NYPD targets project perps
By ANTONIO ANTENUCCI
With REUTERS
Last Updated: 3:52 AM, July 5, 2012
Posted: 1:54 AM, July 5, 2012
Why do cops stop and frisk suspects in the projects? Because that’s where the crime is.
A new review of more than 3 million NYPD stops from 2006 through 2011 found that cops overwhelmingly target neighborhoods that are home to public housing — where one in five city murders took place last year.
The Reuters analysis revealed that cops stopped people in those areas at a rate more than three times higher than elsewhere last year, with more than half of the searches taking place in public-housing stairwells, lobbies and corridors.
The findings come in the wake of two stunning New York appeals court decisions that tossed the convictions of teens found carrying loaded guns after being stopped and frisked in high-crime areas.
The most recent case involved Jaquan Morant of The Bronx, who was just 14 when he was caught toting a 9mm pistol outside the drug-plagued Manhattanville Houses in West Harlem two years ago.
The cop who made that arrest, Mourad Arslanbeck, couldn’t be reached yesterday, but colleagues expressed outrage at the ruling.
“What do they want? Do they want the ’90s back? Crime is increasing,” one cop said.
Public-housing regulations are enforced by the NYPD. Among the almost 600,000 stops police made in or around city housing in the past six years, more were based on suspicion of trespassing than any other suspected crime, according to the Reuters analysis.
NYPD Deputy Housing Police Inspector Vincent Patti, who oversees 42 of the city’s most violent housing complexes, said cops have good reasons for the stops they make, often finding that someone acting suspiciously has open arrest warrants.
Although critics contend that stop-and-frisk is racially biased, nearly all rank-and-file cops brush aside those claims.
“It’s not a black thing,” said a young black cop who has patrolled the Brownsville section of Brooklyn for two years.
“Every single day our lives are in danger. Everybody out here is in danger.”
‘High-rise’ crime
The following figures show how crime in housing projects figures into the city’s overall stats:
Murders: 1 in 5
Shootings: 1 in 5
Reported rapes: 1 in 9
Guns Seizures: 1 in 4