Page 8 The Skanner July 20, 2016
News
DIVIDED AMERICA: Bridging the Gap Between Police, Policed
NEW YORK (AP) — On
an unusually cool night
for summer, Mike Per-
ry and his crew thread
the sidewalks running
through Staten Island’s
Stapleton
Houses,
tracked by police cam-
eras bolted to the apart-
ment blocks and posi-
tioned atop poles.
“The better the weath-
er, the more people will
be out,” Perry says. “Ac-
tivity — not all good, nei-
ther.”
Perry’s group, ive
black men and one Lati-
no, all acknowledge past
crimes or prison time.
Perry, himself, used to
deal drugs around anoth-
er low-income housing
complex, two miles away.
Now, though, their Cure
Violence team works to
defuse arguments that
can lead to shootings and
match people with job
training and counseling.
Their goals are not so dif-
ferent from those of the
police.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This
story is part of Divided
America, AP’s ongoing ex-
ploration of the economic,
social and political divi-
sions in American society.
While Perry gives cops
their due, he keeps his
distance. Two years ago,
within walking distance
of this spot, a black man
named Eric Garner died
in a confrontation with
police oicers. Garner
was suspected of sell-
AP PHOTO/SETH WENIG
By ADAM GELLER
AP National Writer
Police oicers talk with community activist Cynthia Davis in the Staten Island borough of New York,
Tuesday, May 24, 2016. The recent highly publicized deaths of black men in encounters with police in
Minnesota, Louisiana and across the country, and now the sniper killing of ive Dallas oicers, have
focused new attention on the chasm between police and minorities, one of so many divides in this
contentious election year. Years of tension have left people wary in both the policing community and in
minority neighborhoods, with many yearning for one another’s respect.
ing loose cigarettes; an
oicer wrestled him to
the ground by his neck.
His last words — “I can’t
breathe” — were cap-
tured on cellphone video
that rocketed across the
internet.
“I know those oicers
did not mean to kill Eric,”
says Perry, a 37-year-old
father of two who knew
Garner.
But, “you need to look
an oicer in the eye who
doesn’t understand and
go, ‘Brother, I want to get
home, too.’ They’re de-
fending these communi-
ties that they don’t know.”
As Americans strug-
gle with the highly pub-
licized deaths of black
men in encounters with
police in Minnesota,
Louisiana and across
the country, and now
the sniper killing of ive
Dallas oicers, Perry
and his fellow Staten
Islanders have the dubi-
“
town though it’s part of
the nation’s biggest city,
police and the policed
have had to coexist.
The events of recent
weeks have focused new
attention on the chasm
spect.
It’s not simple, though,
to change the way people
see each other.
“What we have to bear
in mind is that when a
particular culture has
been created, or when
people sense a certain
culture is operating, it
takes time in order to
change that culture,” says
the Rev. Victor Brown,
a pastor of one of the
larger African-Ameri-
can churches on Staten
Island’s North Shore.
Brown, a spiritual ad-
viser to Garner’s family
who criticized the grand
jury’s decision not to in-
dict the oicer involved,
serves as a part-time po-
lice chaplain.
The challenge was cap-
tured in a nationwide
poll last summer by the
Associated Press-NORC
Center for Public Afairs,
in which 81 percent of
black Americans said
police are too quick to
use deadly force, com-
pared with 33 percent of
whites. A third of blacks
said they trust police to
You need to look an oicer in the eye who
doesn’t understand and go, ‘Brother, I want to
get home, too.’ They’re defending these com-
munities that they don’t know
ous distinction of being
a step ahead. Since Gar-
ner’s death in July 2014,
they have confronted a
measure of the anger,
pain and alienation that
the nation now shares.
On this 58-square-mile
island that residents say
oten feels like a small
between police and mi-
norities, one of so many
divides in this conten-
tious election year. Years
of tension have let peo-
ple wary in both the po-
licing community and
in minority neighbor-
hoods, with many yearn-
ing for one another’s re-
work in the best interest
of the community, less
than half the percentage
of whites.
The voices of Staten
Islanders speak to atti-
tudes and experience
that are oten more com-
plicated than might be
relected in polling num-
bers.
Like the white retired
oicer who credits a
longtime black partner
for much of his success
in patrolling poor neigh-
borhoods, and worries
today’s cops are not
street-wise enough.
Or the black street ven-
dor who rails against po-
lice for Garner’s death,
but says oicers are
needed to clean up the
street where that death
occurred.
“I think the divide is
worse than it should be
and more than people
think it is,” says Joe Bran-
deine, a retired NYPD
detective who helped or-
ganize a 2014 pro-police
rally. “I believe there’s
truth in both sides, that
each side needs to see
each other in a little dif-
ferent light.”
On Staten Island, po-
lice-community relation-
ships have long been per-
sonal.
About 3,000 police of-
icers, scores of retired
cops and their families
live here, many in the
heavily white neighbor-
hoods on the southern
two-thirds of the island.
In those neighborhoods,
protests that followed
Garner’s death in July
2014 were met with “God
Bless the NYPD” yard
signs and pro-police ral-
lies. The tensions inten-
siied ater a grand jury
decided in late 2014 not
to indict the oicer for
Garner’s death.
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