After Shooting, Police Distrust Widens in Brooklyn Neighborhood

[garbon]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/14/nyregion/in-east-flatbush-seething-tensions-over-the-polices-constant-presence.html?_r=0

First came the shooting: an armed teenager was killed on Saturday night by police officers on a darkened Brooklyn street.

Then came the anger: a vigil on Monday evening was marred by an unruly young mob thrashing its way through local businesses; another protest followed the next day.

By the middle of this week, the tension in East Flatbush could be measured in the silently flashing lights of squad cars parked at tight intervals along a rain-soaked Church Avenue.

For some, the sight of extra police officers meant a potential reprieve in an area troubled by crime. For others, it was anything but reassuring.

The police said that two plainclothes officers fatally shot Kimani Gray, 16, just before 11:30 p.m. on Saturday after he brandished a revolver and pointed it at them. The police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, said Tuesday that the police had interviewed three witnesses, "two of which say that the officers said, 'Don't move.' "

"Another witness said an officer says, 'Freeze,' " he said. The officers then fired 11 shots, the police said.

A full report from the city medical examiner — detailing the nature of the gunshot wounds to Mr. Gray's abdomen and legs — had not yet been released Tuesday night. The officers who fired the shots have not been interviewed by investigators, as is department protocol.

For local residents, many of whom voiced skepticism about the official account, the situation was grimly familiar. Less than a year before, and only blocks away, a narcotics detective shot and killed an unarmed 23-year-old woman, Shantel Davis, as she fled the police in a car that had been reported stolen at gunpoint, the police said at the time.

Vigils followed that shooting as well. But soon the rhythms of daily life returned, marked by what young men and women said was a daily backbeat of police stops. "You try to put it out of your mind," said Ms. Davis's sister Crystal.

In interviews around the neighborhood, many spoke of a Police Department that, in its aggressive pursuit of gangs and informal criminal crews, has sown distrust, especially among young men and women, who feel that their encounters with officers have had racial overtones.

At a barbershop along Church Avenue, two men on Tuesday were discussing the recent shooting when an Asian delivery cyclist pulled onto the sidewalk across the street. "See that guy," said Elverton Thomas, a 39-year-old black telemarketer there for a haircut. "He can ride on the sidewalk. We can't."

His barber, Julian Clark, also black, concurred. Two years before, he said, an officer stopped him in front of the shop for sidewalk riding, and then arrested him after the officer said his identification had expired; he spent a day in custody sorting it out, he said. "They have a hard time because there's a lot of crime in the neighborhood," he said of the police. "But when they play hardball, they end up going after innocent people, too."

Anthony Murray, 15, said he was walking his girlfriend home on Snyder Avenue recently when two officers emerged from a van and searched him for weapons. When the officers grabbed Mr. Murray, his cellphone fell from his hand, he said, noting that the screen cracked on the ground.

"I showed it to him, and he said, 'Oh, that's not my problem,' " Mr. Murray said.

The seemingly constant presence of the police in the lives of many young people — both on the street and, increasingly, on social media — has left many feeling suffocated, said Shanduke McPhatter, 35, an ex-gang member who works with young men in the neighborhood. "I understand the state of mind that these youths have," he said. "The problem is there is no relationship with the police."

At the same time, he said, the situation on the streets has grown more complex for the law enforcement: gangs are less organized, replaced instead by informal crews for which the requirements are few and in which leadership is frequently up for grabs among increasingly young members.

"The police say, 'Look at these kids, they're wild,' " Mr. McThatter said. "And then they use that as an excuse to be wild themselves."

On Tuesday, police investigators could be seen dusting for fingerprints inside a Rite Aid store where, the night before, a group of at least three dozen mostly young people briefly rampaged through the aisles, turning over displays and assaulting one customer who attempted to intervene. The police released surveillance video from the store and later announced the arrest of a 19-year-old, saying he was one of three who hit the customer and took his cellphone.

"Nothing justifies that," Mr. Kelly said. He told a City Council hearing on Tuesday that the violence had been perpetrated by a disorderly group that broke away from the vigil and did not constitute a riot, as some had termed it.

"That belittles it," City Councilman Jumaane D. Williams said later, referring to the community anger in the wake of the police shooting. "So now we're going to wait for something worse, for something that meets the true definition of a riot?"

According to my twitter feed East Flatbush in Brooklyn is having something akin to a protest/riot right now...and apparently it has been happening since Monday.

[Scipio]

I'm confused.  Is it what cops call a "righteous" shooting or not?

Because if it is, then this is just lawlessness.  But if it's not, then this is only partially lawlessness.

