1. How do you feel about the negative connotations much of the public has towards you even though you are trying to protect them?
2. How do you feel about the relationship between the NYPD and the mayor?
Author Archives: Christina Tsangouri
Posts by Christina Tsangouri
Precint Questions
Policing Problems
Due to recent incidents such as failure to indict officers responsible for the death of Michael Brown and Eric Gartner, policing has come into close scrutiny lately. There have been a myriad of protests calling for an upheaval of the police system. Some of the problems regarding policing practices that have been brought to the surface are unreasonable and unnecessary use of force, police training, and racial profiling.
The problem with police training is that while at the academy the concept of officer safety is heavily emphasized. These officers in training are shown painful videos of officers beaten, gunned down, and killed due to moments of hesitation. They are shown demonstrations of situations such as someone pulling a gun when reaching behind car door, or turning around abruptly and shooting, or someone armed with a knife attacking an officer, all before the officer has a chance to remove his gun from his holster. Such training instills such fear into police officers that many are in a sense wired to shoot before the threat is fully realized.
The problem with unnecessary use of force can be demonstrated by the case of Eric Gartner who was killed due to a chokehold by a police officer even though he was unarmed and posed no immediate threat other than swatting his arms. This problem stems from the fear that many police officers have that was described earlier which leads to rash reactions. These police officers which are heavily armed and plenty of times will react to situations with excessive force instead of using other methods to handle the situation. Such cases contribute to ever growing rift between police and civilians.
The main problem with policies such as stop and frisk is that such practices create a sense of mistrust between police officers and the communities that they protect. In 1994 Mayor Giuliani and the NYPD adopted policies that promote aggressive enforcement of minor offenses. Each year thousands of New Yorkers are wrongfully stopped and searched. Many of these citizens stopped are sexually or physically assaulted by officers. In 2011 there were 684,000 stops and 90% of those stops did not result in arrests and those that did resulted in low level arrests. This policy is not only flawed in that it does not aid in reducing crime, it is also a form of racial profiling as a majority of those stopped are of color. Policies such as stop and frisk systematically target low-income communities of color, young people, LGBT, and immigrants. In 2011 53% of stops made were performed on blacks, 34% of stops were made on Hispanics. In Park Slope 79% of stop and frisk stops were performed on Black/Hispanics. Such policies make us all less safe by creating an environment of fear instead of trust.
In order for an effective reform on the current system of policing to occur it is imperative to understand these problems and the roots of these issues. New policies need to be implemented which will work towards a partnership between communities and the police in order to prevent crime together.
Sources:
http://changethenypd.org/issue
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/12/police-gun-shooting-training-ferguson/383681/
http://www.psmag.com/politics-and-law/problems-police-sanctions-eric-holder-cops-cleveland-firearms-crime-97137
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/katrina-vanden-heuvel-the-moral-and-political-case-for-criminal-justice-reform/2014/11/17/3eedc60c-6e7a-11e4-8808-afaa1e3a33ef_story.html
Comments by Christina Tsangouri
"I especially agree with the problem about improper re-integration of prisoners into society. I believe that this is the true fundemental fault of the whole police system. People, and especially youth, who are incarcerated cannot properly become functional members of society. Spending even a few years in such an environment where someone is frequently abused, living in solitary, with no sort of educational stimuli can leave someoone with lasting scars. For example, the article we read on Browder perfectly portrays this instance, where this boy lost two of the most important years of his life in jail. He never finished highschool, was not able to go on to college and have a career like his past peers. Which is why I firmly believe that the system needs to be greatly reformed, because it is clear that such punishments such as jail time instead of making someone a better citizen in fact encourage the opposite. I also agree with the problem regarding the faulty training of police which often leads rash and unnecessarily violent reactions to situations that could be handled differently."--( posted on Feb 19, 2015, commenting on the post Problem 1 )
"I agree with your statement that a major problem regarding policing is abuse of power. It is truly shocking that such actions such as beating prisoners occur. Such instances where officers will abuse their power just adds to the growing problem regarding mistrust between and hate of police officers and civilians. The problem with the backlog of the court system in many impoverished communities such as the Bronx is also something of concern. Reading the story of Browder really shocked me because I had never realized how bad the system was, which is why I agree that it is also a major problem. In order for policing to be more effective, policies have to be implemented which target such problems like misconduct of police officers and unlawful brutality and also target problems on a bigger scale like better policies regarding how cases are processed. For example the six month policy that is discussed in the article about the backlog in the Bronx court system should be reformed so that someone who spends more than 6 months actually in jail not just on paper should have their case terminated."
--( posted on Feb 19, 2015, commenting on the post Policing Problems )
