John Jay College Presents Findings on Misdemeanor Arrests in New York
A report was released last month by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice looking at low level policing practices in the State of New York. Not to our surprise, there was a finding that the most pronounced increase in policing activity was with "minority" men, particularly African American and Hispanic.
You can find the report here, with the specific race data breakdown beginning on page 39 of the report, and the conclusion and implications described beginning on page 76.
I hope everyone is clear that the kinds of findings presented in this report, and more specifically the powder keg dynamic that is created by these policing practices, are very consistent with what we're seeing in Ferguson, Missouri.
Listening to NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton talk about these dynamics with Connie Rice of the Advancement Project, it's clear that the leadership in New York City are far more comfortable reflecting on this especially huge injustice, particularly when compared to their counterparts in Ferguson, St. Louis, and the State of Missouri more generally.
From the conclusion:
We hope that this report will prompt wide-ranging policy discussions about the role
of arrests in our response to misdemeanor crimes. Each of the arrests presented
here reflects a decision by a police officer to exercise an important power granted
under the law – the discretionary power to hold someone that is believed to have
committed a crime for court processing. This report raises a host of questions about
significant, sometimes dramatic, shifts in the exercise of that power. Why has it
happened? How much was driven by policy choices? How much of the change in
arrest patterns is responsible for changes in victim calls for service? How much of
this phenomenon can be attributed to the availability of police resources freed up by
declining felony arrest rates? How much does this heightened use of misdemeanor
arrests reflect strategies designed to respond to community concerns about “quality
of life” offenses? These important issues can be better understood and debated with
the data provided in this report. We plan to hold a national conference at John Jay
College of Criminal Justice in Spring, 2015, funded by the Arnold Foundation, to
provide a platform for these discussions.This report also powerfully illustrates the reality that increases in enforcement
activity have not been evenly distributed across or within these cities. On the
contrary, the increase has been concentrated among young minority men. This
reality raises questions about fairness, perceptions of legitimacy within an important
demographic, and changes in patterns of crime. It further highlights the need to
consistently document race/ethnic and age-related trends in criminal justice
processes to better understand how social burdens disproportionately impact young
minority men. The report also underscores the importance of better understanding
the role of prosecutors and judges in processing and adjudicating these arrests. Each
of these arrests is subjected to legal and judicial review and consumes significant
resources of a system facing daunting resource constraints. Finally, we hope that
these analyses will lead to an examination of the role of government in responding to
low level criminal behavior and problematic community conditions. In some cases, a
misdemeanor arrest should be viewed as only one option in our response to
misdemeanor crime. Other options that may be far more effective should be
explored.
From the report overview from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice:
The purpose of the study was to explore and compare trends in misdemeanor arrests from 1980 to 2013 by analyzing data from the New York Police Department, the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services and the United States Census. This marks the first time that a comprehensive and comparative data set has been created to analyze these trends. This analysis will help frame the ongoing discussions about law enforcement and criminal justice practices regarding appropriate responses to low-level crimes.
There were four key findings from these rigorous data analyses. First, New York City – as well as other cities in New York State – experienced significant increases in the number and rate of misdemeanor arrests from 1980 to 2013. Second, young minority men have experienced the greatest increases in misdemeanor arrests in New York City. Third, there is significant variation in New York City in the kinds of charges for these arrests, their disposition and subsequent sentence, and how they are initially processed. Fourth, the increases in misdemeanor arrests are not uniform across New York City. Indeed, there is significant variation by precincts.
NYPD Policing Issues & African American Communities – Brutality, Fear, Distrust, Conscious Biases, etc.
Below is the recording of a discussion that took place with NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton, talking with Connie Rice of the Advancement Project. What's most interesting in this discussion (the first 20-25 minutes or so) is to hear the very clear and conscious acknowledgment by the commissioner of the tension between African American communities and the police department, as well as an acknowledgment by the commissioner that officers are very aware of the fear and terror felt by African American community members in their relationship with the police department.
While not the explicit focus of this discussion, I think that subtext is extremely important because many of us have long been clear that police departments have deliberately created that fear and that sense of terror, and rely on that fear and terror as a primary policing strategy. It's not an innocent misunderstanding between, or a set of misperceptions between, community and police; it's the deliberate tactic used by the police.
There are a range of additional important issues addressed in this discussion, including poor law enforcement responses with respect to immigration enforcement, human / sex trafficking and its disproportionate impact on Black and brown communities, gender dynamics in law enforcement and the honest reflections of police officers who acknowledge their conscious racial and cultural biases.
