In a city in which it is not a crime to shoot Sean Bell fifty times or Amadou Diallo 41 times, where black and Hispanic young men are stopped and frisked vastly in excess of their proportion of the population, it should not be a surprise that blacks & Hispanics are arrested for marijuana possession vastly more than whites (even though marijuana use is equal across ethnic groups). The surprise, as I see it, is that decent people don’t spit at Mayor Bloomberg and his police Commissioner. How often will NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Public Misinformation, Paul Browne, say things like the NYPD doesn’t engage in racial profiling without his nose growing from Police Plaza to City Hall? (I hate it when Mayor Bloomberg’s race policies make me write as though I were Al Sharpton.)

Rocco Parascandola of Newsday reports on a study released by the New York Civil Liberties Union:

The NYPD arrested more than 350,000 people for misdemeanor marijuana possession over the past decade -- a tenfold increase achieved by systematically targeting young black and Hispanic men and stopping them without cause, a report released Tuesday charges NYCLU,

The NYCLU press release, is here

NYPD, it turns out, is not color blind. Sunday’s New York Daily News I-Team has wonderfully researched, well written article by Tina Moore, Benjamin Lesser and Greg B. Smith in which they show (definitively, in my opinion) that NYPD’s practice of Stop & Frisk on NYC subways is aimed at Hispanics and Blacks and unrelated to law enforcement purposes.

Because NYPD practices here are so outrageous, Mayor Bloomberg and his Police Commissioner must be held accountable for their vastly disproportionate racial impacts. As you may recall, NYPD has made every effort to hide the racial data generated by their stop and frisk program. Some of it has leaked out, (See, my earlier report with links here if you want further background).

The subject of this post is simple and incredibly complex at the same time. Is it the standard practice of NYPD to stop, frisk and/or search blacks in NYC much more frequently than they do whites? The simple answer is yes. The complex answer is no. The complex answer was produced by the Rand Corporation under contract with an NYPD-entity ( The NYC Police Foundation.) Do you believe the Rand Corporation? I have a bridge in Brooklyn for you.
(Some background materials with links have been added long after the jump)

NYPD officers stop New Yorkers all the time; we’re pulled over for broken tail lights, for riding a bike without a bell, as we stand on the street. How those police stops break out racially is not the subject of this post – even though I personally suspect that were those stops ever studied, there might well be a disparate racial impact noted.

However, sometimes the way in which Police stop New Yorkers is more intrusive than others.

Sometimes it seems to me that the real reason that Mayor Bloomberg and his Police Commissioner have gotten into their unending multi-million dollar war with Critical Mass bicycle riders is that they hate being sassed by scruffy radicals. Other times it seems to me that the fault really belongs to two former officials of Mayor Koch's era, Stanley Brezenoff and Nat Leventhal who restructured how NYC evaluates agency productivity. Those two developed and polished the Mayor's Management Report (To see the current draft of the MMR for the Police Dept. click here.

As I read the data there, there are fewer arrests in many categories of offenses. How can the police show they are busy? Well, issuing 49 summonses and arresting three Critical Mass riders certainly gives their numbers a boost -- but so does narcotics enforcement. Misdemeanor narcotics arrests -- read pot -- are up very sharply. Is this the result of a pot wave or a need to boost productivity numbers? You may want to read Paul Armentano's article on Alternet a few days ago where he points out that marijuana arrests are vastly and disproportionately of people of color. NYC arrested more than 32,000 for pot in 2006, overwhelmingly minorities.

I am proud and pleased to announce that my cyclists group, The Five Borough Bicycle Club went to Federal Court in Manhattan today and sued NYC's Police Department to halt the implementation of rules which effectively require cyclists to get impossible-to-get parade permits for otherwise lawful group bicycle rides.

Update: The case has been assigned to District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan and a hearing has been scheduled for Thursday, March 28, 2:30 PM, at United States Courthouse, 500 Pearl St, Room 12D, New York, NY. The argument on Plaintiffs' Motion for a Preliminary Injunction was heard today before the Honorable Lewis A. Kaplan of the Southern District of New York. Judge Kaplan stated that he did not have sufficient time to review the parties' submissions in order to decide Plaintiffs' motion by Friday March 30, as Plaintiffs had requested. The Court ruled that it would hear additional evidence next week and then decide in the near future (and not later than April 27 when the next Critical Mass ride in Manhattan is expected to take place) whether or not to preliminarily enjoin the enforcement of the City's parade rules.

