Achieving Civil Rights in the Face of Stop & Frisk Abuses
There are pundits who place the US Civil Rights era between
the years 1955 and 1968. This placement
suggests the struggle for civil rights for African-Americans and other hyphenated
Americans was just a 13-year ordeal. Is
this actually the case? Can national
ancestors such as Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers rest easy, assured that
their bloodshed brought franchise, fair deals and justice?
“Much has changed for the better since Mr. Evers’s brutal
death 50 years ago—but there is also much we can still learn and put in use
from the brave life he lived”, reflects St. Senator Eric Adams (D, WF) 20 SD. “Certainly, if he were alive today, he would
be at the front lines against the abuse of Stop and Frisk…Yes, this City would
do well to consider his courage and continue the fight against inequality and
injustice that still exist today.”
The Senator speaks with authority regarding the flaws of the
NYC Police Department’s procedure officially named Stop, Question and
Frisk. Prior to gaining the NYS Senate
seat, he was a NYPD Captain in central Brooklyn. He distinguished his police
career by co-founding 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care with several other
peace officers. Since taking his NYS
Senate office in 2006, Adams has kept an eye on NYPD activity. A visit to his State Senate website reveals
his dedicated attention to local police matters. There is a downloadable 23-slide presentation
entitled Stop, Question and Frisk
Procedure in the ‘Report’ section.
This slide show gives the objectives of Stop, Question and Frisk; the
procedure for carrying it out; and the four scenarios when a police officer can
conduct Stop, Question and Frisk. Using
2009 Center for Constitutional Rights’
findings and statistics, the State Senator makes a strong case that the
procedure “has unmerited focus on African-American and Latino youth; the
required reporting is not being followed; and the negative impact it has on
youths of color’s psyche and criminal record.” The slide show purports “Of the
four scenarios when a police officer should execute the practice, the
overwhelming scenario is to fulfill quotas or gather names for the NYPD
database”.
It appears that Stop, Question and Frisk flies in the face
of civil rights. When queried about the realities of
Stop Question and Frisk the State Senator posits, “Protecting New Yorkers and
protecting their civil rights do not have to be competing interests. We must give our law enforcement the tools
they need to keep us safe. The abuse of
Stop and Frisk is not useful in preventing crime. In fact, it sours communities against working
with police and that means crucial information isn’t shared to stop violence
before it can occur. The practice must
be reformed to better meet the necessary standard of reasonable suspicion, to
remove discrimination, and to ensure more criminals and fewer innocents are
targeted for Stop and Frisk.” His study
and assessment of Stop, Question and Frisk is comparable to Medgar Evers’s work
and concerns. Evers was shot in his back the early morning of June 12, 1963.
Currently the front runner in the race for the Brooklyn
Borough President’s Office, Adams stands to win the election in September. Should he win he will not only be New York
City’s first African American in the seat and but be the first police officer
in several decades. How will he make his
mark as the BP serving all of Brooklyn? Adam
says, “This is a pivotal moment for Brooklyn.
We have become very popular in recent years but that hasn’t meant a
better quality of life for everyone. I
want to turn our popularity into prosperity for all. The BP must have a unifying vision for the
borough that brings all Brooklynites together to make Brooklyn the best it can
be.”
Labels: African Americans, black interest, civil rights movement, community, discrimination, NYC, NYC politics, NYS Senate, Stop and Frisk, urban
NYC Charter Revision Commission
Mayor Bloomberg appointed the latest
charter revision commisssion, March 3, 2010. This commission will review the city's existing charter, which is similar to the by-laws and articles of incorporation for a nonprofit. The last charter revision was done in 1989. The issue is what is prompting Mayor Bloomberg to want to tweak the charter but another time? Judging from his success in extending term limits, cutting community board budgets by one-third, bringing the NYC Department of Education under mayoral control, joining the Administration for Children Services with the Dept. of Juvenile Justice--the department that operates three secure juvenile detention centers--and his move to close unionized publicly-funded child care centers while bringing in Philadelphia-based child care enterprise Bright Star (possibly non-unionized in NYC), New Yorkers need to listen and participate in the process. After all, New Yorkers will vote on the changes election day November 2.
It behooves New Yorkers to know the names and backgrounds of the eleven men and four women who comprise the commission. The public hearing in Brooklyn is slated for Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at St. Francis College at 180 Remsen Street, 4:00 - 6:00 PM and thereafter the public meeting. The Queens public hearing and meeting is Monday, April 19 at LaGuardia Community College. How many people are aware that public hearings and meetings occurred in New York, the Bronx and Staten Island earlier in April?
Items for review include the continued existence of the 59 community boards, the public advocates office and the five offices of the borough president. Community boards were given formal governmental roles in 1975--through charter revision--to include average residents in budgetary, land use, and city service delivery decisions. Community boards review NYS Liquor Authority license applications for bars, restaurants and cabarets. The office of the borough president was a critical selling feature to get five cities to become one. With a population over 2.4 million in Brooklyn and over 2.2 million in Queens, it is readily understood how important it is to maintain the borough president position for managing city services, structures and employees.
The
public advocate is an elected position and is an ex-officio member of all NYC council committees. The current public advocate, Bill de Blasio was a council member who chaired the general welfare committee. Should this position be eliminated, New Yorkers lose another means to have their concerns positively addressed.
Mayor Bloomberg, in his March 3, 2010 press release, "charged the commission with examining the changes made by the 1988 and 1989 Charter Revision Commissions, and other subsequent changes, in light of the lessons learned over the past two decades and the new challenges and opportunities that have since arisen." This event is an opportunity to include New York residents in the process. What must be in place is media coverage, on-the-ground outreach to New Yorkers and frequent open public forums. When the changes go to a general public vote in November will New Yorkers be informed voters? As of April 10, 2010, the CRC Web site doesn't schedule public hearings and meetings beyond April.
Labels: charter revision, NYC, NYC politics
Web 2.0 NY at Javits Center
The exhibitors at technology expos are as fascinating as the seminars running on the other floor. Thursday, I was turned away from a room because I had an 'Expo Only' tag around my neck. How was I to know? The huge directory read 'Web 2.0 New York' and the room was as big as an exhibit hall.
Once on the Expo Hall floor proper, it was amazing to find the "in the clouds"products that programmers have strung together to make the online experience as face-to-face as electronics, glass and cable can assume.
Twing.com is a search engine for online communities.
Clickability provides On Demand web content management. Samsung and Nokia displayed an array of unlocked mobile devices.
Ebay touted its partnerships and acquisitions to ensure Ebay is THE online auction and store experience. Some enterprises were beyond conception. Take
Brickfish. This is not an interactive ad agency; it's not a search engine marketing agency. It's a social media marketing platform that utilizes viral marketing campaigns to move your 'brand.'
Two non tech things uncovered were the origin of the term 'On Demand' and America's regional variations. Pay-per-view is pretty obvious but 'On Demand' threw me.
Clickability's Molly Dolan explained that 'On Demand' was a marketing phrase Microsoft Corp. coined eight years ago to mean movies you request from a cable company rather than saved on your hard drive, placed on a CD, on a video cartridge or DVD. The point being it's the cable subscriber pulling the strings; i.e, On Demand; and not the cable company; i.e., pay-per-view.
Many exhibitors came from the west coast. Take
Brickfish's Ashley Futak. When her colleague asked about the origin of her name, Ashley explained it came from one East European nation. I remarked, "How interesting!" Ashley said, "Yes, it's random." So "random" substitutes for "interesting" and "unusual?" How
San Diego of her to hip me to the vernacular.
Labels: B2B, Jacob Javits Center, NYC, technology, Web 2.0, west coast
