Dinkins Denounces Police Protest As Furthering an Image of Racism
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr
Published: September 18, 1992
Mayor David N. Dinkins openly criticized the New York City police union and some of its members yesterday, arguing in an emotional appearance that their rowdy demonstration at City Hall on Wednesday showed why minority communities lack confidence in some officers.
Using his lead-off role at a City Council hearing, he said the demonstration proved the need for an independent, all-civilian agency to investigate police misconduct.
He asserted that some of the 10,000 protesters at the rally outside City Hall, besides damaging property and blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge for nearly an hour, had used racial slurs, demonstrating why an independent agency was needed to restore confidence that complaints against rude or abusive officers would be investigated.
"Some of them out there yesterday who were calling out 'nigger,' for instance," Mr. Dinkins said. "Why would the people in our communities have the confidence in them, that they would have the sensitivity to handle a tense situation in the minority community?" he asked.
Mr. Dinkins's remarks came during a dramatic daylong hearing in which the city's political leadership debated whether there should be such an all-civilian board to review complaints against the police. The details of Mr. Dinkins's bill to change the Civilian Complaint Review Board quickly became drowned out by a much larger debate about racism on the police force and by the growing personal feud between the Mayor and the president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, Phil Caruso. Politically, Gloves Come Off
The hearing became a forum for several black and Hispanic Council members to vent strong views about the chasm of distrust they perceived between officers and the people they protect in some neighborhoods.
For Mr. Dinkins, his appearance marked a new phase in his strained relationship with the city's police force. After several attempts in the past week to quell widespread anger among officers over his handling of the Washington Heights disturbance and other issues, he took a stern new tack, taking off the gloves politically. Unusually feisty, he even seemed to relish the confrontation.
The Mayor said his source for the slurs was a Jimmy Breslin column in yesterday's Newsday. Five New York Times reporters who covered the demonstration did not hear racial slurs. A Council member, Una Clarke of Brooklyn, said she was called a "nigger" as she tried to get into City Hall by a man in a police uniform who was not wearing a badge.
Mr. Breslin said yesterday that the remarks were made to him by a group of demonstrating police officers during the rally in front of City Hall. One sign carried by a protester said: "Dinkins, we know your true color -- yellowbellied."
A Channel 2 cameraman, John Haygood, said that some protesters who yelled at him had used the word "nigger."
Mr. Dinkins said it was nonsense to call him "anti-cop," saying he had strengthened the force. But the Mayor suggested at the hearing that the behavior at the rally reflected why there were strains and misunderstandings between some police officers and residents of minority communities. Incidents between police officers and citizens, like complaints of racial slurs and excessive force, are what the board investigates. 'Lack of Confidence'
"That behavior has everything to do with the confidence, or lack of confidence, in the police department," Mr. Dinkins said.
But in more than three hours of testimony, Mr. Dinkins argued that most people did not trust the review board to find out the truth, and that this perception crippled the board's effectiveness, especially in the eyes of black and Hispanic people.
"If the perception exists that there not fair treatment, then believe me it will not work," he said. "I wish I could get more people to understand the depth of feeling of some of us that the present system is not working."
The current board has six civilian members from the department and six outside members appointed by the Mayor. More than half its investigators are police officers and all are Police Department employees. The Mayor's bill would create a separate agency with 13 board members appointed by the Mayor, an all-civilian staff and subpoena powers. 'Certain Radical Elements'
Shortly after Mr. Dinkins testified, Mr. Caruso told the committee the police did not believe civilians appointed for political reasons could fairly judge an officer's actions. He asserted that in the Mayor's planned all-civilian board, "political patronage is doled out to mollify certain radical elements of the community."
"Nowhere does the bill say that the people who sit in judgment would have to be competent and have expertise and experience in what a police officer has to go through to enforce the law," he said.
Without apologizing for the protest, Mr. Caruso said the raucous behavior of about 4,000 officers among the 10,000 protesters the previous day was "a human reaction" and that police "feel like pawns in a very complex game of political chess."
He asserted that officers regarded the review board as a tool that criminals use to harass the police by making phony claims when they are arrested. "There is nothing more humiliating or demoralizing to a police officer than in the pressures of making an arrest, they then have to answer to charges made by the person they arrested," he said. Mistaken for Criminals
The debate took on a decidedly racial tone yesterday as many Council members got into yelling matches with Mr. Caruso. Several black and Hispanic members told of being mistaken for criminals by the police and lambasted Mr. Caruso for what they said was the pervasive insensitivity of police officers to black and Hispanic residents.
"You say walk one hour in a policeman's shoes," Wendell Foster of the Bronx yelled at Mr. Caruso. "I dare you to walk one hour in a black man's shoes in New York City."
Councilwoman Annette M. Robinson of Brooklyn said the review board was essential because young black men in her community were constantly harassed by the police and assumed to be criminals. "We continue to see a white male dominated society that unfortunately does not give people of color in the society an opportunity to be productive," she said, adding, "It's like the police are above the law."
Some Council members who are skeptical of the proposed changes questioned Mr. Dinkins closely about what proof he had that the current system had failed. Doubts About Board's Speed
Other members suggested that giving the board subpoena powers and all-civilian investigators would slow investigations rather than expedite them. Critics of the current system, including the Mayor, say that only a small fraction of the 4,000 complaints each year are substantiated and that many take months to resolve.
But supporters of the measure contended the general mistrust of the current board and the slow response encouraged people not to file complaints. "The victims are reluctant to report activity because they feel they are not going to be responded to," C. Virginia Fields, a Harlem Councilwoman, said.
Councilwoman Ronnie M. Eldridge said: "We're political people. "We know that very frequently we don't even deal with reality. We deal with perception."
Guillermo Linares, a Dominican lawmaker from Washington Heights, recounted how 20 years ago he was called a "spic" and thrown in jail for a night after a false arrest.
"I actually feel there is a time bomb in New York City," he said. "I have experienced it personally."
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