Connie Rice and Bill Bratton Discuss Police-Community Partnerships
Last month, Connie Rice of Advancement Project and NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton sat down at the Bridging the Great Divide workshop, hosted by John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Open Society Foundations, to discuss issues between police and communities.
Program held in September 2014
Approximately 1 hour
Police State: Miami Gardens Stopped And Frisked Over 8,000 Kids
A new investigation found that of 56,922 people stopped and frisked by the Miami Gardens Police Department, 8,489 were children. HuffPost Live talks to some of those—as young as 11—who were stopped.
Originally aired on June 10, 2014
Criminalizing African American Movement: Khalil Muhammad on Facing our Racial Past
In the extended video clip below (approx. 22 minutes), Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad talks with Bill Moyers about the legacy of "Black criminality" in the American imagination, and the use of this evolving cultural identifier as a justification for enhanced policing of African American behavior and movement in communities across this nation.
In his analysis, Dr. Muhammad traces the history of laws 'restricting the movement and mobility' of African Americans in public spaces, from the Black Codes and vagrancy laws of the 1860's, to the more recent (formal) stop and frisk policies in such cities as New York City, New Orleans, Philadelphia, among others.
Of particular note is the huge amount of discretion all of these laws have provided law enforcement officials to continue this sort of close scrutiny and harassment of African Americans, all along in the name of public safety.
From the Description...
Bill and Khalil Gibran Muhammad, head of the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and author of The Condemnation of Blackness, discuss the importance of confronting the contradictions of America’s past to better understand the present.
Muhammad describes the New York City Police Department's "Stop and Frisk" program as "an old and enduring form of surveillance and racial control"
Khalil Muhammad on Facing Our Racial Past from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.
Stop-and-Frisk: The Pastor (Where I Am Going)
When Reverend Samuel Cruz of Sunset Park, Brooklyn has to tell his young nephews not to wear hoodies and not to walk a certain way, it is very clear the stop-and-frisk effect on his community is a serious issue. Reverend Cruz describes this effect as a "dehumanization of young people" that damages the spirit and leaves them with a sense of hopelessness.
This is the second of a four-part series entitled Where I Am Going.
Where I Am Going is a video series that peeks into the lives of people who've experienced NYPD's Stop-and-Frisk policy. These short documentaries give us a glance into the lives of ordinary New Yorkers — a teenager, a mother, a clergyman, and a police officer. We start by sharing a teen's story and a clergyman's.
The police policy has impacted their lives and their neighborhoods. These are the stories of people who believe they can achieve many things, but are not always given the hope and empowerment they envision.
This docuseries was produced by Firelight Films and by our faith in a brighter future.
Stop-and-Frisk: The High School Senior (Where I Am Going)
Kasiem Walters, a high school senior in Flatbush, Brooklyn, speaks about the countless stop-and-frisk experiences he and his friends have had over the years. From waiting outside a friend's house on the walk to school, to giving high-fives and being mistaken for selling drugs, Kasiem dreams of a time when he and his community can look around and feel like citizens of New York, not criminals.
This is the first in a 4-part docuseries entitled Where I Am Going.
Where I Am Going is a video series that peeks into the lives of people who've experienced NYPD's Stop-and-Frisk policy. These short documentaries gives us a glance into the lives of ordinary New Yorkers — a teenager, a mother, a clergyman, and a police officer. We start by sharing a teen's story.
The police policy has impacted their lives and their neighborhoods. These are the stories of people who believe they can achieve many things, but are not always given the hope and empowerment they envision.
This docuseries was produced by Firelight Films and by our faith in a brighter future.
The Hunted and the Hated: An Inside Look at the NYPD’s Stop-and-Frisk Policy
A secret audio recording of a stop-and-frisk in action sheds unprecedented light on a practice that has put the city's young people of color in the NYPD's crosshairs.
Read the full story at The Nation, including the full audio of the stop.
Background
- About Oronde Miller
- Book Table of Contents
- Oronde’s Book: Facing The Rising Sun
- a black love music celebration
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- Happy Kwanzaa – Umoja – Unity December 26, 2018
- THE JOURNEY: “Between the World and Ta-Nehisi Coates” March 17, 2016
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- Kwanzaa: Understanding the History and Context of a Community Celebration December 26, 2015
- Reflections on Malcolm X December 22, 2015
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- Colorlines.org – Listing of Colorlines Blogs
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