NYPD

The NYPD vs. De Blasio: Why the Police Should Heed the Mayor’s Words

Rebekah Frank

People took to the streets to register their disgust at the state of policing and the failure of the justice system in the United States, and to demand that all people, regardless of the color of their skin or the job that they hold, are treated equally under the law. It wasn’t asthma and obesity that killed Eric Garner as some people claimed, it was a bigoted and improperly trained police force. It was racism that killed him and racism that kept Daniel Pantaleo from standing trial for his actions.

Notes From New York’s ‘Stop and Frisk’ Trial

Damaso Reyes

This is perhaps the heart of the case that the Center for Constitutional Rights brought to Judge Shira Scheindlin’s courtroom on the 15th floor of the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan. Authorities see no wrongdoing, despite the fact that over the past decade, NYPD officers have conducted nearly 4.5 million stops in a city of 8 million. Eighty-five percent of those stopped were black or Latino, meaning that many people have been stopped more than once. 

The Central Park Five’s Korey Wise Discusses the Wrongful Conviction

Mea Ashley

In 1989, Wise and four other young black and Latino teenagers were convicted of raping and beating a white investment banker in Central Park.  The media called her the Central Park Jogger and the accused the Central Park Five. No evidence linked them to the crime except for their confessions, which came after relentless hours of police interrogation. They recanted shortly afterwards, but those statements were still enough to send them all to jail. .Last year, a decade after an inmate named Matias Reyes confessed to the crime, resulting in all five of the boys’ exoneration, Wise, who went free after 13 years, is now suing the city for wrongful imprisonment.

Stop-and-Frisk Trial Sheds Negative Light on Mayor Bloomberg

Greg Morris

Filed in 2008 by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), Floyd et. al v. City of New York charges that the NYPD interdicted millions of ordinary people on the city's streets merely for being people of color -- or "walking while black," in the words of the New York Times. As many as 5 million people were subjected to searches over a period of several years as they walked home or walked to the store or simply hung out in front of their homes, according to statistics compiled by the ACLU. 

Meet the Staff at Highbrow Magazine: Q&A With Writer Eugene Durante

Eugene Durante

Eugene Durante is a contributing writer at Highbrow Magazine. He is a Police Officer and former Welfare Fraud Investigator. Born in Brooklyn, Durante is a fourth-generation resident of Coney Island. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice. He is an avid poker player and frequently writes about topics related to New York. 

An NYPD Officer Analyzes the Controversial ‘Stop and Frisk’ Debate

Eugene Durante

The summer of 2012 has not been kind to U.S. law enforcement officials. As Occupy Wall Street protests subsided, the momentum shifted away from America’s financial sector and toward the long simmering issue of police-community relations. Spurred on by the Trayvon Martin shooting, many citizens around the nation redirected their protests and rallied against ‘illegal and unwarranted’ stops by the police. The Federal Court in New York City added more public pressure by granting approval of a class-action suit brought against the NYPD for “suspicionless stops and frisks.”

Is New York City Really Safer Today?

Eugene Durante

New York City in modern times disheartens me. The sanitized, more orderly civic state causes trepidation. Maybe because my most memorable times were during New York’s criminal heyday, or maybe it’s the juxtaposition of working with cops today and witnessing first-hand the diluted focus of what modern policing in New York has become. Either way, there is an ever-present reminder that the bad ‘ole days weren’t really that bad. Much like the dramatic reductions in crime, I have no explanation for the change, except to say that there is a demonstrable difference.

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