SSP101 Jason Chester
Professor Fitch5/11/09
Community Board Meeting
I walked into St. Benedicts RC church at seven in the evening. It was located at 171 -17 Brinkerhoff Ave in Jamaica, Queens. I sat in the back and watched the world of a community board meeting unfold before my eyes. It was the recreational area of the church. There was a stage; at end was a basketball hoop. The surrounding was monotone paint giving you a feeling of the area was bigger than it was. On the far end was a table with the nine officers. I did not know what the events were of this day. It turned out to be an election day. I was extremely surprised to see the community board meeting have the inspector of my local police department, with two sergeants, a lieutenant and several officers along with the detectives from the community affairs department. Most of the attendants from the neighborhood were older people. I didn’t see that many younger people or even middle aged. It appeared to me the people that attended were mostly there to show support and they were the regular attendees all year round. One officer told me “these people here are the ones who really care, they’re here every month and they stay after wards and chit chat as it is more of a social gathering. You usually see the rest of the neighborhood when there is a big problem and everyone wants to voice there complaints. Majority of these issues are involving drugs and gang activities. Crime however is down and our reports show were are doing well so far.”
The meeting ran about two hours. The first half hour spoke about the different programs the department is working on to have a more positive interaction with the community and the police. One event is the fifth annual NYPD talent show where cops perform various acts at the York College Theater. Another event is the Movie in the Park program where they will have Madagascar : Escape 2 Africa the movie playing in kings park located at 150th street and Jamaica avenue, on may 22 from 3pm to 9pm. The inspector spoke about crime being down. The statistics were rape was down twenty percent, grand larceny down eighteen percent, robbery and assault were down 29.5 percent. Then there are GLA( Gang related violence) down thirty one percent. Shootings were down eleven percent, and shooting victims were up four percent. He then took questions and listened to various complaints about the community. The people spoke up about traffic, they wanted more traffic officers available at different times of the day to ensure that their commute wouldn’t be prolonged by the occurring traffic blockage of pedestrian drivers. There was a major complaint about trucks driving up one ways, the drivers didn’t not want to go around the correct blocks to turn around their vehicles, they drove up a one way to have an easier time with their commute. The last complaint was mostly about graffiti. After complaints and questions they proceeded with the elections.
The elected officers consisted of President Donna Clopton, 1st vice president: Woodrow Washington, 2nd Vice President : Ola Hamilton, 3rd Vice president :Irving Hicks, Sgt at Arms John Miner, Recording Secretary Crystal Ervin, Correspondence Secretary Lois Ellis, Treasurer Gina Mendoza, Financial Secretary: Theodore Manigault, Education Chairperson : Edward Isaac. All members were reinstated for another two years because they were unopposed by anyone else interested in running.