Why did the same politicians who publicly called to defund the NYPD yesterday, bring more police into our community yesterday?
On Thursday afternoon, State Senator Ramos, Councilmember Moya, and Assemblywoman Cruz released a public statement that there would be a loot out without ANY context or information about where it would take place, just stating “Friday at 5 pm in our community.” Y’all know this put ALL of East Elmhurst, Corona, and Jackson Heights on high alert? There was tension on the streets. Their remedy for the rumored youth-led looting was to call the 110th and 115th precincts and request more cops on the streets in our majority POC, undocumented, and immigrant community.
Weren’t these the very same politicians that “protested” last week in front of the 115th, showing support for community members making the connections between systemic racism, police violence, ICE raids, and the criminalization of our people? Just earlier this week, all three had committed to returning money from police unions. They promised to reinvest in our communities, defund the police, repeal 50A, etc. This seemed like a good and “progressive” step forward.
YOU CANNOT CALL TO DEFUND THE NYPD, AND THEN IMMEDIATELY CALL THE COPS!
Yesterday, as we walked around the neighborhood with the members of the Party for Socialist Liberation we counted about 40 cops on foot just along the 4.5 blocks between Northern and 41st Ave on Junction and 60 more around the area. Commercial areas along Roosevelt, Junction, Northern, 74th and elsewhere in the neighborhood were essentially shut down. Shops that have been struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic were boarded up. Street vendors were scared. Not just of the potential looters, but of the army of police that descended on the neighborhood. We know this because we did street outreach yesterday to vendors and business owners and stepped out yesterday to cop watch, knowing that police are an inherently violent and racist institution, who target our community on the daily, not just during times of protest. We know our communities are complex, and we’ll continue to have conversations with them about looting and protesting because political education is more crucial than ever. But, we overwhelmingly heard from stores and vendors that they support protesters and the movement to defend black lives.
Let us be clear: This was a crisis created by our elected officials. By sharing an uninformative letter with no context, our electeds used this moment to pat themselves on the back for “preventing” a looting and protecting small businesses. They were negligent about the consequences their letter would have and irresponsible in their approach. In reality, what they did was drum up panic and aggression in our community, further criminalize our youth, encourage suspicion and fear of protest, and deploy an army of cops all along Northern and Junction.
Calling for a police occupation of our neighborhoods is not defunding the police. If anything, you are encouraging people in our communities to think that this kind of occupation is normal and safe. It’s not. Catalina Cruz actually told people not to worry because the police were informed. And we have not forgotten that our loved ones and comrades are still struggling with COVID-19, some of them brutalized, locked up, and killed across the city and country for protesting police violence and systemic racism. With all that happening, our electeds chose to endanger our people and our movements. Their actions yesterday are in line with their track records here, encouraging people to trust and rely on “more police” as the solution to domestic violence, noisy block parties, (the threat of) gang violence, the needs of houseless community members, and so on, rather than supporting community-led solutions. This knee-jerk reaction to rely on the cops is exactly what we’re all protesting. Imagine what creative alternatives we can develop to address the potential of looting especially when we understand the underlying issues.
We are sharing these graphics put together by Coalition on Homelessness on how we can reimagine safety: What role do neighbors, small businesses, and street vendors play in keeping our communities safe?
