The 61st Precinct’s handling of “senior cut day” in Manhattan Beach on Friday was either a sterling example of police work at its finest or a stunning case of authoritarian control at its ugliest – depending on which side of Sheepshead Bay you happen to live on.
Gene and Barbara Berardelli from the Sheepshead Bay/Plumb Beach Civic Association spent the early afternoon of June 6 confronting police officers who they say were actively barring minority teens from entering Manhattan Beach,
Gene Berardelli – who is also a member of the 61st Precinct Community Council – was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct at the entrance to Manhattan Beach on Falmouth Street after questioning a lieutenant on the scene about the issue.
“[Lieutenant] Harrington got in my face,” Berardelli told the Bay News on Friday after being booked and released. “He pushed me and put me in handcuffs.”
Cops deny there was any shoving involved in the incident and maintain that Berardelli was attracting a large group of teenagers around him during his exchange with the lieutenant.
According to police, teens that should have been in class were given the choice of returning home or being sent to a truancy center.
But both Gene and Barbara Berardelli say that cops were allowing other teens to enter Manhattan Beach while redirecting largely black groups of youngsters to Coney Island and Brighton Beach.
Cops from the 60th Precinct reported about 4,000 teens on Coney Island beaches and another 1,600 in Brighton Beach. Authorities there characterized June 6 as a “typical senior cut day” with few minor arrests and no reported injuries.
Two teens were arrested in separate incidents on the F and Q subway lines on the way to the beach. Cops recovered a knife in one case and found that a teen involved in the other incident had an outstanding warrant against him.
Two teens were also busted for allegedly smoking marijuana on Oriental Boulevard and Irwin Street.
Barbara Berardelli told the Bay News that she personally escorted a group of 30 minority youngsters over the Ocean Avenue footbridge but was ultimately denied access to Manhattan Beach by “arrogant” cops who claimed the beach was closed because there had been an “incident.”
“They didn’t want to be questioned why they weren’t allowing kids on the beach,” she said.
When cops ushered a small group of youngsters down Emmons Avenue towards Holocaust Memorial Park at about 1:20 p.m. one of them grumbled, “I’m going to call Al Sharpton.”
“This is a huge difference to how things went last year; the police were all over it this year,” Manhattan Beach Neighborhood Association spokesperson Edmund Dweck said later.
Manhattan Beach Community Group President Ira Zalcman penned a letter commending Mastrokostas and 61st Precinct cops for their actions.
“Thank you for your tremendous efforts in making Manhattan Beach safe on “senior cut day” today,” Zalcman wrote. “Everyone I have spoken to is thrilled with the Police presence and professionalism your Precinct exhibited throughout our community.”
– additional reporting by Tom Tracy
