I hate to bring up instances of police brutality and terrorism because at this point in time in a very perverse way, I think the police feel emboldened and get off on stories highlighting their exploits. They know word of these accounts instill fear and leave many feeling overwhelmed and completely powerless.
At the same time we are challenged to alert folks because many are still in the dark and do not see these onslaught of brutality reports as systemic. Many have brought into the notion that the police don’t act out without reason. Hence when we hear a story about an unarmed man being shot, or someone being brutalized, many of us have been conditioned to ask 1-What did the victim do to deserve the mistreatment? 2-Did the victim have a troubled past?
Sadly many of us have come to rationalize police brutality as something that’s deserved if you have some sort of criminal record or fall into a marginalized demographic that has been grossly stereotyped and demonized. We buy into the police favored narrative because it’s comforting and allows us to avoid facing the fact that a system we come to believe in is broken and increasingly becoming more and more repressive.
Many of us do not want to face the fact that some sort of coup has taken place in this country where corporate entities are calling the shots and making policy while police forces all over are enforcing these rules and protecting their interests. Some call it Fascism.. Some call it the emerging police state. Whatever you wanna call it, its real and in your face. The question we need to be answering is how are we gonna deal?
The latest incursion comes at the hands of NYPD. This was an outfit we all sympathized with after brave officers lost their lives during the 9-11 tragedies. We gave the NYPD lots of leeway to recover and strengthen their force and in doing so, we either looked the other way or played dumb when they pushed for more powers. Now NYPD has vast sweeping powers. The most notorious is their Stop-N-Frisk policy where the police can at random pull you over while your walking and start searching you for guns, or contraband. Last year they stopped and detained over 680 thousand people with less than 10% resulting in any sort of violation of the law. Over 85% of those stopped were Black and Brown men.
The Stop and-Frisk policy has drawn lots of criticism and even a few lawsuits, but that has not stopped NYPD who now are set to take this to a whole other level. Its called the Clean Halls policy.. This is a new law that allows the police to come into public or private buildings including your residence and search you.. Yep you read that correctly.. Below are excerpts from recent Rollingstone Magazine article giving you all the info .. Please check it out
An amazing lawsuit was filed in New York last week. It seems Mike Bloomberg’s notorious “stop-and-frisk” policy – known colloquially in these parts by silently-cheering white voters as the “Let’s have cops feel up any nonwhite person caught walking in the wrong neighborhood” policy – isn’t even the most repressive search policy in the NYPD arsenal.
Bloomberg, that great crossover Republican, has long been celebrated by the Upper West Side bourgeoisie for his enlightened views on gay rights and the environment, but also targeted for criticism by civil rights activists because of stop-and-frisk, a program that led to a record 684,330 street searches just last year.
Now he’s under fire for a program he inherited, which goes by the darkly Bushian name of the “Clean Halls program.” In effect since 1991, it allows police to execute so-called “vertical patrols” by going up into private buildings and conducting stop-and-frisk searches in hallways – with the landlord’s permission.
According to the NYCLU, which filed the suit, “virtually every private apartment building [in the Bronx] is enrolled in the program,” and “in Manhattan alone, there are at least 3,895 Clean Halls Buildings.” Referring to the NYPD’s own data, the complaint says police conducted 240,000 “vertical patrols” in the year 2003 alone.
In addition to this, you may wanna check out the insightful interview we did with activist, freedom fighter Carl Dix about NYPD’s Stop and Frisk policies from a couple of months ago.. here’s the transcript from our radio interview on KPFA
http://mediaroots.org/mr-transcript-davey-d-carl-dix-resistance.php
Here’s a short excerpt of that interview
Carl Dix: “We’ve been out in Harlem, talking about Stop and Frisk. And before we did the first action what we would hear, often from the same person, is I hate Stop and Frisk. They did this to me. They did this to my son. They did this to—even sometimes—they did this to my sister, or my daughter. You know, because they’re doing this to women as well.
“But then the next point is: But you can’t do anything about it. And that’s why we decided we have to do something about it. And we launched this campaign to stop Stop and Frisk, which is a policy under which the police can just step to you, stop you, make you turn out your pockets, or search you themselves. And then often bust you for nothing.”
Davey D (c. 29:00): “Right. I don’t think people really clearly understand here [in the S.F. Bay Area] ‘cos we don’t see it as much. But in New York that is a huge problem that you could be walkin’ with a tuxedo on with your wife and kids and they pull you over and say, empty out your pockets, to make sure you don’t have a gun.”
Carl Dix (c. 29:46): “Yeah. And how big is it? They stopped and frisked almost 700,00 people; it was 684-thousand-plus last year alone in New York City: 85% of them Black or Latino, more than 90% of them they let you go after they’ve harassed you and humiliated you, but then even some of that 10% that they don’t let go, some of them were doing nothing wrong because when we did the action in Queens, they held us overnight. So, we were in there with a bunch of other people and people were telling us, Oh, they stopped me under Stop and Frisk. I didn’t have my driver’s licence. I didn’t have an ID, so they ran me in the prison.So, it’s like, did I wake up in Johannesburg, South Africa, 30 years ago when there were past laws? Because what’s the crime in not having an ID?”
Davey D (c. 30:39): “Right. And that’s why I ask the question because it is so massive. We just had, you know, we did a show about a brother who was killed over Stop and Frisk. He had a little bit of weed. The cops came by. He decided to walk, you know, into his building—I’m sure you remember this.”
Carl Dix (c. 31:01): “Yeah. I’ve seen the video of it.”
