We all heard the "controversy" surrounding the behavior of a handful of NYPD officers who, upon invitation, started "dirty dancing" with some of the barely dressed parade dancers. For those of you who have not been hit with this report and who are familiar with the West Indies Pride Day Parade in Brooklyn, here it is in brief form.
The West Indies Pride Day Parade is an annual end of summer event which takes place on a Sunday afternoon on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The parade is a celebration many cultures and the diversity of the core community of this Brooklyn neighborhood. A main and understandably popular feature in the parade are the women of all ages dressed in colorful and provocative costumes represent the island of their origin. To keep the peace and control the crowd, NYPD officers are stationed along the route. During this years parade, some of the dancers approached and "flirted" with a group of officers. A few of these officers, caught up in the spirit of the festival, started playfully bumping and grinding (without touching them) with a few of the women to the delight of the crowd. The woman passed, the officers returned to their posts and the parade continued. A few days later, the "scandal" was all over the Daily news and Post with Police Commissioner, Raymond Kelly being asked to weigh in on the "issue". Two weeks have passed and we are still hearing about this incident. Why?
The way I see it, these officers were doing some positive PR work for an embattled organization which has very little respect or support from this community. Sure, they were there to protect the public. But, they cannot protect a public that does not trust them. That short interaction, although a bit lude, was totally harmless and broke down a wall in the minds of many young festival revelers. Those officers, for a moment, identified with and celebrated a community which sees them as the enemy. I live in this neighborhood and I see the fear and distain the citizens have for the police. It was the irresponsibility of the person who pushed this item to the front page that took a positive and made it a negative. Especially the younger people in the neighborhood, who may have laughed and seen the officers as humans rather than monsters, were suddenly told that it was "wrong" and "dirty". The police were the bad guy again. Also, the controversy sends the message that the NYPD and the community are not equal and are forbidden to interact even in the spirit of community and pride. Is this the message that the NYPD want to send? In reading the responses of Ray Kelly, he seems to try to defuse the situation and try to make it go away. This tells me that he is not the one making an issue of the event. Whoever it is, they are misguided and seems to want to feed the flames of hatred toward the NYPD.
Believe me, I have my own beef with the NYPD, but I still believe that they are not all bad and it is about 1 in 10 who should not be on the force. In a city as large as NYC with it's 5 boroughs, this is a pretty large number, but if we see all of them as adversaries, what are we going to do when we actually need protection. I know if it were not for a member of the NYPD, I would be only a name etched in the granite down at Ground Zero. On the flip side, if it were not for the sloppy, lazy work of two NYPD detectives, I would not have spent four months of my life on Riker's Island...More news at 10.
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