De Blasio to NYPD: stop arrests for pot smoking | Manhattan Times
Mayor Bill de Blasio has ordered the New York Police Department (NYPD) to stop arresting New Yorkers who are caught smoking marijuana in public. On Sunday, the mayor informed the police to instead issue summonses for public marijuana smoking. “With marijuana legalization likely to occur in our state in the near future, it is critical […]
Summit on Latinos Returns | Manhattan Times
By Gregg McQueen The second summit is coming. There are 2.4 million Latinos in New York City, according to the city’s Department of City Planning (DCP). Next month, a conference focused on the needs and concerns of nearly a third of the city’s population is reconvening for a second year. The annual Summit on Latinos […]
Minorities targeted for pot arrests | Bronx Free Press
By Gregg McQueen New Yorkers of color are being targeted over whites for marijuana arrests, according to a police reform advocacy group. Citing statistics from the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services, the Police Reform Organizing Project (PROP) said that 93 percent of marijuana possession arrests in the first three months of this year involved […]
We Will Not Forget – A Tribute to Officer Miosotis Familia | Manhattan Times
By State Senator Marisol Alcántara When I learned of the tragic death of Officer Miosotis Familia, I was heartbroken. She was a woman who lived her entire life in service of others and in service of the community. She worked for the Red Cross, she worked as a nurse, and for 12 years, she protected […]
New York’s First Police Body Cameras Take to Streets in Upper Manhattan | NY Times
By ASHLEY SOUTHALL More than three years after a federal judge ruled that the Police Department’s stop-and-frisk tactics were unconstitutional and ordered New York City to test body cameras as a remedy, the first group of officers equipped with the devices went on patrol in Manhattan on Thursday. Years of litigation, and lengthy deliberations over […]
Law-Abiding but Illegal, and Fearing the New Trump Rules | NY Times
By JIM DWYER Delfin Polanco waits on Thursday morning for a lawyer to help him stay in the country where he raised his son and has lived for 22 years. Like about 40 others, he arrived by 5 a.m. in Lower Manhattan for a legal clinic offered for immigrants by Catholic Charities. It will be […]
In an Age of Cybercrime, Low-Tech Thieves Target Mailboxes | NY Times
By JIM DWYER The streets of Upper Manhattan were quiet, but a police officer saw two men standing in front of a blue mailbox at Broadway and Academy Street. It was around 1:30 a.m., Jan. 17. One of the men was holding a plastic bottle, which was tied to a string. While his partner stood […]
Uptown Today: Community Forum on Stop & Frisk
Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights (NMCIR) along with LatinoJustice PRLDEF will be conducting a community forum today, November 22nd, 2016 at 5:00 p.m. This community forum, which is part of the joint remedial process ordered by the Federal Court in Floyd v. City of New York, will assess the application of stop and frisk, […]
Man who killed Jose Martinez in 1986 Washington Heights shooting convicted of immigration fraud | NY Daily News
BY Shayna Jacobs The man who got away with murdering a Washington Heights father 30 years ago was convicted of immigration fraud in Miami on Wednesday. Admitted gunman Justo Santos had been accused of lying on his citizenship application — failing to disclose that he had been connected to the 1986 murder of Jose Martinez […]
Video: Copwatch Patrol Unit Films Undercover Cops Harassing 2 Young Girls Uptown
BY Led Black (@Led_Black) Smartphones have changed the world. The ability to record events as they happen can mean the difference between life and death and crime and punishment. This past Thursday, May 14th, Michael Barber of the Copwatch Patrol Unit was on hand to capture 2 undercover cops behaving in a manner that was less […]
Washington Heights Little League honors fallen officers | NY Post
By Mike Vaccaro Maybe you have to be old enough to remember what Washington Heights was like in those years, when crack was rampant, when the dealers seemed to grow more bold and more brazen by the day. Maybe that best illustrates what happens in that neighborhood now, the small miracle that arrives every spring. […]
Inwood Hill Park to Get GPS Locators and New Signs to Increase Safety | DNAinfo
By Lindsay Armstrong INWOOD — The Parks Department will install signs and GPS locators at 16 landmarks throughout Inwood Hill Park in the hopes of making the greenspace safer and more user-friendly. The park contains the largest forest area in Manhattan as well as one of the borough’s few remaining natural salt marshes, attracting bird […]
Time Travel Tuesdays: Angered by Police Killing, a Neighborhood Erupts | NY Times
