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Dear Friends:
PROP just released its 5th court monitoring report, "We Harm People Everyday", that documents the NYPD's continuing abusive & discriminatory practices. Here is a summary of the report's most significant findings:
From March 18th, 2016 through June 21st, 2016, PROP recorded information on 423 cases presented in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Queens arraignments parts.
Of the 423 cases seen, 378, or 89.4%, of defendants were people of color.
Of the 423 outcomes recorded, 389, or 92%, of defendants walked out of the courtroom.
Of the 225 cases that PROP was able to time, the average amount of time that the court spent on each case was approximately 1 minute, 35 seconds. The shortest case lasted 13 seconds.
Here's a summary of the findings from all 5 of PROP's court monitoring reports:
From June 3, 2014 through June 21, 2016 PROP recorded information on 2,303 cases presented in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Queens criminal courts.Here is a summary of the findings of PROP’s five court monitoring reports:
Of the total 2,303 cases seen, 2,080, or 90.3%, involved New Yorkers of color.
As stated in "We Harm People Everyday"s introduction: “On a regular basis, New York’s district attorneys aggressively prosecute cases against black and brown people for engaging in mainly innocent or innocuous activities. On a regular basis, our city’s courts devote their considerable resources to the administration of injustice, applying sanctions in hundreds, if not thousands, of cases where the charges involve, at worst, petty infractions and where the defendants are almost always people of color, some of whom live on the margins of society.”
We call the report "We Harm People Everyday" because of our conversation with an assistant DA who reached out to PROP to share his/her concerns -- anonymously -- about the injustices that he/she sees & encounters inside the system. As we recount in the report's prologue, among other things, he/she told us that:
** "Cops lie all the time" to substantiate the charges that they bring against defendants.
** The NYPD conducts undercover marijuana buy & bust operations only in neighborhoods of color.
** "We harm people everyday. Everyday."
Please feel free to contact us if you have questions or comments about this report (here are links to good articles by The Gothamist and The Daily News about the document) or about any aspect of our court monitoring work. If you are interested in helping us with this important effort, don't hesitate to contact Thomas Juliano at Thomas.F.Juliano@hotmail.com. As always, thank you for your interest & support.
Onward,
Robert Gangi
Director
Police Reform Organizing Project
Cell: 917-327-7648
bgangi@propnyc.org
Thomas Juliano
Project Associate
Police Reform Organizing Project
Cell: 347-308-3117
Thomas.F.Juliano@hotmail.com
Maesha Meto
Project Coordinator
Police Reform Organizing Project
Cell: 347-698-0599
PROP recently received its tax exempt status from the IRS. You may donate directly by PayPal or make out a check to Police Reform Organizing Project and send it to:
168 West 86th St. #4B
NYC, NY 10024
Copyright © 2016 Police Reform Organizing Project, All rights reserved.
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Vincent AmatoJackson Heights, NY