Will NYPD Commish Bratton be forced to resign over Eric Garner's violent, choking death ?

Community anger escalating over NYPD's continued obsession with "broken windows theory" of policing that appears to justify police brutality, and even violent deaths, for low-level crimes.

Five months before Eric Garner was choked to death by police on Staten Island, ex-Marine Jerome Murdough died while being incarcerated at Riker's Island.

Eric Garner died in a chokehold by NYPD on Staten Island on July 17. Do the officers of the New York Police Department get to decide if the suspects of low-level crimes deserve a death sentence on the spot ? That's the question many political bloggers are asking this week-end, as Mayor Bill de Blasio heads for the isle of Capri in the aftermath of the NYPD's choking death of married Staten Island dad, Eric Garner, 43. During last year's mayoral election, then candidate Bill de Blasio campaigned on promises to end policing tactics that unfairly targeted the poor and people of color. But then after he won the mayoral election, mayor-elect de Blasio swiftly made clear that he was appointing William Bratton as his new police commissioner, a signal of coming broken campaign promises on police reform. Mr. Bratton has a long history of stoking racial tensions by championing a controversial approach to policing known by the moniker, "broken windows." Under this policing theory, the cops target very low-level crimes before larger crimes are committed. But such an approach has been extremely controversial with civil rights activists, communities of color, and political bloggers, because the NYPD's obsession with combatting crime is focusing all of its resources on people suspected of committing very low-level offenses, like privately selling single cigarettes, as Mr. Garner was accused of doing, instead of major criminals. For example, former Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes has been accused of using millions of dollars of confiscated criminal assets to pay for a campaign spokesman, Mortimer Matz. Yet, Mr. Hynes remains free, even those these accusations have been reported and repeated through valid media outlets through out New York state. While government reform activists wait for the NYPD to arrest former D.A. Hynes for the larceny of over $1 million, Mr. Garner is imposed an immediate death sentence for trying to sell single cigarettes for 50¢. Jerome Murdough died on Feb. 15 while being incarcerated at Riker's Island. But Mr. Garner's death is not the first time when the city's law enforcement has been accused of causing the death of an innocent person under the de Blasio-Bratton administration. Last February, a former U.S. Marine died while in law enforcement custody at Riker's Island. Like with Mr. Garner's situation, the former Marine, Jerome Murdough, first attracted police attention because of Commissioner Bratton's obsession with "broken windows" policing. Mr. Murdough's only crime was that he was homeless, and when police took him into custody, he had been huddling in the stairwell of a New York City public housing development, seeking warmth from the frigid, polar-express winter experienced by the Northeast. The frail, the poor, people in crisis, and people of color are the targets of Police Commissioner Bratton's insistence on terrorizing those with the least. And all of this sadness and drama is approved by Mayor de Blasio, a blatant contradiction to his campaign promises to reform the NYPD. The calls for NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton to be fired, or to resign, are beginning to grow. On last night's edition of NY1 The Call with Emmy Award-winning journalist John Schiumo, the nearly universal sentiment was that the NYPD were out of control. It appears that Mayor de Blasio's promises to reform the NYPD have gone unfulfilled. Thus far, though, the mainstream media has been giving Mayor de Blasio a free pass for having to failed to reform the NYPD, but already political bloggers, such as Suzannah B. Troy, and grass roots groups, like New Yorkers Against Bratton, have not let up on demanding reforms. Ms. Troy was assaulted last year in a case that the NYPD refused to investigate, Ms. Troy alleges, in order to manipulate crime statistics in New York. And New Yorkers Against Bratton has been the sole group to take a hard line position against the new mayor over his broken promises to overhaul the corrupt NYPD. Indeed, at last spring's Left Form 2014, various activists collaborated on an open forum to draw attention to how many nonprofit reform groups have deescalated calls for police reform out of deference to the new mayor. This is Commissioner Bratton's second service as head of the city's police department. He had previously served under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's first term, but resigned in 1996 amid a probe into 21 out-of-town trips he had taken and other sources of friction with former Mayor Giuliani. During his brief first stint as commissioner, NYPD were involved in the choking death of Anthony Baez, a controversy that critics of Commissioner Bratton readily point to, in demonstration of his callous disregard of police brutality and police murder. Now that two deaths of innocent people have occurred in Mayor de Blasio's young administration, political bloggers, activists, and minority communities wonder how many more deaths, incidences of police brutality on senior citizens, incidences of people of color being refused peaceful accommodation on public transportation, and military-style police raids will it take before the nonprofit "veal pen" reform groups remobilize to renew their demands for a complete overhaul of the NYPD, beginning with the Commissioner Bratton's removal from office.

RELATED Staten Island man dies after NYPD cop puts him in chokehold — SEE THE VIDEO (The New York Daily News) Homeless veteran 'basically baked to death' at Rikers Island while being held on trespassing charge (The New York Daily News) 7 million $lush fund reasons why VOCAL-NY, CPR community groups no longer pressing for NYPD reforms (Bill de Blasio Sold Out) Michael Hayes, LMT, has practiced massage for more than 20 years as a licensed massage therapist in New York City. Flatiron Massage is located in the Flatiron District of Manhattan.

Brooklyn boy, 13, shot in head, triggers debate about NYPD focus on broken windows policing

PUBLISHED : TUES, 15 APR 2014, 10:51 PM
UPDATED : MON, 21 APR 2014, 05:48 PM

A couple of New Yorkers, who called into tonight's broadcast of "NY1 The Call," predicted a dangerous summer of crime -- but they are basing their predictions on unfounded fears and other possible biases.

