The same mayor in charge of the city when Eric Garner, a black man, was killed by cops who said he was illegally selling cigarettes is the same mayor at the helm as police lock up black and Hispanic people disproportionately for violating social distancing rules.
Make no mistake.
Because as much as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to pretend these arrests are just a drop in the bucket, from the point of view of those being constantly dropped in the bucket, the city's heavy-handed coronavirus crackdown is just more of the same.
Same profiling. Same brutality. Same disrespect.
After police officials confessed that a shocking _ OK, not so shocking _ 304 of 374 people, or 81%, who received summonses in the city for violating social distancing guidelines were black or Hispanic, de Blasio laughably managed to use the words "NYPD" and "restraint" in the same sentence. Of the 120 arrested across the city for the same violation, 68% were black, 24% were Hispanic and 7% were white.
"There's been a huge amount of restraint by the NYPD," de Blasio said at a news conference, reminding us that there are 8.6 million people in New York. "That's just factually obvious from the numbers."
What was also factually obvious was the vicious beatdown suffered by an innocent bystander two weeks ago when a social distancing arrest in the East Village predictably turned into a marijuana bust.
Donni Wright, who was observing the arrest from a safe social distance, was hospitalized after Police Officer Francisco Garcia slapped and punched him when he didn't back away fast enough. Garcia knocked Wright to the ground and used his knee to pin Wright's head to the pavement.
The incident was caught on camera, and instantly went viral.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said he was "appalled" _ over the incident and de Blasio's definition of restraint.
"It was disrespectful of the experience of these communities, which is not new," Williams said. "This was an experience he ran for mayor on, saying things were going to change. There has been some positive movement. But we are not as far as we think we are."
Coronavirus has not discriminated. It has killed and crushed people all over the world, from every socioeconomic group. The same disease that put a health care worker on her back in Queens put the prime minister of the United Kingdom out of commission for nearly a month.
But policies discriminate. People discriminate. How else do we explain why the disease has infected and killed black and Hispanic people in New York and across the country at a disproportionately high rate?
Black New Yorkers comprise 28% of deaths in New York City and 18% of deaths in New York state, despite being 22% and 9% of the population, respectively, Gov. Cuomo said last month.
"The same communities that were getting failed are the same communities that are now getting over policed," Williams said. "We have to continue to reapproach what public safety is. If we use policing it has to happen in an equitable manner, and that has not happened."
.png?w=600)
