A Little Relief in Life Without Police

Photo by André Gustavo Stumpf (CC BY 2.0)

Young black men in Bedford-Stuyvesant, “a historically black neighborhood of high-rise public housing, low-rent houses, and expanding pockets of gentrification,” have felt the effect of the NYPD’s “slowdown” protest against Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The Marshall Project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news operation covering America’s criminal justice system, reports:

“This is how it’s supposed to be,” [27-year-old Charles Franklin] says, referring to the “quiet” he’s been sensing, the “lower volume” of cops he’s been seeing on local corners. “I’m not talking about guys getting away with nothing, I’m talking about feeling safe. The police driving up on us, because of some hearsay, and jumping out, that don’t make us feel safe. The police smelling every drink I drink, looking in my bag every time I come out the store, that don’t make me feel safe.”

“This is how it’s supposed to be,” he reiterates. “We feel safe. And for once, we’re not running late – usually we always be running late because of having been hassled.”