Matt, Astoria on @NY1thecall: "This is the tip of the iceberg with end of #stopandfrisk."

— NY1 - The Call (@NY1thecall) April 16, 2014

The police department uses tragic accidents, like the sad shooting of Gama Droiville, 13 of Brooklyn, to fan the flames of fear to accept more policing.

• RELATED : Gama Droiville was on Flatbush Ave. near Beverly Road with his aunt when he was hit twice by stray bullets around noon Monday, cops said. He was taken to Kings County Hospital Center in serious but stable condition. Doctors said the eighth-grader was in danger of losing his wounded eye, his family said. (Boy, 13, shot in head twice after getting caught in Brooklyn crossfire * The New York Daily News)
• RELATED : The five men wrongly convicted in the infamous Central Park jogger rape case want Mayor Bill de Blasio to explain why he hasn't kept his promise to settle their lawsuit, even after more than 100 days in office. ("Central Park Five" Push de Blasio to Keep Promise to Settle Their Lawsuit * NY1)

But the New York Police Department, headed by the controversial police commissioner William Bratton, openly advocates increasing policing of the poor and people of color under a policing theory known as "broken windows," which dictates that stopping low-level crimes will catch criminals before they commit more severe crimes. Commissioner Bratton also refuses to abandon use of the unconstitutional police practice known as "stop-and-frisk," which has been shown to illegally target the poor and people of color.

But the tragic shooting of the young Mr. Droiville should be an opportunity for voters to demand that the police department should end its controversial tactics that target the wrong people. Stop-and-frisk does not take guns off the street, as has been proven by stop-and-frisk statistics from the New York Civil Liberties Union. Instead, unconstitutional police tactics destroy lives by illegally stopping innocent people without cause and then finding ways to give them tickets or summonses, all in an attempt to meet police quotas for documenting low-level crimes or infractions. For example, when police stopped Jerome Murdough, a veteran, he was arrested solely because he was homeless. Mr. Murdough was detained in Rikers Island, where he died at the negligent hands of law enforcement.

Since the mayoralty of Rudolph Giuliani, New Yorkers have been over-policed to the point that crime statistics, if they are to be believed, show that the city is now the safest it's been in a very long time. Yet, dramatic shooting accidents, like the one that injured the young Mr. Droiville, are used to stir up public fears that will lead to more over-policing that will keep destroying the lives of innocent people. More often than not, New Yorkers should feel safer among other New Yorkers. Sometimes, it's the police, who should give New Yorkers reason to worry.

Like in the case of Mr. Murdough, law enforcement have, under Commissioner Bratton's young second term in office, already injured other New Yorkers. During another crackdown on low-level crimes, this time against pedestrians, police assaulted and battered a frail, elderly man, Kang Wong, aged 84, for jaywalking. Another elderly man, aged 69, was run over by police driving a squad car on the Upper West Side.

The police crackdown on the poor and on people of color under Commissioner Bratton comes at a time when Mayor Bill de Blasio is trying to brandish his "progressive" laurels. Mayor de Blasio promised to end the "Tale of Two Cities" that unfairly treats people with the least worse than the people with the most. But the mayor's vision is at odds with his own police commissioner.

Further, the NYPD's obsession with the policing of low-level crimes comes against a backdrop where public corruption runs rampant from Albany to City Hall. There is no municipal prosecution of political corruption, financial racketeering, and campaign finance scandals, but the poor must face getting stopped-and-frisked, ticketed for infractions when they are not first battered or run over by the police, and then, if the poor are arrested for being homeless, they face the prospect of losing their lives in dangerous conditions in the municipal jail system for lack of a humane shelter system in New York City.

Callers on tonight's broadcast of "NY1 The Call" heard from people, who had let their emotions and fears get the best (or worst) of them, and these callers advocated for more "proactive" policing. Other callers were more cautious about advocating for more aggressive policing based on the NYPD's history of abusing its authority.

Nastaran, Harlem on @NY1thecall: "Don't want to bring back heavy-handed policing, we know detrimental effect it has on neighborhoods."

— NY1 - The Call (@NY1thecall) April 16, 2014

• RELATED : New York is the country’s largest city and one of its most progressive but since 2001 it’s also been at the forefront of some of the most regressive and unconstitutional anti-terrorism tactics. (Mayor Bill de Blasio's decision to end the NYPD's controversial Muslim surveillance program started under former Commissioner Ray Kelly has more to do with politics than with justice * The Daily Beast)

Fighting to reform this broken system is a group of activists, New Yorkers Against Bratton, who last Friday publicly delivered outside police headquarters a community report and speak-out marking the first 100 days of the second Bratton tenure. Until the police commissioner, and the mayor who made his regressive appointment, end each of the crackdown on low-level crimes in public transportation systems, the attempts at coordinated sweeps of homeless New Yorkers, and the mayor's "Vision Zero" initiative, the poor and people of color will get no justice from the city's law enforcement. Instead of using non-violent methods, like buy-back programs, to take guns off the streets, the police want to continue to erode public trust by using tactics that target innocent people based on their economic status, race, and practice of faith. Meanwhile, the rich and powerful will get away with crimes, for which the justice system never makes the resources, much less the political will, available to fully address.