This news story caught my eye because just like beauty many things can be in the eye of the beholder. Yes its unfair to target a certain group but I know firsthand that there are residents in public housing who can’t get in and out thier own buildings freely because drug dealers have it on lock.
Still you can’t throw everyone under a blanket and treat them as if they are the criminals the police should keep out…
Who knows? On a side note, why the mispelling of the word “says” in the header. This is a news article not a book or a damn song. Come on on journalists. That ish seems inappropriate.
Cops harass folks who live in projects, survey sez
Friday, September 19th 2008, 4:00 AM
Tenant surveys at two city housing projects show a large number of residents report being arrested or stopped and quizzed by cops even though they live there, the Daily News has learned.
The results are in a report to be released tomorrow by New York Lawyers for the Public Interest. It’s based on interviews with 181 residents and their guests of the Thomas Jefferson Houses in East Harlem and Walt Whitman Houses in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
Of the 106 people surveyed at Thomas Jefferson, 30% said they had been charged with trespassing and 70% said they had been repeatedly stopped by cops demanding identification, the report says.
More than half queried at Walt Whitman said police had stopped them at least once in the last year.
“People of color who are poor are being treated differently than the rest of the city by the police just because the city is their landlord,” said NYLPI director Amanda Masters.
“If you had police patrolling your backyard, your halls, checking your mailboxes and demanding your ID every day, how would you feel?” she said.
The report is dedicated to the memory of Sybil (Michelle) Edwards who was arrested three years ago for trespassing at her Thomas Jefferson building.
Edwards, who died of cancer this summer at the age of 45, was trying to cross the roof from the adjacent building because her elevator was broken, but was arrested anyway.
meeshamink.net 