[CountDeMoney]

The seemingly constant presence of the police in the lives of many young people — both on the street and, increasingly, on social media — has left many feeling suffocated, said Shanduke McPhatter, 35, an ex-gang member who works with young men in the neighborhood. "I understand the state of mind that these youths have," he said. "The problem is there is no relationship with the police."

Comes with the drop in the crime rate.

[Valmy]

The seemingly constant presence of the police in the lives of many young people — both on the street and, increasingly, on social media — has left many feeling suffocated, said Shanduke McPhatter, 35, an ex-gang member who works with young men in the neighborhood. “I understand the state of mind that these youths have,” he said. “The problem is there is no relationship with the police.”

Comes with the drop in the crime rate.

Too boring for the Cops eh?

[Neil]

Meh.  The ghettos will do what the ghettos will do.  Your population of criminal blacks will always cause these kinds of problems, especially if you pretend that it's some kind of 'protest'.  As if such a thing could be legitimized.

They should have had someone shout 'they're coming right for us!' at the gathering, and then machinegunned the lot of them.

[CountDeMoney]

Too boring for the Cops eh?

New Yorkers can't have it both ways;  either you want the zero tolerance Bloomberg has had working for the last several years dropping the crime rate, or you don't.

[garbon]

Too boring for the Cops eh?

New Yorkers can't have it both ways;  either you want the zero tolerance Bloomberg has had working for the last several years dropping the crime rate, or you don't.

I'd guess different people have different thoughts...particularly different neighborhoods/boroughs. What's good for Manhattan isn't necessarily good for everyone.

[CountDeMoney]

I'd guess different people have different thoughts...particularly different neighborhoods/boroughs. What's good for Manhattan isn't necessarily good for everyone.

I don't see why the approach should be any different for the muckity mucks and tourists in Manhattan than for the residents of any other borough. 

[garbon]

I'd guess different people have different thoughts...particularly different neighborhoods/boroughs. What's good for Manhattan isn't necessarily good for everyone.

I don't see why the approach should be any different for the muckity mucks and tourists in Manhattan than for the residents of any other borough. 

That's not what I said though. I can easily see why different people in different places might be on different sides of Bloomberg's zero tolerance.

[CountDeMoney]

That's not what I said though. I can easily see why different people in different places might be on different sides of Bloomberg's zero tolerance.

They'll get over it.

[garbon]

That's not what I said though. I can easily see why different people in different places might be on different sides of Bloomberg's zero tolerance.

They'll get over it.

Well of course. Cops killing black kids isn't something new.

[CountDeMoney]

Well of course. Cops killing black kids isn't something new.

No, it's not. For the critics to think it's unique to the NYPD and young black males in New York is inaccurate.

[garbon]

Well of course. Cops killing black kids isn't something new.

No, it's not. For the critics to think it's unique to the NYPD and young black males in New York is inaccurate.

Do they think that? I think they are more concerned with not having their relatives killed.

In other news:

http://gothamist.com/2013/03/13/brooklyn_woman_criticizes_stop_and.php

A Brooklyn woman says she was arrested outside a bar in Murray Hill last July simply for criticizing the NYPD's widely-criticized stop-and-frisk policies. Kaylan Pedine, who works for a non-profit that serves people with learning disabilities, was outside Mercury Bar on Third Avenue with two friends shortly before midnight on July 6th when two NYPD officers passed by, prompting Pedine to remark, "I wish they would stop stop-and-frisk." She was promptly arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for stating an opinion.

Pedine insists she did not even raise her voice at the officers, and her comment was directed to her friends, not the cops. (Nor did she give them the finger, as another man did to a group of cops before his stupid arrest.) But it seems Officer Craig Campion's feelings were so hurt that he handcuffed her, took her to the nearby precinct station house, and issued her the disorderly conduct summons, for allegedly blocking vehicular traffic.

The charges were dismissed, and now Pedine is suing the NYPD and the city. Her lawyer, Mark Taylor, argues that her First Amendment rights were violated. We asked Taylor to speculate on why Officer Campion went out of his way to arrest Pedine for stating an opinion; he says, "Officers are under a lot of pressure to make their collars. And if you've seen Ray Kelly get questioned about stop-and-frisk, you can see the department is getting pretty defensive about it."

[CountDeMoney]

So she agitated by "Pedine insists she did not even raise her voice at the officers, and her comment was directed to her friends, not the cops" by creating a public display anyway that attracted the attention of passersby.

Like I've said before, most people get themselves locked up.  Good for her.

[garbon]

Yeah pretty offensive that someone might voice an opinion in public.