While the NYPD denied newspaper reports that it stopped and frisked black teens in a Park Slope subway station last week, the possible subjects of the alleged searches saw things a bit differently.
“My friend got pulled over [in this station] by a cop for no reason at all,” said Jamel James, who was entering the F-train station at Seventh Avenue and Ninth Street with a group of friends Tuesday.
In fact, everyone in the group interviewed by The Brooklyn Papers said they knew someone who had been harassed by police because of the color of his skin — although not necessarily at the Park Slope station.
“It’s happening,” said Dondon Moore, 13, who said he once watched a friend get “pulled aside by a white cop for no reason and frisked — even though he’d done nothing wrong.”
Moore’s friend, Duntrell Calderone, 12, offered a succinct opinion of the alleged NYPD racial-profiling: “That’s messed up.”
Both the New York Post and the Daily News reported this week that Capt. Michael Vanchieri, who commands a Transit District patrol based at Hoyt and Schermerhorn streets, ordered his officers to stop and frisk black teens at the Seventh Avenue stop in response to a purported increase in crime at that station.
According to police records, only one robbery — on June 11 — was logged in the station this year by 78th Precinct cops.
There has been more crime at other stations, with three robberies reported this year at the Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street F and N/R station and two since October, 2005 at the Pacific Street N/R stop.
The NYPD denies that it ordered Transit officers to stop the black youths. And an NYPD source told The Brooklyn Papers that Vanchieri’s officers either deliberately or innocently misunderstood the orders because it would be impossible to detain and question every black teen in a station used by many such youths.
But Vanchieri’s officers — whose identities were shielded by the Daily News — told the News that the orders were definitely given.
“The captain said the descriptions of the [suspects] vary a lot, so we were to stop all black males at the station, stop and frisk them because ‘they have no reason being there,’” one white officer told the News.
Black youths questioned by The Paper saw a much broader problem.
“I can’t walk eight feet without being patted down,” said Raschard Lewis-Holmes, 16, who admitted that he had never been frisked in the station in question. “It pisses me off. They’re always going after black people.”
The National Latino Officers Association and 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care protested the alleged stop-and-frisk order this week.
“This is obviously a violation of civil rights as well as lazy police work,” said Anthony Miranda, president of the Latino officers’ group. “Crime happens everywhere, but if a robbery happened on Wall Street and the profile was for a white guy with a briefcase the police would not be stopping every guy with a briefcase.”
Then again, they might stop black guys with briefcases, said one black man in Park Slope.
“Whenever there is a sweep like this, people tell me, ‘Change the way you dress,’” said a man who gave his name only as Stash.
“Well, I can change the way I dress. I can be more humble. But I can’t change my complexion. I completely believe that captain gave the order. It happens all the time.” — with Lilo Stainton
