Carlton “Chucky” Berkley, a retired NYPD detective, who is seeking election in the 11th City Council District, is someone who doesn’t accept that the status quo has to remain as it has always been. As a case in point, Berkley doesn’t accept that the winner of the district’s upcoming special election has to be from Riverdale, just because District 11 council members have hailed from that neighborhood for decades.

 

Berkley, who lives in Wakefield with his wife, has a history of battling against the system, sometimes emerging victorious either for his own benefit or for the benefit of his community. “I know I am an underdog in the March 23 special election, but that doesn’t mean that I am not determined,” said Berkley, the father of three grown children, and grandfather to two.

 

Berkley and his wife, who is also retired from the NYPD, own a private investigating and security firm. “We open up our business for people in the area to come in and discuss what is on their minds,” Berkley told the Norwood News, adding that it was for people to discuss “hot-button issues,” and that they’ve had some very lively debates.

 

Over the years, Berkley said he has fought against racism in the NYPD, winning $30,000 in a protracted lawsuit that focused on harassment and unequal treatment by white officers. [Norwood News searched the courts database and could not find a record of the lawsuit. We reached out to the NYPD for comment on the matter, and did not receive an immediate response.]

 

Some might assume that given his history of fighting such racism within the department, Berkley would support defunding the police, but that is not the case. “I support redirecting funding for the police from the anti-crime units to something like neighborhood-police teams,” Berkley said. “If I am elected to the City Council, I will fight to have cops on the beat.”

 

He added, “Communities need to see police walking beats in the community the way they used to. We need to take dramatic steps to foster positive relations between the police and the communities they serve.” Berkley said cops need to get out of cars and start foot patrolling in communities where they can be seen, and where they can interact with the people they have taken an oath to protect.

 

That said, he added, “It is just wrong to be against all of the police, especially since we need them to fight crime in our communities. Ninety percent of the police are terrific, and I am proud of the job I did during the 20 years I was with the NYPD. A few very bad apples sometimes create the impression that all of the police are bad. We have to go against what we call ‘the blue code of silence’ in order to weed out the bad apples in the police department.”

 

Turning to another matter of major concern to Berkley, he said he has been fighting against the placement of homeless shelters in his neighborhood as part of his civic activism. “The people who run the homeless shelters have taken advantage of the relative apathy in Wakefield to place homeless shelters in our community,” Berkley said.

 

According to the NYPD veteran, Wakefield has more than its share of shelters, while communities like Riverdale and Woodlawn do not. Berkley attributes this to the people in the latter neighborhoods doing a better job at mobilizing. “In the case of Wakefield, the shelters have brought with them an added layer of crime in our community,” he said.

 

Meanwhile, when it comes to education, the tell-it-like-it-is candidate is opposed to charter schools because he said they take away resources that should be used to improve public schools. According to rhodesschool.org, charter schools get their funding from state tax income, grants, awards, and donations, and public schools get their funding from federal government, state government, local government (taxes), grants, awards and donations.

 

According to this source, charter schools get their state funds on a per-student approach, while public schools get more funding in terms of taxes. Meanwhile, according to the website, nonprofitquarterly.org, as independent organizations, one main difference between the two systems is that charter schools do not have responsibility for all children, whereas public schools do.

 

“The charter schools, from my point of view, are like private schools,” Berkley said. “They are very elitist. From my experience, they have separate entrances so that their students don’t have to come into contact with other students in the buildings in which they are located.”

 

He said the youngsters in his community, for the most part, are not getting the education they deserve. “To make matters worse, the remote learning that COVID has caused, has meant that our children are falling further behind,” he said. “The way I see it, it is premature for students to go back to their classrooms. We need to have teachers, school administrators, and students vaccinated before they go back.”

 

Indeed, Berkley is a strong believer in the need to vaccinate Americans to overcome the pandemic that has paralyzed so many aspects of daily life and has killed more than half a million Americans. “Long after the pandemic is over, we will still have a host of problems to deal with,” Berkley said.

 

“We need to make our neighborhoods safer, and we need to bring a halt to racism in our communities. We need to tackle both of these issues at the same time.” He said to accomplish this, police cannot be viewed as the enemies in the neighborhood. “Neighborhood people need to be the eyes and ears of law-enforcement officers if we are to successfully fight crime in our communities,” he said.

