NY's Top Cop Kelly Not Reason for Brutality
Pointing Fingers at Police Administrators Is Useless
Sep 10, 2008 Jessica Rodriguez
There seems to be no end to the brutalizing of brown and black men by police in New York City. Foul treatment by those hired to "serve and protect" causes loathing typically reserved for cartoon villains. But is it one person's fault?
An August 2008 report issued by the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which deals specifically with police misconduct, states the situation has worsened under Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
Kelly has been commissioner twice: the first from 1992-94 and his current term that began in 2002. While commissioner a number of high profile incidents have increased the attention and focus on what's wrong with our current police system. The short of list includes:
-Sean Bell, November 2006. A groom to be was shot and killed in a hail of 51 bullets outside of a club in Jamaica, Queens. The four officers involved were indicted for his murder.
-Jayson Tirado, October 2007. Tirado, an unarmed driver was shot and killed by an off-duty officer during a fit of road rage. A grand jury decided in July not to press charges.
But has brutality really risen or is it that the incidents long transpiring are better documented and receiving attention that they rightly deserve?
Thanks to technology citizens have more options that allow them to better stand up for their rights. A watershed moment came this summer in the form of cyclist Christopher Long. Long was riding with Critical Mass, a cyclist organization that rides through the city once a month, and was pushed off his bike by a cop. The whole incident was taped by a pedestrian. After filing a report the arresting officer claimed his innocence. Until the video was submitted. Charges against Long were dropped and the cop was stripped of his gun and put on desk duty.
Another question persists...what about the incidents that get little, if any, media attention but that are just as horrific? For every incident that begs justification five more that don't get the national spotlight. Some of them include:
-The Bushwick 32, a group of Black and Latino students en route to a funeral in Brooklyn were arrested for unlawful assembly.
-Rod Starz and G-1, two rappers/activists who saw a Bronx street vendor being physically harassed by police. They requested badge numbers and received batons and bows in their backs instead. They were then arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. The entire incident was videotaped with their own cell phones.
So while more dramatically despicable events have transpired under Kelly's term and the CCRB has noted a spike in reports, there's little reason to believe supervisory people involved are the cause or catalyst. The real issue exists with the assumption made by any police officer of any background that Black and Latino civilian men are somehow perps/suspects/threats. Even when those involved are of the same background, it fails to explain why so many young men of color are being targeted and treated as criminals without cause.
According to the CCRB's website, the committee is a mayoral agency started in 1950 to address all police misconduct but specifically "police misconduct in their relations with Puerto Ricans and Negros specifically." The history of brutality against people of color in New York City runs too far, too deep and too long to believe that just one man or generation of cops are responsible for perpetuating the problem.
NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly
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