Josuely Marte

April 10 2019

Professor Furlong

ENG 210

NYPD Safety

The New York Police Department (NYPD) is known to be one of the oldest police departments in the United States. They are known for providing public safety, enforcing the law, and responding to emergency situations. When an individual thinks of a police officer, the first thing that may come to their mind is public safety. However, there are many individuals who may see police officers as villains. Starting in 2014, there have been many acknowledged cases based on police brutality. Throughout these years, there have been cases where black people were killed by a police officer, and raw footage have been shown to support these cases. There have been many high-profile cases on police brutality which totally changed the face of the NYPD. “Blue racism”, which is racism against police officers, then came about due to the controversial behaviors conducted by police officers. (Alan, 2017) Nowadays, people have stopped turning to the NYPD when it comes to social welfare and the public safety of civilians in New York City.

Eric Garner, a man from Staten Island, died on July 17, 2014. He was arrested by an NYPD officer who put him in a headlock and ended up choking Garner. Although the officer denied choking Garner, the NYC Medical Examiner’s Office stated that the cause of his death was compression of the neck and chest. Before his death, the officer approached him on suspicion of selling cigarettes without tax stamps, which is illegal in New York. Garner stated that he was tired of being harrassed by the NYPD and denied selling the cigarettes. After this, the officer proceeded to arrest Garner. Garner pushed his arms away from the officer, and the officer pushed him to the ground, with his arms around his neck. Garner repeated “I can’t breathe” several times. These were his last words. (Bloom, Imam 2014) A civilian recorded this incident, and the video ended up becoming viral.

Violence has commonly been associated with NYPD officers and their use of firearms. Police officers are meant to provide safety with these firearms. Before 2014, police officers were not being seen as villains. The use of firearms, or force seemed to be rare. In 2005, an of the 43 million people who had contact with an officer, only an estimated 1.6% had used force or threatened the individual. (Rockster, 2008, p. 8) During this time, police officers were commonly looked for when it came to an emergency or an act of violence. This all changed around 2014, where many cases of police brutality began to show up on the popular media. With the use of cellphones and social media, people all over the country began to witness these police crimes against civilians through their cell phones. Each year, many different cases showed up on the media, which caused the NYPD, and even police in general, to have a bad stigma. Blue racism comes along after the several crimes conducted by police officers. This dilemma has caused a significant division between civilians and officers. This strange form of racism is starting to take over the minds of civilians and their opinions on the NYPD. However, how do we know that all officers are corrupt? Although police brutality is the thought that pops up on the minds of many people, the bad stigma carried by police officers may come to an end.

In 2017, the idea of an NYPD officer wearing a body camera became more popular. These body cameras were to be used in order to witness interactions between an officer and a civilian. In March 2019, approximately 4,000 body cameras were given out to officers all over the city. Although some may say that the body cameras violate rights of confidentiality, these cameras may cause a less chance of biases between officers and civilians. Nowadays, there is a high chance that the side of the civilian will be taken when police brutality is involved, even if it was the fault of the civilian. With all the police brutality cases throughout the years, body cameras are an effective way of knowing all details of interactions between the officer and civilian, which can result in clearing out the bad stigma of police officers.