Davey D: “He just walked into his building—he wasn’t under arrest or anything—they ran up into his apartment, kicked down the door, and shot him in front of his grandma. There was no gun, no nothing. But there was a couple of joints that he was trying to get rid of, but this becomes the justification that is often used. Well, they should’ve just listened to the authorities. Or, they shouldn’t run. Or, you shouldn’t, if you don’t have anything to hide, then there won’t be any problem. But it’s those types of encounters that we see over and over again where people are like, the police are here, they’re gonna find something. I don’t want to deal with this. And oftentimes it’s a fatal situation.
“When you have these types of scenarios, Amadou Diallo, another victim of Stop and Frisk, all he had was a wallet, shot 41 times. How did we go from the Panthers and Dr. King and Malcolm X to allowing ourselves—or did we allow ourselves?—to be in such a situation right now where it’s not even talked about in the mainstream, even amongst our pundits? You know?
“I mean, you do it. Cornel does it. But if I tune on and I see our own folks sitting up there, they’re not really making this a front and centre issue. You know? They’ll talk about LeBron James and what team he’s gonna choose before they’re talking about the absurdity of 700,000 people being stopped in one year.”
Carl Dix (c. 32:24): “Okay, two things. The first thing is we’re acting to change that. And tomorrow night, when I talk, I’m gonna talk about a proposal for a national day of resistance to mass incarceration. That’s the first thing, but to get back to your question: How did we go from the days of the Panthers to this kind of situation?
You can also see another interview we did on this topic where go more in depth HERE
Davey, you would be taken more seriously if you weren’t a racist. “…silently-cheering white voters.” Are you serious? Learn to be an objective journalist instead of discriminating against all white people.
You Know what New Yorker, perhaps u would be taken seriously if ur over reacting azz learned how to read.. The article was written by investigative reporter Matt Tiabbi..I referenced it clearly and provided a linl that clearly shows his name.. He’s an award winning journalist who happens to be white.. But in your attempt to discount the story you jumped to conclusions.. My experience shows that’s what racist do.. They presuppose and look for any thing that might support a deeply held stereotype..Try reading next time and stop discriminating against Black people with your erroneous assessment of articles
I am Black by the way, so no I’m not discriminating against my own people lol. Blacks actually do commit the most crimes and if you do not think so you are blind. Look at the Bureau of Justice Statistics and there are way more Black offenders than anyone else. I see my people throughout the ghettos, the lazy bums sitting on welfare, scamming disability claims and hustlin dope on the streets and its no surprise that the NYPD targets us. Sure there are some really successful Black people but the ones that were brought here were the bottom of the barrel from Africa. Anyways, I’m only saying this because race was brought up.
You took the article as your own because you did not even state at the top, “By: Matt Taibbi” only in a semi-hidden link halfway down I can see how to get to the original article.
I don’t care who you are but if you write an article and mention race in it then you are spreading racism. And if you post this stereotypical garbage it surely will not help your reputation and we should begin to stop this by not pointing to race as a scapegoat.
No New Yorker stop making excuses for your blunder.. You misread the article.. You and only you drew the conclusion that I wrote it.. With that in mind, now that its clear the words you objected to are Matt’s and not mine, then your remarks hold no water.. If you’re really Black, you can’t possibly speak for white people, especially in contrast to someone who is white.. All this other dribble about stats and you being concerned about crime is total bullshyt.. Sit down, shut up and go away..I don’t mind people who disagree, in fact I welcome debate if its principled..You’re assertion was not.. You were trolling and slipped up.. In addition You’re NOT Black.. You’re a racist guy who levied gross and continue to levy stereotypes. Nothing more needs to be said to you..Have a good day
For the benefit of anyone else who is intelligently reading this article the best stats to look at are the ones from NYPD..Compare the number of stop and frisk they made last year with the obscenely low percentage of folks found in violation and the case against it are clearly made.. The information for that are in the interviews and articles in the post. The vertical patrols are a seriously violation of search and seizure protections with the concern of ‘terrorism’ not crime being the main impetus….
Police can do whatever they want anymore. Just the way the system works now. From the supreme court down to local governments, every day police are given more legal rope to pretty much have total authority over citizens. BTW, I’m white and agree with you 100%, Davey. (now this is where New Yorker calls me naive, or a race traitor. lol.)
The NYPD is out of control, emboldened bythe fact that Blacks in NYC can’t seem to figure out how to unite long enough to fight back. The ‘Stop-n-Frisk’ is not about law and order; it’s about intimidating Black and Latinos who can become a powerful political force in NYC. For anyone who believes we are collectively engaged in criminality I have a bridge to sell you. We are racially profiled every day — I wear a cowboy hat and boots, and cops have rolled up on me — usually they back off, but I get the message that they are there. The courtroom is the best plce to fight this police scourge, but we will have to unite to finally bring these people down.
Just to add to Davey D’s second reply to New Yorker: it cannot be understated how much of what is described as blacks who are “lazy bums sitting on welfare, scamming disability claims and hustlin dope on the streets” is also a product of the envirnoment which they function within. The facts are simple and undeniable: The United States of America was founded as a “white” country, with white success and white supremacy in mind. If your options are limited, you tend to make due with what options you do have. For years, Black Americans have been steered towards failure and ill circumstance, both directly and indirectly.
The key here is that ALL Americans must work diligently towards objectively observing the similarities and differences we commonly share as EQUAL human beings. And ALL Americans must own up to the history of the counrty, the good, bad, and ugly. Once we have a fair picture of “what has been,” then we can move towards creating a better “what will be.”