Too Many Fear Those We Pay to Protect

A couple of weeks before five undercover police officers fired 50 bullets into a car occupied by three unarmed, young black men, my wife’s 16-year-old cousin was brutalized by a member of New York’s Finest near the same Southeast Queens neighborhood.

For all we know, since at press time the names of the officers who killed groom-to-be Sean Bell and critically injured his two friends were not named, the same officer may have been involved in both incidents.

Ironically, Angelo, who was struck three times on the side of his head with a police radio by a grown man who obviously thought it was fine to abuse someone else’s child, had once dreamed of becoming a police officer. Now he lives in fear of them. He feels that he was unfairly targeted and arrested for simply being a young Latino male on a NYC street. The two young white males he was with weren’t touched.

This fear and distrust of cops is all too common among youth, especially from poor, mostly black and Latino neighborhoods throughout this city who are often stopped, frisked, humiliated and harassed on their way to school, the store or their homes. There are neighborhoods full of people who know all too well that regardless of the mayor or police commissioner in power, the culture that exists within the NYPD is deeply ingrained and often viciously displayed.

Indeed, we’ve experienced this culture and its ugly manifestations too many times in Sunset Park. Take for instance Officer Joseph Gray, who drove his minivan into a family after drinking at a local topless bar all night with other cops from the local precinct.

Gray will be eligible for parole next year. If he’s released, and I’m praying he serve the full 15 years and more that he deserves, he’ll likely return to suburbia, his wife and two girls. The four members of the Pena and Herrera families that he mowed down on that tragic August night of 2001 will never again walk through the streets of Sunset Park.

We’ve also seen a Latina grandmother and her children manhandled and brutalized by the former commanding officer of the 72nd Precinct and his minions during what was supposed to be a festive celebration of the Fourth of July. As is often the case in these types of incidents, the victims themselves were arrested and charged with a laundry list of crimes.

After a grueling year of court dates and sinister games by the office of District Attorney Charles Hynes, the grandmother, Margarita Acosta and her kin were cleared of all charges. The commanding officer in this case, as in the Pena Herrera case, was reassigned. It’s something the NYPD does often. They seem to be experts at spreading the cancer and not prosecuting the criminals within their own ranks.

There will be some who will try to peg me as being anti-police, a frivolous label that could not be further from the truth. I am anti-police brutality. I strongly believe that police officers engaged in such practices stain the reputation and integrity of many good, hard working police officers. It makes their work harder and often more dangerous. I wish more would speak out about the problems that persist within the NYPD.

Angelo’s case goes to court on Thursday and we will demand that they drop all charges. The following day there will be a wake for Sean Bell. That evening, I will attend an event at Hunter College where the archives of my mentor and friend, Richie Perez, will be presented to the Center for Puerto Rican Studies.

Richie, a former Young Lord and a lifelong warrior for Global Justice, was and continues to be among the most powerful figures in the fight against police brutality and racial injustice in New York City and across the nation.

He spearheaded and coordinated numerous actions around the police killings of Amadou Diallo, Anthony Baez and Anthony Rosario. His activism and accomplishments over the course of four decades are numerous.

If he were still with us, Richie would be in that court room with Angelo and also demanding justice for Sean Bell. In fact, I have no doubt that Richie will be presente. Richie Vive, La Lucha Sigue!