City Assigning Newbie Cops to Crime-Ridden Areas
Starting tomorrow, the NYPD is stationing 645 rookie cops in Brooklyn neighborhoods—including Crown Heights, Bed-Stuy, Brownsville, Flatbush and East New York—where shootings and robberies have increased over the past year. The new officers will be assigned to the neighborhoods for six-month terms, according to an article in today’s Daily News. East New York had the…
Starting tomorrow, the NYPD is stationing 645 rookie cops in Brooklyn neighborhoods—including Crown Heights, Bed-Stuy, Brownsville, Flatbush and East New York—where shootings and robberies have increased over the past year. The new officers will be assigned to the neighborhoods for six-month terms, according to an article in today’s Daily News. East New York had the highest number of murders of any neighborhood in the city last year (31); there was a 15 percent rise in burglaries in Crown Heights; deadly assaults in Brownsville increased by 27 percent; and the number of shooting victims in Bed-Stuy rose from 71 to 91. Some residents and politicians are questioning whether the stepped-up police force will only be a temporary Band-Aid or worse—completely ineffective. We don’t need more cops, we need more jobs, recreational centers and parks,” said City Councilman Charles Barron. “You’ll have a bunch of rookies out in East New York, most of them white, scared to death and standing on our street corners with no knowledge of our communities.”
645 Rookie Cops to Hit High-Crime Streets [NY Daily News]
Photo by lesterhead.
I pretty much agree with 10:08.
Most of the cops I see in my neighborhood now are a polyglot mixture of every ethnic group in the city, whereas even 5 years ago, they were mostly white. Maybe someone high up finally realized that even the perception of a black and minority community policed only by a white force instantly fosters resentment and misunderstanding. If for no other reason, kids need to see that the thug life is not the only alternative.
I’m not a Barron fan, and it galls me that the media always goes to him, Sharpton, or some other extremist, first, for an opinion on the state of the black community. Someone like Tish James is a much better spokesperson for the majority, in this case, and I agree with her. We want and need more police – not just so we can continue to gentrify, but so all of us are safe.
The simplistic equation of more police = faster gentrification disturbs me. Our communities need jobs, more jobs, better educational opportunities, and better services for all of us, especially the current population. The idea that the police will clean house so that eager, but formerly frightened hordes of (presumably) white newcomers will rush in, is not in the best interests of a revitalized Crown Heights, Bed Stuy or anywhere else.
Better policing is a start, and we all welcome and hope for fair, unbiased and level headed policing. We need law abiding folks aiding them, and teaching rookies and veteran officers alike, about the positive sides of our communities and their people.
Uh . . . they always put newbies in the worst areas. Where’s the news? Don’t get it. . . .
The idiotic “white men can’t understand us; can’t help us” falsification is getting old. It’s ethnocentric and racist at heart.
We could have used a couple of these cops at 121 Lefferts Place around 9:30 pm on Christmas Eve.
I’m out of town–has anybody published/heard any more details about those two kids that got killed?
“White cops” (and all other cops as well) have saved more Black mens lives in the last year then Charles Baron has in his entire lifetime. Over 50% of the homicides that DIDN’T take place yr 2 yr are of Black men (by Black men)
What knowledge of the community is necessary to deal with murder, shootings, robberies and burglaries?
Besides Charles Barron is a racist of the highest order.
Who listens to Barron anyway, the man is a moron. Scared to death, thats bull–it. Brron is scared to death that if racisim doesn’t exist he wont exist. He’s a demagogue and the black community needs to wake up and put someone in office that cares about them instaed of himself.
10:08 rehabilitate the criminals, they need second chance. you gotta have a heart!
There is indeed, 10:07, it’s a job as The What’s psychiatrist.