As a result, NYPD was free to enforce its new rule on Friday during the Critical Mass Ride. 40 got tickets and 3 were arrested. As an uneven enforcement note, permit-less groups of riders far in excess of 50 rode all over Manhattan on Saturday. Only the critical-mass group was the subject of enforcement pressure.

5BBC, represented by litigation powerhouse Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP, seeks to restrain the NYPD from enforcement of those rules while their action is pending. The new rules are aimed at the Critical Mass bike ride, a leaderless group ride which continues to face massive NYPD enforcement action. Critical Mass riders were subject to some of the harsher enforcement at the Republican National Convention. Did NYPD undercover infiltrate the 5BBC? Stay tuned.

Because those enforcement actions have routinely led to mass arrests followed by mass acquittals, Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly decided to try to change rules. Those changes will effectively prohibit recreational group rides like the one from City Hall to the Bronx Zoo last week.
Review the 5BBC press release here which has hot links to the legal documents and to much more about this. In any case, Spring has sprung, come ride your bike without a permit.

As the Sean Bell case moves forward, some may think it could not get more politically motivated. However it will. This year, DA Richard Brown is running for re-election in September. This makes this case the possible legacy of District Attorney Brown.

DA Brown has been dealing in the legal world for over 50 years, and as much work as he has done to better the system, he may be known as the guy who worked the Sean Bell case. How will this change the work on the campaign trail this summer?

At every stop along the trail, his years of work or the many convictions he garnered will mean nothing. One question, one topic will be at the tip of the voters tongue.

Now many would think I am assuming that if someone runs against Richard Brown this would happen. Trust me: there will be someone and not the type of candidate you expect. It will not be the black candidate who is the voice of the unheard that the Sharptons, Barrons pick or whom other community leaders pick.

Why do I say this?

The voting numbers show it will not work. The community may march, cry, and protest but they do not vote. A case like this, where many are screaming from the rooftops for change, many will not take a moment to go downstairs and turn the lever to vote. I have seen a line at 6 am in the morning at FootLocker for a pair of ugly Jordans, but no one comes out to vote during the walk home from work. So if DA Brown did a half ass job during the investigation or was not impartial, would it matter? If there was a change of venue or some other move that may imply a plan to get the officers off, what would the Black and Latino community do? Two segments on ABC news and on CNN of how we are mad, and then back to regular life. Think about this, all you possible candidates licking your chops and printing out your petitions. Also a friendly reminder to those who want hundreds of meetings to talk about how we need to make a statement and begin to change the system.

As naive as it may seem, I still tend to assume that "the system" works more than it does not. So, as naive as it may seem, I was recently shaken by the words of several well-respected Black leaders and activists who condemned the New York City Police Department as being pretty much rotten to the core.

As a gay man who was damaged and corrupted by 40 years in the closet, I have no difficulty understanding the symptoms and manifestations of self-hatred, not to mention the pathetic and often-times frightening maneuvers used by self-haters to gain acceptance and invisibility among the so-called majority.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has challenged allegations of racism in the horrific Sean Bell shooting. Perhaps his most intriguing response has been to explain that the majority of police officers involved in the incident were in fact Black themselves. Kelly implies that it is illogical to accuse the NYPD of racism under such circumstances.

Some Black leaders have bitterly refuted this defense pointing out that the vast majority of "victims" of police shootings in this city are young African-American men. They contend that once an African-American puts on the NYPD uniform he ceases to be Black and in fact becomes Blue.

Noel of RoosCampNYC and and Will of OnNYTurf have been on the ball with the latest from Herr Kelly ---an unfortunate holdover from New York's years of Guilianiship.

PRESS RELEASE: PRESS CONF NOVEMBER 27 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 21, 2006

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly has again proposed undue and
constitutionally questionable limits on political speech in New York City. The proposal represents a narrow retreat from a similar proposition that NYPD withdrew two months ago after vociferous opposition from members of the City Council and the public.

The current proposal, which would prohibit public gatherings of as few as ten people who do not first apply for and obtain a permit from the police, will be the subject of public hearings at Police Headquarters on November 27th from 11am to 2pm.

Opposition to the proposal is lead by Assemble for Rights NYC, a coalition joined in this quest by City Council members Rose Mendez, Charles Barron, Letitia James, and Alan Gerson. Assemble for Rights represents a diversity of groups which support free speech or which directly use peaceful assembly either for political speech or recreation. The Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Lawyers Guild, United for Peace and Justice, Housing Works, the Five Boro Bike Club, the New York City Bicycle Coalition, and the Birth Control Project are among the members of the coalition.