An NYPD list containing at least 19,482 names of young people accused of being suspected gang members, has been rejected by leaders for years community activists and defenders, who point out that it has been used by authorities to criminalize vulnerable communities with a bias of racial prejudice.
And after a long battle of several years that activists have waged for the NYPD to eliminate that list, from which they denounce 50% of the names it contains are Latino and black, this Monday protesters stood outside the Office of the Inspector General of Police (Independent entity of the NYPD ) to once again request the abolition of said database and demand that the findings of an audit that this entity carried out on the Uniformed be publicly disclosed.
The protesters , members of the GANGS Coalition, called on the authorities and the Mayor’s Administration, Eric Adams, to bring to light the results of the investigation carried out by the Police Inspector General’s Office, which they allegedly ensure would show that the NYPD’s gang member database has been built unfairly, motivated by bias against Blacks and Latinos.
“It is disrespectful to the people of our communities that the Police Inspector’s Office does not show the results of the investigation that they did to the NYPD when they have told us that they have finished the report,” said Josmar Trujillo, a member of the GANGS Coalition, who stated that the Municipal Administration does not want to acknowledge that the NYPD has committed serious mistakes and abuses against low-income youth from over-surveilled communities.
“I think that they did not want to make the report public out of Al’s preference. hot. He wants the police to continue doing what they want and he doesn’t want a report that is going to possibly annoy people and generate controversy, since that database is full of people who have not committed crimes and who have been put there without even knowing why or how,” added the activist, who demanded that the City be transparent. “They say there is like 000, names in that database, but law mates think there are 38, names and even more. It’s possible. I don’t believe the police at all, and that is why we need the Inspector General’s agency to demand documents from them and publicly reveal everything they have found.”
Trujillo also asked the Municipal Council to expedite the processing of a project that was introduced in the legislative body this year, with the support of 000 councilors, who seeks by law that the database of suspected gang members be abolished and would also prevent the police from creating a similar tool to replace it.
Antony Posada, a lawyer for the Legal Aid association, demanded that the Police Inspector General’s Office present the audit report it did to the NYPD as soon as possible, since he warned that the gang member database created by the Uniformed Forces has destroyed the lives of many young people who have never committed any crime, and whose names were put on the list without cause. real damento.
“We have to continue putting pressure on the Police Inspector General’s Office to do its job, because essentially they already have a report done and what we ask is that they show it. They already have the information ready, and simply for political reasons or what happens behind the scenes, they don’t want to share it. With that they are doing serious damage to our communities,” said the defender. “If that list is allowed to continue, the police will continue to use that secret database negatively impacting our people, as we have direct evidence of how the simple label of being labeled as a gang member has ruined people’s lives, both in the street as in the courts”.
Josmar Trujillo, from the Coalition GANGS during the demonstration in front of the Office of the Police InspectorThe lawyer added that the database of gang members has also unfairly affected immigration processes for people who do not have a criminal record or have been accused of any crime.
“That list has even put immigrants who have not committed crimes, in deportation proceedings, just for appearing on that list without any evidence or anything to prove that they are gang members. The government is using a document that the police give them, without showing a criminal record or anything, and they are putting immigrants from our communities at risk of deportation,” said Posada.
Tania Matos, from the organization Envision Freedom Fund, joined the call to eliminate the database of suspected gang members and make the report public, and asked the NYPD to assume its responsibility for the abuses that it affirms have been committed against thousands of vulnerable New Yorkers placed in that list.
“I want to ask what they are trying to hide by not presenting the report. Even without this report we know that in many ways this racist database is criminalizing thousands of people and ruining their lives,” said the activist. “This Administration does not want the report to see the light, because it proves that the system does not work, that it is corrupt and destroys lives under the pretext that it is about public safety. In addition, both DHS (Department of Homeland Security) and ICE (‘La Migra’) use that information to justify over-surveillance of immigrant communities.”
