interview that police executives used an “internal process” to select commanders but promised changes to give the community a “fair opportunity” to participate.
Even when community leaders pleaded to have a commander they admired, police leaders went in another direction.
Over the summer, the department was considering where to place Capt. Derby St. Fort, a former Brooklyn precinct commander who once co-wrote opinion pieces with Mr. Adams and pushed for innovations like paying troubled teenagers to participate in group therapy. Mr. Adams had praised his work before taking office.
Several City Council members and leaders of a dozen community groups asked the department to promote Captain St. Fort or transfer him to another high-crime precinct. Instead, the department sent him to the transit bureau.
Jarrell Daniels, a program director at Columbia University’s Center for Justice who worked with Captain St. Fort, said it was discouraging to see him “blackballed.”
“For him to be a Black man in uniform and to go through this when he’s really trying to make a difference, it’s sad,” Mr. Daniels said. “It might be souring for the people who want to do this work.”
Captain St. Fort said in a statement that he was committed to giving his new role his “best efforts.”
“The crucial work of police reform,” he said, “will predominantly take place during my personal time.”
Hurubie Mekocontributed reporting.
Maria Cramer is a reporter on the Metro desk. Please send her tips, questions and complaints about the New York police and crime at maria.cramer@nytimes.com. More about Maria Cramer
Jeffery C. Mays is a reporter on the Metro desk who covers politics with a focus on New York City Hall. A native of Brooklyn, he is a graduate of Columbia University. More about Jeffery C. Mays
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Source: New York Times
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