Report: NYPD 'Broken Windows' Policing Doing Untold Harm
The New York Police Department's "Broken Windows" policing is inflicting hardship on the most vulnerable of New Yorkers -- low-income people of color, the homeless and the mentally ill -- finds a report by Police Reform Organizing Project.
The 11-page report "Everyday: NYC's Cops and Courts Inflict Harm and Hardship" is the result of monitoring 191 arraignments in Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan in September 2014.
PROP found 91 percent of people arraigned in 173 instances were people of color, and 85 percent of those cases -- an estimated 163 people -- walked out of the courtroom because the charge was dismissed or a minor penalty was meted out.
"The court had clearly decided that the person was not a risk to the community," said the report.
Of the Manhattan Criminal Court arraignments reviewed, common charges included: consumption of alcohol in a public place, petit larceny, and assault in the third degree.
Of the Brooklyn Criminal Court arraignments reviewed, the most frequent charges were: criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degrees (drug residue), driving with a suspended license, criminal possession of marijuana, and drinking from an open alcohol container.
Of the Queens Criminal Court arraignments, those charges ranged from: criminal possession of a controlled substance, criminal possession of marijuana, criminal trespass, petit larceny, theft of services (usually a subway infraction), trademark counterfeiting, and unlawful solicitation.
another @PROPNYC report calls into question what #BrokenWindows policing is doing to blacks and Latinos in #NYC https://t.co/JqRwbR0JWQ
— Azi (@Azi) October 28, 2014
In 85 percent of arraignments where people were not charged, the reasons for their arrests ranged from walking between subway cars, riding a bicycle on the sidewalk, holding an open alcohol container (which often turned out to be soda or water), occupying two seas on a subway train, asking people for a handout at an ATM, sleeping on the subway, sleeping on a park bench, being a street vendor, jaywalking and selling loose and untaxed cigarettes.
"This king of policing -- effectively criminalizing activities that are victimless, and seen by most people as harmless, and disproportionately charging one group of persons as offenders -- breeds cynicism, resentment, and resistance and can lead, in worst case scenarios, to senseless injury and death," stated the report.
The report has a companion, "Broken Windows Policing: A True Tale of Two Cities" published in July. That report showed misdemeanor arrests were disproportionately higher for colored people based on New York City's population demographics -- of a total of 97,487 arrests in 2014, 46 percent were black people and 35 percent were Latinos, with 13 percent white and 4.6 percent Asian.
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