Mercado 1

Ashley Mercado

Peyer

English 101

28 November 2018

Essay 4 Draft

Trust between a community and law enforcement is established over generations and,

like most aspects of life, it takes patience and dedication to truly cultivate a bond that withstands

the tests of time. Unfortunately for our nation, it has been through countless trials of grievances

on both ends of the spectrum regarding the police and the neighborhoods they defend, New York

especially. Some people may ask themselves if the chaos will ever stop, but with the way the

country is today it’s almost impossible to say.

New York City residents have experienced multiple ups-and-downs when it comes to the

trust they bestow to their police departments. Reports of police officers involved in brutality on

minorities, African Americans specifically, have garnered national attention for years. These

instances are usually accompanied by head shaking and a number of sighs of exasperation with

the general public. Occurrences such as these are likely dissuading people from bestowing the

responsibility of their wellbeing to an organization that, on a number of occasions, has let them

down. To top it off, they also appear to be racially biased despite what they are supposed to stand

for. Allegations of police racism are gaining more traction as the years go by, giving residents in

the five boroughs a poor perception of law enforcement, and ultimately affecting police-

community relations. To say the intercity relationship between the minority communities and
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law enforcement is shaky is possibly an understatement fit for decades of injustices. In order to

address the reasons why the relationship is unstable, it may be beneficial to look at events from

recent years that paint a picture of the sort of image the NYPD has shown residents of the city;

giving them, and many other in the United States, the predisposition they carry today.

There is a debate of whether police do their jobs effectively in New York City and, as a

whole, it is without a doubt well monitored and controlled. But upon observation on an intimate

level the relationship between police and individual citizen is nearly indistinguishable. Take for

example the unfortunate situation of an unnamed 78 year old minority business owner described

in Carole Moore’s “Cops and neighbors” piece: Having been a victim of theft during the

remodeling process of his small store, the elderly owner had made the decision to get to the

bottom of it on his own after a conversation with an officer of the law bore no fruit (Moore).

When the citizen had been asked if he had gone to the police in regards to the incident he replied

with, “I went to them and they didn’t care a thing about it. They’ve never helped me before and

they aren’t going to help me now.” This being said, I completely agree with Moore’s assessment

later in the piece that the police could very well have done something to better handle this

situation. As a result Moore explains that the shop owner had resorted to sleeping inside the

building in order to catch the thieves himself, which bodes uncertain for many especially when

the neighborhood was in a particularly “bad part of town” (Moore).

Attempting to analyze this situation clearly shows that this shop owner had formed his

opinion of the police department based on his past experience. He no longer entrusted the safety

of his store nor himself into the hands of police officers of his city. According to Carole, there

could have been multiple solutions the police could have taken as opposed to the path they
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selected with simply waving off this resident in his time of need. This in mind, it’s disheartening

to witness, as Moore says, a “missed opportunity to create good will in the community”. With

tensions between police and the community, it’s baffling how an instance such as this is still able

to occur with law enforcement in the nation’s spotlight. As Moore explains further into her piece,

it is difficult for higher-ups to witness every interaction the police encounter and how they

handle the situations. It is likely that issues like this will remain continuous unless something is

done about them. Until it is realized that interactions with the community in this way heavily

influences law enforcement’s image, police will not receive full public support, nor will they be

able to shake off this detached notion they have been presenting to the public.

Going further back to previous years, in 2014 there was another quake in New York

City’s minority communities as several police officers were being held accountable for death of

Eric Garner, as published in Harry Bruinius’ article in The Christian Science Monitor. Bruinius

goes on to add that as police officers “wrestled the 350-pound man to the ground”, Garner had

stated that he couldn’t breathe numerous times before he became stationary as bystanders

recorded the whole ordeal. Prior to this, Garner had allegedly been spotted committing a petty

crime involving “peddling loosies” (Bruinius), or singular cigarettes, which led to the altercation

with police where he was placed in a headlock. It is important to note that the use of a headlock

is typically banned from police practice in New York City. Following this event, Bruinius

informs that the two law enforcement officers that were at the forefront of the assault were

sentenced to “desk duty”, giving rise to the backlash from the minority communities. He further

explains that a protest erupted in Staten Island, policies in the city were called into question, and

Mayor de Blasio’s efforts on improving the “relationship between the NYPD and minority

communities” was put to the test as outrage sparked regarding the way the situation was handled
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by police and officials. This event shed light on police misconduct and highlighted “high profile

police custody deaths from decades past”, as the author observes (Bruinius).

When looking at the situation and reading statements made by officials as well as Bishop

Victor Brown in Bruinius’ article, it’s clear that the law enforcement “mind-set” as well as the

way they interact with the minority neighborhoods should be called into assessment in order to

prevent instances such as this from repeating itself in the future. As opinions are gathered and

shared in New York City’s streets, it’s clear that there is a deep rift between the NYPD and

residents of color. Due to the state of relations between such groups, it is only continuing to grow

as more racial allegations rise to the surface.

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Works Cited

Browne, J.Zamgba. “City Council Addresses Diversity within NYPD.” New York Amsterdam

News, vol. 90, no. 21, 20 May 1999, p. 3. EBSCOhost,

qbcc.ezproxy.cuny.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=a9h&AN=1897236&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Accessed 16 Nov.

2018.

Bruinius, Harry. “Eric Garner Death after Police Chokehold Roils N.Y.C. Minority

Communities.” Christian Science Monitor, 21 July 2014, p. N.PAG. EBSCOhost,

qbcc.ezproxy.cuny.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=a9h&AN=97164254&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Accessed 16 Nov.

2018.

Chaney, Cassandra, and Ray Robertson. “Racism and Police Brutality in America.” Journal of

African American Studies, vol. 17, no. 4, Dec. 2013, pp. 480–505. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1007/s12111-013-9246-5. Accessed 16 Nov. 2018.

Davis, Julie Hirschfeld. “Obama Warns of Growing Mistrust Between Minorities and the

Police.” New York Times, vol. 165, no. 57294, 15 July 2016, p. A18. EBSCOhost,

qbcc.ezproxy.cuny.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=a9h&AN=116838389&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Accessed 16 Nov.

2018.
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Hirshfeld. “It’s time to integrate our police department.” New York Amsterdam News, vol. 90,

no. 29, 15/7/99, pp. 12, Academic Source Complete. Accessed 16 Nov. 2018.

Moore, Carole. “Cops and neighbors.” Law Enforcement Technology, May 2006, p. 130.

Criminal Justice Collection, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A146553192/PPCJ?

u=cuny_gueensboro&sid=PPCJ&xid=2a65b83. Accessed 16 Nov. 2018.

Oberman, Jonathan, and Kendea Johnson. “The Never Ending Tale: Racism and Inequality in the

Era of Broken Windows.” Cardozo Law Review, vol. 37, no. 3, Feb. 2016, pp. 1075–

1091. EBSCOhost, qbcc.ezproxy.cuny.edu:2048/login?

url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=a9h&AN=113472781&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Accessed 16 Nov.

2018.

Williams, Armstrong. “41 Shots Fired.” New York Amsterdam News, vol. 91, no. 6, 10 Feb.

2000, p. 8. EBSCOhost, qbcc.ezproxy.cuny.edu:2048/login?

url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=a9h&AN=2805779&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Accessed 16 Nov.

2018.