The following article is the second of a two-part feature story on the resonance of the Black Lives Matter protests in the Bronx.

 

Part II

 

Stories like the ones that follow are all too familiar in the Bronx.

 

It is not only in the streets of the City where tensions are rising between law enforcement officers and the public. The incarcerated population has also been the subject of abusive practices by those sworn to protect.

 

Norwood resident, José Saldana, is the director of Release Aging People in Prison (RAPP) and has firsthand knowledge of how the incarcerated population is treated.  “Law enforcement is infected with racism in New York City and [the] State,” Saldana said.  “It’s nothing new that’s going on, it’s been going on for generations.”

 

After serving 38 years in prison, Saldana was released in January 2018 and started working with RAPP. The organization seeks to reframe society’s reliance on mass incarceration as a way of keeping communities safe. He wants people to know that it is not only in the streets that Black and Latino people suffer brutality from the authorities, where it can now be captured on people’s cellphones.

 

“One thing I like to stress is that these things [brutality] happen every day to those incarcerated,” he said.  Saldana is pleased to see how video recordings of police brutality in the streets have prompted a new generation to protest for justice. “Of course, Black Lives Matter, but let’s not forget those we don’t see every day,” he added.

 

A 2018 City health department report found that Black and Latino New Yorkers experience higher policing compared with non-Latino White New Yorkers, and that this leads to higher rates of detention of the former group.

 

Within the local neighborhoods of Bedford Park, Fordham, Kingsbridge Heights, Norwood, and University Heights, incarceration rates per 100,000 are consistent if not overwhelming. The last publicly available figures show the collective incarceration rate for those neighborhoods was 583 per 100,000 adults aged 16 and older. That’s lower than the Bronx rate of 670 per 100,000, but higher than the citywide rate of 425 per 100,000.

 

Norwood News reached out to the NYC Department of Correction (DOC) for a response to community activists who are protesting brutality within the corrections system. DOC Commissioner Cynthia Brann wrote, “We continue to build, improve and sustain the trust of those we serve by ensuring the fair and equitable treatment of all who are entrusted to our care.  Dedication to duty and the desire to ensure public safety is essential and every individual must be guaranteed fairness and equal rights without discrimination.”

 

Brann added, “We are committed to building on the progress we’ve made under this administration to create a correctional system that is more humane, and fair”.

 

Our law enforcement officers swear an oath to protect the community. But to hear someone in custody cry for help & not provide it is a blatant disregard for human life and their oath.

I am proud to have carried A8226B in the Assembly. This bill is long overdue. pic.twitter.com/xxpmG9IBMB

— Nathalia Fernandez (@Fernandez4NY) June 9, 2020

In fact, the department considers itself a national leader in correctional reform. Among changes it cites in departmental policies are providing housing options according to gender identity, removing adolescents from Rikers Island, eliminating the use of punitive segregation for anyone under the age of 22, and limiting punitive segregation sentences to a maximum of 30 days for nearly all infractions (except assaulting an officer which can result in 60 days punitive segregation).

 

To some who have suffered abuse at the hands of law enforcement, suing law enforcement agencies, protesting in the streets, and reforming punitive segregation practices offer them a measure of hope that change is happening. Indeed, some lawmakers are trying to use this moment in history to effect even more substantial change in local communities of color.

 

At a press conference across the street from the Bronx Supreme Court on Jun. 17, State Sen. Jamaal T. Bailey announced the repeal of section 50-A of the Civil Rights Law, which prevented the disclosure of disciplinary records of law enforcement officials. The law had previously allowed abuses by police officers to remain shielded from public view.

 

As Chair of the Senate’s Codes Committee, Bailey held hearings that included testimony from an array of law enforcement officials throughout the state. They complained to the senator about how some officers might lose their right to privacy if 50-A was repealed. “We understand that privacy concerns are legitimate,” Bailey said. “However, what is not legitimate, and will never be legitimate is the desire to hide [the] disciplinary records of an officer.”

 

Another recent reform in State law, the Andrew Kearse Act, was introduced by Assemblywoman Nathalia Fernandez. “What it secured is that an officer, and or the department can be held civilly liable if they are found to have denied medical attention or mental medical attention to a person in their custody,” she said. “The officer has a duty to seek for extra help if they cannot address the situation at hand and must act in good faith to address the situation”.

 

The law was set in motion by the death of Andrew Kearse, a 36-year-old Bronx man who died in police custody after a traffic stop. On May 11, 2017, police in Schenectady, New York say they saw him driving erratically and pulled him over. After he allegedly tried to run, they subdued him and put him in the back of a patrol car.

 

Video footage from inside the patrol car shows Kearse gasping for air and pleading for the officers to open the window while driving him to the police station. By the time they arrived at the station he had passed out. One of the officers began CPR until emergency medical services got to the scene and continued resuscitation efforts. He died at a nearby hospital. A medical examiner determined cardiac arrhythmia was the cause of death.

 

When asked by a reporter why it has taken so long to pass laws to protect those in police custody, Andrew’s widow, Angelique Negroni-Kearse responded, “Because now the people are tired and it’s time for a change. That’s why, and we’re tired of our family members being hash-tagged. We’re tired of us getting killed, we’re tired of getting beat on. We’re just tired of it.  Enough is enough”.

 

There are some who believe that now is a unique time to push for change. Hayden M. Greene is the director of Multicultural Affairs at Manhattan College. “We are experiencing something not likely to be repeated,” said Greene. “We have a perfect storm of occurrences.” He points out that, in the past, many protests have not been consistent because people had to get back to work and be content with one or two concessions while pushing for change.

 

However, because of the quarantine and many people being out of work, the push for change through protests has engaged a wider spectrum of society. “We see people around the world protesting, all 50 states. We see the youth of the protestors, the diversity,” Greene said.

 

He points to a key demographic in the efforts to combat racism. “Just as sexism has to be eliminated by men, racism has to be stomped out by those who present themselves as white,” he said.

 

Assemblyman Blake remembers being harassed by the local police while he was a teenager attending DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. Now, he gets the opportunity to pass laws that protect communities of color. “We saw a modern-lynching with George Floyd. People try to make excuses about Eric Garner, about Andrew [Kearse], about Tamir [Rice], about Trayvon [Martin],” Blake said at the press conference.

 

“You literally saw a white officer put his knee on the neck for eight minutes and forty-six seconds and kill a human being, clearly because he’s black. And if you have a soul you couldn’t watch that and be the same. It took too long for us to get here but people turn pain into promise because of that.”

 

Norwood News reached out to the NYPD for comment on this story but did not receive a response.