 

If elected, Berkley said he will fight for all the constituents who live in the district, which encompasses Norwood, Kingsbridge, Riverdale, Wakefield, and Woodlawn. “Many issues in our district are common from one neighborhood to another, but there are clearly differences as well,” he said. As an example, the NYPD veteran said he recognizes that residents of Riverdale and Kingsbridge have to cope with poor public transportation and connectivity, while Wakefield has generally good public transportation.

 

Meanwhile, when it comes to food and healthy food choices, Berkley said that Wakefield has limited healthy food options. He said, if elected, he will fight to increase the number of healthy food choices in the district’s neighborhoods. “I will seek to educate constituents on the advantages of eating more fruits and vegetables,” he said, adding that he would also fight to curb obesity which he said was all too prevalent in District 11.

 

On the subject of endorsements, not being part of the political establishment, Berkley said he never expected to get the official backing of the district’s political leaders or the unions who he said represented a large portion of District 11’s constituents. “In fact, I recently told someone with influence that his organization would not endorse me, even though the organization’s leader liked what I stood for, and what I represent,” Berkley said.

 

“The groups that make up the establishment invariably endorse candidates who represent the establishment’s interests. What I am about is leading the way toward constructive changes in the way we do things, rather than supporting the interests of the political establishment.”

 

When it comes to the New York City mayoral race, Berkley said he supports Brooklyn borough president, Eric Adams, a founder of the organization, “100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care,” of which Berkley said he is still a member. “We continue to interact with one another,” he said of Adams. “Both of us have waged often-lonely battles against racism in the NYPD.” In addition to fighting against racism within the agency, Berkley said “100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care” also counsels Black youth on how to act when they are confronted by police officers, in order to avoid harassment.

 

Berkley is also a member of both the “Black Law Enforcement Alliance” and the “Latino Officers Association.” “I joined these organizations because I felt that the Guardians, the traditional group that represents Black police officers, wasn’t adequately representing us,” he said. “They (the Guardians) had become part of the establishment in much the same way that politicians become part of the political establishment.”

 

Berkley said that he paid a significant price for butting heads against the NYPD’s hierarchy, giving one example where the NYPD allegedly placed roadblocks in his path when he sought to retire, making it difficult for him to access retirement money that was owed to him. He also said that superior officers harassed him. Berkley retired from the NYPD in 2004. Norwood News reached out to the NYPD for comment on the matter. We did not receive an immediate response.

 

The candidate said he anticipates he will also “pay a price” for challenging the political establishment in District 11. “I know that I am facing an uphill in the race for a City Council seat in the special election,” said Berkley. “A special election makes it even harder for underdog candidates who are outspent and are not part of the political establishment, to win.”

 

Berkley is running for the seat that has been vacated by former City Councilman Andrew Cohen, who Bronx Democrats nominated for a Bronx Supreme Court judgeship last August. Cohen subsequently won the seat in the November general election.

 

Fellow candidate, male district leader and public schoolteacher, Eric Dinowitz, is the son of the assemblyman for the 81^st Assembly District, Jeffrey Dinowitz, the latter representing the majority of City Council District 11 at state level. The younger Dinowitz is widely viewed as the favorite in the race to succeed Cohen, but shifting political winds in the Bronx and in the City may prove otherwise.

 

Recent elections have seen outliers like U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi beat their respective opponents who were seen as the favorites in their respective races, and this has given underdog candidates in a number of other political races more confidence than they might otherwise have had. Indeed, a record number of candidates are running in various Bronx races this election season.

 

For Berkley, who is 58 years old, running for City Council is all about “giving something back” to the community that has given his family a stable life for decades. “Our family is very close – very close-knit,” he said. “We promote respect and healthy living among ourselves. We are proud of ourselves, and we celebrate our accomplishments. I like to think that we can be viewed as a role model of what family life should be.”

 

Berkley first ran for City Council in 2009. “I had not intended to run this year until the people in Wakefield insisted that I run,” he said. “I am not seeking the Council seat for personal glory. My ego and my sense of who I am don’t require that I be on the City Council. I am running out of a sense of obligation to the people in my neighborhood. They have convinced me that I can make a difference in the life of my community, and other communities in the 11th Councilmanic District.”

 

The District 11 City Council special election will be held on March 23.