Watchdog: Majority of NYPD misconduct complaints involve minority youths
The agency in charge of managing community complaints about New York City police officers has revealed that nearly two-thirds of complaints stem from incidents involving black or Hispanic youths.
A report from the city's Civilian Complaint Review Board, which receives complaints from city residents about police conduct, found that young boys of color in the city were the most likely to be involved in incidents later reported to the agency, The Associated Press reported.
In one case, according to the board, a group of 8- to 14-year-old Hispanic and black boys were stopped and frisked by officers who said that they mistook the children for Hispanic men in their 20s, who were wanted for "chasing and fighting" each other with a machete.
That complaint led to a recommendation for discipline, as the board found that the officers “did not have reasonable suspicion to believe any of the boys were armed when they were frisked," according to the AP. Officers also reportedly gave “inconsistent statements about what the children were doing before they were stopped."
“A top priority Commissioner [Dermot] Shea has set for the NYPD is to reimagine doing all we can to protect and serve New York City’s kids," the NYPD responded in a statement. "After careful review, we accept each of the CCRB’s thoughtful and constructive recommendations — some of which are already in the process of being implemented and all of which will strengthen our new Youth Strategy.”
NYPD officers have faced criticism in recent days for their response to protests in the city over the death of George Floyd, a Minneapolis man who died after an officer knelt on his neck for nearly 9 minutes during an arrest.
Video of protests in Brooklyn showed officers appearing to ram a crowd of demonstrators with a police cruiser in an incident that is now under investigation.
"I've seen those videos and those videos are truly disturbing," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said of videos of police and protesters at a news conference. "Some of the videos, frankly, are inexplicable to me."
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