By JAMES DAO Published: July 7, 1992 A neighborhood’s simmering anger over the fatal shooting of a Washington Heights man by a police officer boiled over last night as scores of people rampaged through a 40-square-block area. One man died in the violence and at least 15 people were reported injured, as people overturned cars, […]
Inwood Model Fighting for Justice in Father’s Killing, 28 Years Later | New York Observer
By Jordyn Taylor Seated at a Irish cop bar in Washington Heights the other afternoon, Joselyn Martinez could use a glass of wine. She slowly rubbed her neck and shoulders, which were stiff and painful from stressing over her father’s case. The stress wasn’t for naught; despite her father’s alleged killer finally having been arrested […]
No Murder Trial for Man Charged in a 1986 Killing | NY Times
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr. A Miami man who admitted killing a restaurant owner in Upper Manhattan 28 years ago walked out of court a free man on Thursday, after a judge dismissed a murder charge against him because his right to a speedy trial had been violated. The judge, Justice Robert M. Stolz of […]
The NYPD’s Own Statistics Reveal a Troubling Trend in the NYPD’s Marijuana Enforcement | Mic
By Tom McKay The news: In New York City, whether or not you get arrested for marijuana possession has a lot to do with whether you’re black or Latino. New arrest record data from the New York state criminal justice system compiled by the Drug Policy Alliance paints a disturbing picture of racial bias in […]
Googling Her Father’s Killer | Newsweek
By Victoria Bekiempis Jose Martinez had a good life in the Dominican Republic. He taught children to swim at the Embajador, a Santo Domingo hotel popular among diplomats, and enjoyed the benefits of working for the rich and powerful. When Martinez decided to move to the U.S. in the late 1960s, his connections could have […]
Op-Led: Pain Is Compliance – NYPD’s Guiding Principle In The Hood
BY Led Black (@Led_Black) It is just me or does it seem that the whole “Broken Windows” thing is just a fancy way of saying “Stop And Frisk”? The recent gang-like takedown by police, of an alleged drug dealer in Inwood that was caught on smartphone video, underscores the rank amateurism and selective enforcement of […]
NYPD Reviewing Police Beating of Alleged Inwood Drug Dealer, Officials Say | DNAinfo
By Lindsay Armstrong INWOOD — The videotaped arrest of an alleged drug dealer, showing several police officers beating the man with fists and batons, is now under internal review by the NYPD, authorities said. Police arrested Francisco Caminero, 23, on Sunday, Aug. 10, after officers said they saw him sell cocaine in front of 148 […]
Video: Cops Gone Wild – Police Beat Young Man Uptown
BY Led Black (@Led_Black) The smartphone video, which has since been removed, captured the near melee that went down on Sunday, August 10th on Sherman Ave when police manhandled an alleged drug dealer in broad daylight and almost caused a riot. The police allege that Francisco Guzman, 23, had been observed taking part in a […]
At Unusual Hearing, Daughter Recounts 25-Year Quest to Catch Father’s Killer | NY Times
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr. Thanksgivings were the worst. Every year, when the family gathered, Joselyn Martinez would be reminded of her father’s death, how he had been gunned down in Upper Manhattan in November 1986. Every year, she would redouble her online searches, scouring websites for information about the man the police had said […]
Time Travel Tuesdays: Life and Death in the Three-Four Precinct | NY Times
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL Published: April 16, 1990 Detective Sgt. Andrew Eanniello had spent the afternoon cruising the double-parked streets of Washington Heights, looking for a man and a woman suspected of robbing and killing two drug sellers. Back in the squad, he hung up his suit jacket, and the radio squawked to life: ”Man shot, […]
Time Travel Tuesdays: Lovely Woods, Full of Menace And a Body | NY Times
By ALAN FEUER Published: May 28, 2004 There is an old legend that a giant tulip tree once stood on the spot in Inwood Hill Park where the white man bought Manhattan from the natives. You could say that it marked the place where a deal was struck to turn wilderness into metropolis. The tree […]
Time Travel Tuesdays: Tension In Washington Heights – Events Don’t Surprise Dominican Residents | New York Times
By DAVID GONZALEZ Published: July 8, 1992 “The glass is full and it has started to spill,” said Manuel Viera, citing a Dominican saying as he reflected on the anger and violence that have erupted in his community since Jose Garcia was shot to death by a plainclothes police officer on Friday night. “All this […]
