The NYPD Needs a Culture Change

Kimani Gray

I’ve been fretting over the shooting of Kimani Gray in Brooklyn. I haven’t been able to go out to the vigils and rallies, but have been following the news via twitter and I’m troubled. A 16-year old boy was shot and killed by the NYPD. Official reports say he pointed a gun at the officers, while eyewitness accounts say there was no gun. Protests, while mostly peaceful, have turned violent at times. Young people, supported by activists, say they are responding not just to this incident, but to a widespread pattern of harassment, repression and brutality by the police perpetrated on youth of color. Some community leaders are critiquing “outside agitators” who they say are irresponsibly exploiting young people’s anger. Since I haven’t been out to the rallies in Brooklyn and I don’t know the full details of the Kimani Gray shooting yet, I will refrain from making judgments in this case.

Ed García Conde (right) with friends from BDC

What I will write about is what happened tonight in my South Bronx neighborhood. At 11:00 PM, I received a call from Mychal Johnson, a neighbor of mine and a member of Community Board 1, letting me know that a mutual friend of ours, Ed García Conde, had just been arrested. Ed is a well known community activist and author of the blog Welcome 2 Melrose. He asked if I could come over to the station since I was a member of the 40th Precinct Community Council. I got out of bed, dressed and walked across the street where I met Mychal, along with several staff and volunteers from the Bronx Documentary Center where the arrest occurred.

They filled me in on the details. The group, including the Center’s co-founders, was closing down the facility. Several volunteers were waiting outside, including two white women, a white man, and a black woman. One member of the group was carrying a broken beer bottle out to the trash and using a cup to keep the liquid from spilling. A patrol car pulled up and ordered the group against the wall and asked them to produce identification. One of the officers reached into the pocket of one of the volunteers to take his wallet. Ed, never one to keep his mouth shut, objected to the officer’s actions and pulled out his cell phone to record what was happening. A sergeant warned Ed to stop filming, to which Ed, who was standing 5 feet away, responded: “I know my rights.” At this point, the sergeant stormed towards Ed, grabbed his phone and threw him up against the wall of the documentary center hard enough to shake the glass. He then cuffed him and took him to the precinct. You can watch the video below: 

When I got to the precinct, we spoke briefly to the sergeant who was unrepentant about his actions, even as Mychal explained that these were community volunteers working hard to improve the neighborhood. “He’s lucky that he’s just getting out of here with a summons,” the sergeant said, “instead of being put through the system.” We went through the usual steps of calling Community Affairs, emailing the Deputy Inspector, and reminding the NYPD (again) that arresting pro-social community members is about one of the most counter-productive things they can do to promote public safety. After about an hour, Ed was released, and his summons explained to him by a nice and apologetic young officer who seemed embarrassed by the whole incident.

For a while this evening I was battling feelings of ambivalence about the Brooklyn protests. I’m conciliatory by nature and slightly uncomfortable with direct confrontation. I am suspicious of activists who seem hell-bent on provoking clashes with police, some of whom use the pain and anger of young people as fuel for their political agenda. As a Christian, I am compelled to seek shalom, a wholeness that includes justice and peace. Yet I cannot deny the core claim of the protestors: that the NYPD regularly and routinely treats people in communities of color as sub-human, and is given license to do so from the top with the justification that these aggressive tactics are necessary to suppress serious crime.

What I saw this evening confirmed to me again that the NYPD is in dire need of a policy and culture change from top to bottom. Nothing justified the behavior of the sergeant in this evening’s incident. It should have been crystal clear that the staff and volunteers of the Bronx Documentary Center were not in the least a threat to public safety. What Ed was guilty of was asserting his right to be treated with courtesy, professionalism and respect, which he did fully within the bounds of the law. When Ed, a Latino resident of the community refused to cower, the sergeant (also Latino) felt the need to teach him a lesson using coercion and force.

While waiting for Ed’s release, several members of the group expressed their disbelief that the police would behave this way. Others astutely pointed out that while this rarely happens to young white people, to hipsters, artists and gentrifiers, it happens every day over and over again to young men of color, who don’t have the social or media connections to tell their story in a way that compels people with power and privilege to listen.

In Flatbush, the mostly peaceful protests have included some isolated incidents of young people clashing violently with the police and vandalizing property, leading the Mayor and Police Commissioner to state first and foremost that they will have zero tolerance for violence and rioting.

Yet even those like Jumaane Williams, who are decrying the violence and calling for peace while fighting for police reform, are quoting Dr. King, who called rioting the language of the unheard. If you listen closely to young people, you will hear them saying the same things King spoke about 50 years ago:

“When you cut facilities, slash jobs, abuse power, discriminate, drive people into deeper poverty and shoot people dead whilst refusing to provide answers or justice, the people will rise up and express their anger and frustration if you refuse to hear their cries. A riot is the language of the unheard.” 

Protestor arrested during march and rally for Kimani Gray

Some are uncomfortable with the confrontational tactics of groups that film the police, march on precincts, and vent their rage on street corners. But until the NYPD learns to actually listen and respond to the cries of young people of color, these actions will – and must – continue. And hopefully, the voices of more and more people with privilege and institutional power will add to their cry, demanding that the police protect and serve all the people equally well.