Slope Cops Literally Tell Black Teenagers "Get Out of the Neighborhood."

Image via parkslopestoop.comCommanding Officer Capt. Frank DiGiacomo of the 78th Precinct told a Community Council meeting that "if [teens] are not playing basketball, you’re not playing soccer, you’re not doing something productive in the neighborhood, I can see [officers] moving them.” What the fuck? Last I checked, this was a free fucking country where being “productive” was not a prerequisite to walk around public streets. It’s also not a fucking crime. Of course, this only generally applies to black youth. Which should come as no surprise to anyone.

Some context: Park Slope resident Sara Bennett–who some dipshits would pejoratively label a “Social Justice Warrior”–witnessed two cop cars tailing a group of black kids on 9th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, telling them via loudspeakers to "get out of the neighborhood." She says there was about 4 or 5 kids, around the age of 16, just walking down the street. "I was really really upset and disturbed, not by the kids, but by the way the police were yelling at them to get out of the neighborhood," Bennet said to DiGiacomo and other officers at the Community Council meeting. At which point DiGiacomo explained the aforementioned “policy” about moving groups of teenagers out of the neighborhood.

My favorite detail in this story of horrible policing is DiGiacomo’s reasoning. Apparently some kids have caused trouble at the Atlantic Mall, after Barclay Center events. In one particular kerfuffle, two officers got kicked in the face. No one’s denying that’s wrong, anymore than the cops deny it’s wrong when an officer tackles a pregnant woman to the ground belly-first or use an illegal chokehold to kill a man selling cigarettes. However, when those officers are held up as examples of the entire police department, the cops freak the fuck out! They go on about how  #NOTALLCOPS are like that and it’s oh-so-fucked-up to judge an entire group by the actions of a few bad seeds. But when a couple of black teenagers kick two cops in the face, the cops adjust their policies to work under the assumption that #ALLBLACKTEENS are ne'er do wells who should be harassed out of neighborhoods they are legally allowed to walk in. What a fucking hypocrite.

Of particular interest is exactly how do they even fucking know those kids don’t live in the neighborhood? Actually, that’s not an interesting nor mysterious question. We all know the assumption is simply that BLACK KIDS COULD NOT POSSIBLY LIVE IN PARK SLOPE. This is what we’ve come to. Park Slope in 2014, home to the most educated, progressive, liberal city folks, is using the policing techniques of ignorant, backwater hick towns in the deep south during the heydey of Jim Crow laws. “Look at them there black folk, they don’t belong ‘round these parts, let’s move ‘em out!” Cue the Klan.

Welcome to the wonderful world of racial profiling and harassment of minorities! And if you don’t think that’s what it is, I really look forward to your stupid, backwards comments explaining how you’re not racist for defending this policy. I won’t have time or energy to respond to you individually, so here’s my collective response: