THE URBAN AGENDA

By David R. Jones, Esq

Mr. Mayor: Stop NYPD Profiling of Youth of Color

The three years of the coronavirus pandemic’s acute stage of peaks and surges left a trail of fear and deaths, joblessness, rising apartment rents, soaring food prices, vacant office buildings and growing interest rates.

The pandemic also left in its wake an increase in the number of New Yorkers, ages 18-24 years old, who are “out-of-school and out-of-work.”

A new report by JobsFirstNYC and my organization, the Community Service Society of New York, estimates there are about 138,000 outof-school, out-of-work young people who are disconnected from daily life, which leaves them at risk for poverty, mental health problems, substance abuse and chronic health conditions. Without even a high school diploma, they are all but guaranteed a life below the poverty line and few skills to improve their economic station.

These NYC youth need training and jobs that, under ideal circumstances, match their skills and interests. Violence disruptors and other intervention programs are great, but nothing is more effective at keeping young people out of trouble and on a pathway to economic mobility than having a job, money in their pocket, and hope for the future.

Detention Center, a onetime rite of passage for many Black and Latino youth. In Adams and Caban, the NYPD’s first Latino commissioner, the NYPD is under the command of New Yorkers who know first-hand the dangers of rogue police behavior. By controlling the levers of police power, they are empowered to break the decades-long cycle of abusive NYPD practices, while still providing tough police protection for working-class neighborhoods.

By TANDY LAU

Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

Wayne Morgan made a name for himself by backpedaling. But the former star cornerback now works on the front foot, preparing the next generation for a life in—and after—football. He started up Lights Out Performance pre-pandemic with the intention of getting youngsters in shape while developing skills off the field.

From Brownsville, Morgan was on the fast-track to a glittering career on the gridiron. A four-star recruit out of Erasmus Hall High School, he committed to Syracuse University in 2012 with eyes on the NFL.

But after Morgan’s freshman year, thenhead coach Doug Marrone left for a job with the Buffalo Bills. He ended up playing under three different head coaches throughout his college career and was snake-bitten by a pair of knee surgeries. Still, his raw talent was enough for NFL teams to extend a training camp invite, although he never landed on a 53-man roster. Ultimately, he ended up back in Brownsville.

“So I decided to start Lights Out Performance Training in 2019 and my first year was a learning experience but we actu - ally did really well,” said Morgan. “I was super confident going into year two, but then COVID struck. So I reverted to online training just so I can keep up with all my clients. I was doing it for free throughout the whole pandemic.”

But things are looking up for him these days. Morgan says this is the best year yet for his venture and hopes to expand into his own facility by the time 2024 rolls around. Beyond the drills, he’s assisting his mentees with picking high schools and showing them a plan B if they don’t make the NFL.

“What I’m trying to do is teach kids that you can still be around the sport,” he said. “You can still be an agent. You can work your way in and become a coach. You can still work your way in being a trainer [or] learn about the body [and] do sports medicine. What I’m going for now is teaching them entrepreneurship, how to be a leader in the community to build up the community.”

Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member and writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1

This matters because youth are at a heightened risk to encounter the New York City Police Department’s Neighborhood Safety Teams officers, who a federal monitor this summer found were stopping, frisking and searching innocent Blacks and Latinos. An earlier New York Civil Liberties Union report found that 88 percent of the drivers arrested in 2022 by the NYPD during traffic stops were also Black and Latino.

No one is saying the NYPD should stop enforcing the laws. But let’s not return to the Giuliani era of stop-and-frisk and racial profiling. The decade discussion of these abuses goes to show the NYPD is hard-headed or only knows how to wield an indiscriminate unconstitutional hammer.

The federal monitor, Mylan Denerstein, audited stops by the NYPD’s Neighborhood Safety Teams for six months in 2022 and concluded a quarter of the stops were unlawful. She called for more extensive oversight and “corrective action immediately.” Her report follows whole cloth the 2013 ruling of federal Judge Shira A. Scheindlin, who found the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk tactics violated the constitutional rights of minorities.

Mayor Eric Adams and new Police Commissioner Edward Caban – both New York City natives and men of color experienced in patrolling the five boroughs – know the peril aggressive policing places on people, especially young Black and brown men.

In his two-decade police career, Adams spoke out against police brutality, and, later, the department’s stop-and-frisk tactics. In fact, Adams at age 15 spent a night in Spofford Juvenile

They both came of age during the NYPD’s aggressive “broken windows” policing campaign of surging cops into neighborhoods experiencing crime spikes, which in turn tended to be areas with high levels of poverty, unemployment, and social problems. Consequently, Adams and Caban witnessed the costs and benefits of the broken windows strategy, which is based on social disorganization theory, a large body of research that draws a direct line between unemployment, disrupted community patterns, disconnected youth, crime and excessive police encounters. Having steady work addresses the root causes of crime, which is often times driven by poverty and unemployment. During the Great Recession, the number of Americans under age 25 that were neither educated, employed or in job-training reached as high as 15 percent in the first quarter of 2011, according to the Pew Research Center.

To his credit, since taking office Mayor Adams has budgeted record levels of summer youth employment opportunities for young people ages 14 to 24. Research shows summer jobs save lives, cut crime, and strengthen communities. A 2021 study found that NYC Summer Youth Employment Program participation lowers participants’ chances of being arrested by 17 percent and the chance of felony arrest by 23 percent.

And we applaud the mayor’s announcement this week of a “Gun Violence Prevention Task Force Blueprint” featuring $485 million in investments aimed at curbing gun violence in high needs communities while stirring young people into better housing, employment opportunities and support services.

The mayor’s “Blueprint” mirrors some of the recommendations in our report, including creating integrated services across education and youth development agencies. Other report recommendations include permanently expanding the EITC to earners 18-24; increasing the minimum wage; strengthening wage equity policies for young adults workers; and, prioritizing support programs and investment in communities with high and rising rates of out-of-school, out-of-work youth.

By providing our young people with greater opportunities and the support they need, we can help them build a brighter future for themselves and a safer city for everyone.