Dear Friends,
Here are stories about New Yorkers and their encounters with bad policing that PROP representatives see and hear every time we monitor the courts and conduct our petition drive:
Police officers arrested a construction worker on a weapon charge because he had a painting knife, which was covered in paint, sticking out of his pocket. He now has a criminal record.
Police officers arrested a street vendor who has a license to sell flowers because she had two artificial flowers on her cart for decorative purposes.
A police officer arrested a 16-year-old Latino boy on two different occasions for trespass while the boy was standing in the hallway of the building he lives in.
A police officer stopped an African-American boy who forgot his MetroCard and arrested him for unlawful solicitation after he asked someone approaching the turnstile for a swipe so he could get to school on time.
A police officer arrested a young man, presenting no medical or psychiatric issues, on the charge of possession of a bottle of cognac in a paper bag. The young man had never been arrested before and was locked up for 49 hours.
Two police officers arrested a Latino veteran in the Times Square area on the charge of aggressive begging on eight separate occasions. In one instance, his lawyer has found an exculpatory video that shows him behaving politely and not pressuring walkers-by. The man refused to plead and is taking all the cases to trial.
A man and his nine-year-old daughter entered a Brooklyn subway station. He swiped her school-pass MetroCard and she swiped his. The police arrested the man in his daughter’s presence, charging him with theft of services for using his child’s card.
These incidents are not aberrational, but emblematic of the NYPD’s everyday “broken windows” policing that inflicts harm and hardship on low-income New Yorkers of color.
We write now seeking your generous support for PROP’s aggressive campaign to oppose and correct this kind of biased, unjust, and counterproductive policing.
Please generouslysupport action steps that PROP has shown its expertise in and commitment to: a city wide petition drive with over 18,000 signatures gathered; public forums covering a range of issues; hard-hitting reports that expose police abuses; monthly meetings; art projects with, and know your rights workshops for, young people; the Court Monitoring Project; op-ed pieces, letters to the editor, and other press work; and PROP’s Narratives Project
Please give generously in support of the PROP campaign’s policy goals: abolish the quota system that pressures officers to make frivolous or bogus arrests and replace it with constructive performance incentives; abandon “broken windows” policing that criminalizes people of color for innocuous or innocent activities; and establish collaborative, community-based public safety programs.
Please give generously - with your help, we can make real and concrete progress toward ending the divisions between law enforcement and communities and creating a more livable and inclusive city for all New Yorkers.
Ashley Coneys
Project Organizer
Police Reform Organizing Project
307 West 36th Street, 12th floor
Robert Gangi
Director
Police Reform Organizing Project
Cell: 917-327-7648
Office : 212-519-2532
P.S. To support PROP’s efforts to promote sweeping NYPD reforms, please make your check payable to our tax-exempt fiscal sponsor, United Social Services, Inc. Then mail your gift to: Police Reforming Organizing Project, 307 West 36th Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10018
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