National Black Police Association, Westchester Chapter, Westchester Blacks In Law Enforcment

As civil service officers, it is our duty to uphold the laws of the state of New York. However, as natural leaders it is our moral, ethical, and human duty to reach and teach our families and youth by providing increased involvement and support thereby enriching lives and enhancing our communities.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Professor Gates Nightmare is a Black Mans Reality

The incident that happened to our beloved brother Professor Henry Lewis Gates Jr. is a constant reminder of the true meaning of institutionalized racism. The reality is; it just doesn’t matter if you’re a student from New Rochelle, N.Y. with a scholarship, a world renowned professor of learning, or an off duty police officer making an arrest, as long as your skin color is Black, the institution of policing sees you as a criminal first.

We question Sgt. Crowleys report of the incident by the simple fact that the department dropped the charges. Disorderly Conduct Charges are common among cases found when the actions of the arresting officer are in question. Most victims of racial profiling live at poverty level or below and do not have the means to afford proper legal representation. The majority are ill-advised regarding their charges and have no other choice but to plea bargain for a lesser charge. Mr. Gates is not the average person that couldn’t afford good legal council. They knew that Mr. Gates had the finances to fight the charges to the full extent of the law. So it was expedient for the officials of Cambridge to drop the charges to save the embarrassment of a possible law suit for false arrest.

President Obama and Massachusetts Governor Patrick were correct when freely criticizing the actions of Sgt. Crowley and the Cambridge Police Department. The National Black Police Association has been addressing this issue for decades. Politicians and policy makers have kept their eyes wide shut for too long to this ongoing problem. We have seen the civil rights of our mothers, sisters, fathers and brothers repeatedly violated and abused. How many more reports of police misconduct and criminality must we hear about until Politicians have the testicular fortitude to ask for accountability and proper oversight in law enforcement nation wide?

The National Black Police Association has been in existence since 1972 nationally and has chartered organizations in the United Kingdom, Canada and Bermuda. The principal concerns of the National Black Police Association are the promotion of justice, fairness, and effectiveness in law enforcement issues and the effect of those issues upon the total community.

National Latino Officers Association Supports Gates and Obama

The disproportionate stopping of African Americans and Latinos by law enforcement is a national problem. We support the President 100% on this issue.

“What I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there is a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That's just a fact.”

The National Latino Officers Association supports the comments made by the President of the United States Barrack Obama. For the first time perhaps there was an acknowledgement and understanding of what many minorities know to be true, that African Americans and Latinos are being stopped disproportionately by law enforcement.

The President should not apologize for being African American and having a greater understanding and sensitivity to racial profiling or over bearing police responses. We should be clear, the President never asked the Cambridge police to apologize. The officer’s response however, clearly shows that he is responding to an African American and not the President of the United States. Any police officer after reviewing his actions in retrospect can conclude that this situation if handled differently could have better served police and community relations.

We also agree that the officers acted “stupidly” in arresting a man in his own home for disorderly conduct. Police officers are held to a higher standard than the public. They are trained to de-escalate situations and to be more tolerant. The officer in question, an instructor of sensitivity, should have exercised more discretion between free speech and the necessary element of public alarm for disorderly conduct. It is a common practice, often complained of, that requesting an officer’s name and badge number often results in being arrested.

Resisting arrest, resisting arrest without violence, disorderly conduct, obstructing governmental administration and similarly worded statutes are tools for law enforcement officers to advance or support legitimate police actions and strategies. These statutes were never meant to advance the intimidation of the public.

Whether you call it racial profiling, selective enforcement, abuse of authority, disparate impact or any other name which translates to illegal, it is a national and local issue that plagues African Americans, Latinos and others who are not Caucasian. It is long overdue that law enforcement practices be more closely scrutinized for civil rights violations. All law enforcement agencies should be mandated to analyze and document their enforcement activities for race, age, and sexual orientation for review by the public.

Police practices need greater accountability for the protection, advancement and potential violations of civil rights with renewed vitality.

Anthony Miranda
Executive Chairman NLOA

New Rochelle teen alleges civil rights violations by police

ROCHELLE - A black teenager and son of a city detective is alleging he was assaulted by police, and yesterday local black leaders pressed the city for answers."Don't get me wrong, there are some good police officers - black, white, purple and green," said Ron Williams, president of the city's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "There's also a lot of bad police officers, but we're not painting them all with the same brush. All we're saying is we want to be treated with respect just like everyone else.

"Demetrius Hazelton, 17, was arrested April 13 on a charge of disorderly conduct, a violation. He is due in City Court on Thursday.

Williams stood yesterday alongside Hazelton and his father, Detective Timothy McKnight, to discuss the allegation. About 50 people stood behind them in solidarity.

Earlier this month, Hazelton filed a notice of claim against the city. He alleges in his lawsuit that his civil rights were violated during his arrest. Several city officials, including City Manager Charles Strome III, police Capt. Joseph Schaller, acting Corporation Counsel Kathleen Gill and city spokeswoman Kathy Gilwit, declined to comment on the allegation. Each cited pending litigation as the reason for not discussing the matter.

Police Commissioner Patrick Carroll and Mayor Noam Bramson could not be reached for comment.

According to the police report, officers responded to noisy parties at the Hartley Houses complex April 13 and tried to break up an altercation there.After the crowd ignored police commands to calm down, the report said, an officer brandished a Taser and fired it in the air without a cartridge to show the crowd the device's electric shock.The report said many of the people there, including Hazelton, ran from the police and into traffic on Lincoln Avenue. An officer asked Hazelton to get off the road, the report said, and Hazelton mocked the officer's commands by imitating him with a "white racial monotone voice." The report described the voice as the same one comedian Dave Chappelle uses "when making fun of white people."

The officer again asked Hazelton to get off the road, according to the report, and Hazelton said, "What the (expletive) are you going to do, white boy? My father is a detective. What are you, just a cop?"

Hazelton mocked the police to the crowd, according to the report, and an officer tried arresting him by pushing the teen against a police car.

Hazelton then tried to push himself off the car when another officer came by to help take Hazelton down to the ground, the report said.

Calvin Scholar, Hazelton's attorney, disputed the police report and alleged that several key details from the incident were omitted from the report.Those alleged omissions make up a bulk of the lawsuit against the city.

The lawsuit claims the officer pushing Hazelton against the police car threatened to break his arms while other officers smashed his head multiple times against the car."We dispute that there was any lawful reason for him to be arrested," Scholar said.

"We believe he was singled out."Scholar added that Hazelton did not use a Dave Chappelle voice to mock the officer but said Hazelton did reference the fact he was the son of a New Rochelle detective.

McKnight did not want to comment on his son's lawsuit, but Damon Jones, executive director of the Westchester County chapter of the National Black Police Association, spoke on his behalf.Jones said Hazelton's arrest wasn't an isolated incident happening in the area."This is an issue in communities of color throughout Westchester County," Jones said."If false reports are generated, we cannot trust the internal mechanisms of the New Rochelle Police Department to police their own," Jones continued. "There has to be some type of outside investigation."