In the aftermath, several cops were injured, police vehicles were trashed, bon fires were set throughout the avenue and the borough’s top cop, Chief of Department Joseph Esposito, resorted to using language that certainly didn’t comply with the NYPD creed of “Courtesy, Professionalism and Respect.”
Miraculously, only a handful of demonstrators were arrested and charged with minor offenses. Esposito was forced by local elected officials and leaders to apologize for his racist comments, and the elderly gentleman behind the whole affair was released.
Watching the incident unfold on television, I couldn’t help but to be reminded of the last two summers in Sunset Park when, after watching the Puerto Rican Parade in Manhattan, hundreds of residents come back to Sunset Park and continue to celebrate their ethnic pride and heritage. Granted, it may not be an organized affair, but I have never witnessed a police car getting trashed, officers getting attacked, bon fires on the streets or property getting vandalized.
Yet, it has become routine for police officers from 72nd Precinct, Brooklyn South and other commands to come into Sunset Park following the parade with riot gear, sticks, mace and other hardware. They chase our youth up and down the avenue like madmen, beat them to a pulp and then hold them at the Precinct until a parent or a guardian can pick them up. Over a dozen youth have been arrested each year. Most have never had any trouble with the law yet they must then spend months if not a year or more trying to clear their names.
A double standard clearly exists in the way law enforcement treats members of our overwhelmingly Latino community and other communities like the communities of Borough Park and Bay Ridge. There are many reasons for this. For starters, the folks in Borough Park have political clout. That was evident when several elected officials held a news conference the day after the riot to denounce the police action.
Additionally, other communities and their leaders would demand an immediate overhaul of their local precinct if it was run the way the 72nd Precinct has been run these past few years. For instance, the command at the 72nd Precinct has changed at least five times in as many years. Here are some of their CO’s.
- CO DePrisco -- Reassigned after his underling, the disgraced officer Joseph Gray killed four members of a Sunset Park family after drinking with his buddies in a lot next to the precinct and cavorting with a stripper at the Wild Wild West.
- CO Quinn -- Brought in to clean house but could hardly afford to get his hands dirty during his meteoric rise to One Police Plaza.
- CO Gentile – He was already under investigation for cooking the books at a Chelsea precinct to make it look like crime was decreasing. He came in and personally brutalized an elderly Latina grandmother and her siblings one warm Fourth of July evening (several members of this family were arrested and charged with a laundry list of crimes. They were all cleared of any wrong doing).
- CO Vega -- Presided over both post Puerto Rican day Parade incidents on Fifth Avenue where he personally chased dozens of youth and bystanders who were also assaulted and arrested.
- CO Simonetti -- Just came on board, has been rarely seen at Community Board meetings. One can only hope that he’s trashed any advice he may have gotten from any of his predecessors.
I am also compelled to mention that the two Community Affairs officers at the 72nd Precinct, PO Robledo and PO Fusco, have been utter failures at improving community/police relations. One personally vented his contempt for the community during one of these incidents and the other I saw in court one day in Officer’s Gray’s cheerleading section just before he was convicted of manslaughter. They need to go. Now!
Now it looks like the local City official of Sunset Park, in her infinitesimal wisdom, is once again throwing taxpayer money (our money) at her cronies on the community board to organize an event on the P.S. 314 playing field located at Fourth Avenue and 60th Street the day of the parade.
HELLLLLOOOOOO!!!! IS THERE ANY LIFE THERE!!!
She held a similar event last year on 46th Street and Fifth Avenue and was totally oblivious to the brutal arrests of youth just a few blocks away. It’s not about an event. It’s about RESPECT. The kind of RESPECT that the NYPD (at least in this neighborhood) does not seem to have for a good number of our young people, immigrants and hard working families.
How do we get that RESPECT? Not with a Reggaeton, Hip Hop or Bachata concert. We get it by meeting with the NYPD and DEMANDING that our people get treated with Courtesy, Professionalism and Respect. They may still be seething at the NYPD but the community of Sunset Park could learn a think or two from members of the Borough Park community.
I have recently been informed that members of our community and organizations like UPROSE have already started meeting in order to plan around this year’s post Puerto Rican parade. I applaud them for their efforts, I plan to join them and I would urge more folks in the community to get involved as well.
Here are a few of my very own humble suggestions for avoiding a repeat of the past and perhaps advancing a better relationship between police and the community.
1. Let us police ourselves – Parents, clergy, community leaders let’s step up and talk to our youth and neighbors and serve as buffers between the police and the community.
2. If an arrest has to be made let’s avoid the brutality – ‘nuf said.
3. If arrested, let’s quickly process and release – no need to hold people for hours or days.
Please forward any other ideas you may have to this newspaper. Thank you and I look forward to working with all of you and a peaceful, fun-filled Puerto Rican Day Parade.
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