Speak Out Against Stop and Frisk

Tonight, Jumaane Wiliams and other vocal opponents of stop and frisk, will hold a town meeting in Brooklyn to speak out against Mayor Bloomberg’s veto of two bills that would limit racial profiling by the NYPD. He and others including the NAACP and the Malcolm X Grassroot movement will also brainstorm ways to undo what the mayor has done.

Here are the facts:  Each year, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, primarily men of color, are wrongfully stopped, frisked, or searched. Many receive a summons, or are even arrested. Some are even sexually or physically assaulted by NYPD officers. They are being targeted by an increasingly confrontational and arrogant police force, often humiliated in their own homes, schools and neighborhoods.

In 2011, the New York Police Department made over 684,000 street stops – a 14% increase over 2010 (and a 603% increase since 2002, Bloomberg’s first year in office)! Close to 90% of the stops resulted in no arrest or summons whatsoever.

The mayor’s veto of the recent legislation to end discriminatory policing and bring accountability to the police means stop and frisk will continue. The many opponents of the tactic want to see the end of business as usual.  “New Yorkers want to live in a safe city where police officers treat all residents equally and respectfully, and are not above the law,” note the organizers of tonight’s event.

Here are the details of the community discussion:

Community Safety Act, TOWN HALL MEETING

Thursday, August 1, 2013, 6:30-8:30pm

Calvary AME Church, 790 Herkimer St., btwn Rochester & Suydam Place (A/C to Utica)

For more information on this event, click here or contact Djibril Toure at 917.865.9639.

Policing Stop and Frisk–Thank You Jumaane Williams

Williams, left, at protest

Stop and frisk hasn’t been stopped, but at least slowed, thanks to two bills passed by the City Council yesterday.

One, would create an inspector general to oversee the NYPD, and the other would allow people to file claims of racial profiling against the police in state court. Both measures curb the NYPD’s use of the insulting, racist stop-and-frisk and Muslim surveillance tactics. Though Mayor Bloomberg is already busy scheming to un-do the measures–and a hysterical Ray Kelly insists that the legislation will increase terrorism–both bills passed by wide enough margins to skirt Bloomberg tampering.

Yesterday’s vote marked a big win for Brooklyn City Councilman Jumaane Williams, a vocal and consistent critic of stop and frisk. The 37-year-old politician was famously arrested in 2011 at the West Indian Day parade after a disagreement police.  Williams, along with a member of mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio’s staff (also black), was detained and handcuffed for walking…while black.

In a speech, Williams urged lawmakers who have never experienced being black, Latino, gay, Muslim or in another profiled group to “please listen to us.”

On passage of the legislation, Williams explained that legitimate police stops wouldn’t be curtailed, “it just stops profiling.”

Read more about Williams in this New York Magazine profile.

Who Is Erick Salgado–and Should He Be Mayor?

While the other six Democratic politiicians were going mano a mano at Wednesday’s mayoral debate on Hispanic issues at Hunter College, the only Latino candidate–who actually speaks Spanish without a grating Bloombito accent–nearly got lost in the shuffle. Erick Salgado, a minister of Puerto Rican descent, struggled to make his voice and views heard above the noisy confrontations over stop and frisk, the city budget and other issues.

But Salgado, 42, did make an impression for his humor. After several of the candidates thanked the moderator, NY1’s Juan Manuel Benitez, for teaching them Spanish–or asked for lessons–Salgado said in Spanish, “I am Hispanic, I speak Spanish and I don’t need Juan Manuel to teach me Spanish.”

Salgado, who received his doctorate in theology and has established churches in Red Hook and Bensonhurst Brooklyn, also distinguished himself from the other candidates. “I am going to be the first one to enter the room and the last one to leave it,” he said. “I’m going to be for the people, because I am the only candidate that is coming from the people.”

He also used humor to separate himself from Mayor Bloomberg. “Who is the mayor to tell me what I am going to drink?” he said about Bloomberg’s public health policies. “What is going to be next? The chicken wing? We love chicken wings.”

In 2003, Salgado, began a radio ministry known as Radio Cantico Nuevo, and grew it into one of the largest Spanish evangelical networks in the New York region. He lives in Staten Island with his wife and six children.

In the mayoral mashup, he is considered a long shot. Salgado entered the race in April, later than other candidates outside of Anthony Weiner, has low name recognition and has raised only $206,000–compared to $7 million for Christine Quinn.

Still, he gets his points across. Commenting on immigration at a another mayoral forum at Hostos Community College, he slammed his fist onto the table then into the air, shouting, “I am going to fight for the Latinos to at least have the dignity to be identified in the City of New York.”

As the other candidates applauded, he added, smiling, “I’m sorry, I’m a preacher.”

You can stream Wednesday’s debate on NY1 or NY1 Noticias. Click here to learn more about Erick Salgado.