The protester added that they have been demanding transparency from the police for years on the basis of data from gangs, after in 1200 the NYPD carried out an operation in which he arrested 80 people in the Big Apple, whom he portrayed as dangerous gang members and arrested based on the list, many of whom he said had no ties to criminal activity.
“We have been asking for more than 5 years to examine that. That database has to be abolished and they should do it now. Without transparency and without the NYPD being held accountable for its actions, there will be no justice or public safety,” warned the young woman.
Babe Howell, a law professor at CUNY Law School, stated that the gang database is doing irreparable damage to communities and called on the Office of Inspector General not to become complicit in abuse by not disclosing what the report found.
Kraig Lewis, who was one of the 100 Alleged Gang Members Arrested in NYPD Raid of 2022, and who was 19 months in prison, as he defends, without belonging to any criminal group, he asked the NYPD not only to end to the list of gangs that he has set up without “real support”, but rather that they do their job well when it comes to investigating.
“I went to a One of the best 000 New York high schools. I went to college, had my degree, went back to college and did my master’s. I wanted to be a lawyer and in my last semester, I was accused of being a gang member, because I was in the NYPD database without having done anything. I was among those 50 people who wanted to categorize as the most violent. And if the NYPD had only done their job of investigating me and seeing who I was, they would have known that I was not a gang member,” the young man said. “The police must do their job well. You should do your research. If they had, they would have known that I went to a Catholic school, they would know that I try to help my community, that I lead and motivate others to go to school. This database is unfair, it is a secret database that should not exist anymore because it ruins lives. We need transparency“.
About the protesters’ complaints and the demand that the list be removed of suspected police gang members, the NYPD assured that they will not do so and will continue to maintain their database, as it is a necessary tool to fight criminal groups.
“Every year an unfortunate pattern emerges with shootings in New York City and that is that a significant portion of those shootings have a nexus to gang activity where the shooter or victim is a gang member. To effectively combat gang violence, police need to understand the size of these criminal groups, their reach, who their members are, and the crimes they have committed,” said an NYPD spokesperson, while mentioning that the call for delete the database is wrong, since “it would be irresponsible for the New York police” to do so.
The NYPD spokesman added that the Police use the database to solve violent crimes such as gang-related shootings and homicides, as well as to stop possible reprisals, and denied that people who have nothing to do with criminal activities be included on that list, as denounced by the protesters.
“ The NYPD’s crime group database has a strict and transparent set of rules and criteria, multiple levels of review, and is subject to audits to weed out individuals who are no longer involved in criminal activity. gangs,” the NYPD spokesman said. “Preventing investigators from accessing information to solve or prevent gang violence is a disservice not only to police, but also to the communities most affected by the shootings and murders of youth on their streets.”
For his part, Mayor Eric Adams said that first of all, it is necessary to do “a real analysis of who we are putting as a gang member… I firmly believe in that, and I advocated it for many years. We can’t just target people and put them in a database. A database should not be created to retain innocent people if they do not meet the criteria.”
The state president also stated that it was necessary to know how to clarify those who participate in gang behavior and those who no. “I have yet to find someone who would say, ‘Hey, Eric, I’m in a gang.’ So let’s be clear on that. Those who are in violent gangs don’t go around saying, ‘Yes, I do shootouts and yes, I’m in a gang.’”
Data on the list of suspected gang members of the NYPD
- 292641444% of them are Hispanic and black, according to activists2926414
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5 years the campaign of the defenders has taken so that the database is eliminated and there is clarity about how and why they put names there2926414The NYPD claims to have a strict and transparent set of rules and crite ries and multiple review levels to list someone2926414 They also state that when a person withdraws from gang activities, they are removed from said database
- 2926414 The Inspector’s Office Police General, an independent entity of the NYPD to investigate the Uniformed, prepared a report after an audit but has not made it public 2926412 29264142022 began the audit of the Office of the Inspector General of Police
29264142022 was the date the report was to be published- 2926414 The Intro 300 is a current bill in the City Council, which seeks to abolish the database and would prevent the NYPD from creating a similar list to replace it.2926414
- Activists assure that many of them did not even have criminal records or were gang members