The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency have inspectors general who function as independent monitors. So do the police departments of major cities like Los Angeles and Chicago, as well as the nation’s capital. Even most New York City agencies, like the Education Department and the Housing Authority, have similar monitors.
Djibril Toure [a member of Communities United for Police Reform] is a Brooklyn-based business owner who has spent his life doing the right thing. He earned a degree from Cornell University and in between work and music gigs, he has found time to give back to his community.
NEW YORK—In the latest step for advocates of ending the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices in the city, elected officials and community groups traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with federal law officials and others.
I recently found myself in a conversation with three White males. As we made small talk, one asked me, “So what do you think of this Stop and Frisk thing?” I took a moment before responding and asked, “What do you think about it?” The questioner responded, “I don’t know. Seems unfair. But doesn’t it make New York safer?”
New York, NY - The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP) recently released its report Hate Violence Against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and HIV-Affected Communities in the United States in 2011. NCAVP collected data concerning hate violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and HIV-affected people (LGBTQH), from 16 anti-violence programs in 16 states across the country including from the New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP), which coordinates NCAVP.
"Today, we are going from dating on occasion to a marriage."
Displaying his trademark skill at artful turns of phrase, the Reverend Al Sharpton spoke to the dramatic significance of a June 5 press conference at the Stonewall Inn that brought together leaders of dozens of local and national LGBT groups and the organizers of a June 17 Manhattan march to protest the NYPD's stop and frisk policies that affect people of color in starkly disproportionate numbers.
Baltimore native Chris Bilal was walking through his adopted Brooklyn neighborhood when he was stopped by a police officer. The NYPD officer peppered the 24-year-old with questions about where he lived, requested Bilal's ID and rummaged through his bag.
"I was coming home from the Laundromat and I was stopped by the police officer. Asking me, 'Let me see your ID. 'Where are you from?' 'Do you live around here?' "
NEW YORK (CNN) - Every time a cop car slows down near him, Djibril Toure worries that he's about to be stopped and questioned.
Not because he did anything wrong - the 39-year-old businessman and activist was born and raised in New York, attended Cornell University and said he's never committed a crime.
Though Commissioner Ray Kelly promised to investigate the murder of 18-year-old Ramarley Graham in the Bronx, community members who have spent their entire lives surviving in neighborhoods under the intimidating eye of police patrols and perennial surveillance towers already know the cause of death: the NYPD's discriminatory, unlawful, and abusive policing practices.
At the City Council's budget hearing a year ago, I asked Commissioner Kelly for basic budget information on the NYPD's counterintelligence programs. How much are we spending? How many officers? Where are they working? Under what authority? He did not provide any specific answers.