Controversy in Policing Covid-19 Preventive Measures
The Covid-19 pandemic has spread from its capital Wuhan, China, crippling different systems across the globe. In measures to control the spread of the virus, different cities and states have required people to adhere to certain regulations such as maintaining social distancing and wearing masks. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo of the New York imposed a stringent measure, requiring people to wear face coverings or masks where social distancing was not possible, especially in public places. The effect would take effect where residents would be unable to keep a distance of 6 feet from each other. Wearing of face coverings shall introduce a mutual and civic obligation in the future.
Local governments have a mandate of enforcing the measures through the New York Police Department. The police have a mandate of ensuring each member of the public wears a mask or a face covering where possible. According to a post in the New York Times, anyone who lacked masks would be ejected from public transit. The governor reinstated that the state would issue civil penalties to individuals who fail to follow the set regulations.
However, there is a controversy involving the NYPD police in regards to the enforcement of the measures to curb the spread of the corona virus. There have been acts of racial segregation towards the enforcement of wearing of masks and social distancing (Louis and Maria, 2020). Residents claim that the police officers have been unfairly targeting black people and Latinos in the recent arrests of citizens who fail to abide to the set measure, especially social distancing and wearing of masks. Community groups and some elected leaders claim that some of the arrest videos illustrate racial segregation for social distancing, particularly when the police conduct stop and frisk processes. According to the mayor, the acts on the videos were disheartening and those involved in the misconduct would be held accountable if found guilty.
Public defenders and elected leaders have called out the governor to curtail the police department in their role of enforcing rules against people standing close to each other and large mass gatherings. In the videos, the police officers handled white people softly by giving those masks and when it came to the black and Hispanic people in their neighborhoods, they used force to arrest the violator of the measures. The calls to curb the rogue police have tremendously grown after the police released data on arrests and summons in the past week showing that over 90% of the people arrested because of violating the pandemic measures were black or Hispanic. The state attorney reinstates that the disparities raised a lot of mistrust among the forces and could further increase the divide between the police and the people. Opinions from black neighborhood was that it was wrong for police to aggressively attack people from one group when committing mistakes, yet when another group does the same they aren’t convicted.
A number of elected officials, community leaders and public defender groups have requested information on social-distancing from the NYPD that includes the breakdown of individual arrests such as age and race (Spectrum News Staff, 2020). The police commissioner has so far shown discontent among some officers. Moreover, 20 percent of the officer were out sick due to the corona pandemic and those who remained on duty were expected to act according to the code of conduct among the police. According to the mayor, what happened with the stop and frisk checks was unconstitutional and oppressive in nature and had created a larger problem in the society than it was thought to solve (Ashley, 2020). He reinstated that the police department would need to be part of the safety of the New Yorkers other than introducing a higher division between the people and the police.
Black elected officials claim that the police targeted black poor neighborhoods and the presence of marijuana odor in the neighborhoods was used to justify the arrests. They reinstated that the arrests were unfair and would be a toxic combination when combining the arrests with hunger and lack of employment especially in the black poor neighborhoods (Poppy, 2020). The officials claim that the era of aggressive policing and enforcement was a revived in the name of social distancing.
The city mayor, Bill de Blasio has recently announced that police officers will no longer enforce force covering regulations. The city is deploying 2200 ambassadors whose mandate shall be ensuring social distancing is practiced by monitoring crowds, the pilot is to be effected in crowds within public parks. Police should now monitor and control movement of people especially in parks and other crowded public spaces. According to the mayor, the police shall disperse groups of up to six adults and shall not arrest anyone without a face covering unless there is a serious danger to the public. The local government wants to create a good impression and avoid reviving the mistakes of the past (Josiah, 2020). On a memo sent to the police department stated that it would initiate a backtrack strategy, in the future enforcements police would not summon or make arrests acts related to face coverings, and violations of other guidelines related to the curbing of Covid-19. This comes after an outcry of community leaders and elected officials on behalf of the public claiming that the arrests upon violation of the laws was inclined to certain racial groups (The Associated Press, 2020).
The new enforcement guidelines were made in consultation with the police commissioner, the mayor, elected officials and community leaders. The outcome of the new strategy shall create a positive impression among the different groups of New York. Additionally, the division between the police and the blacks shall reduce during the pandemic times.
References
Ashley Southall. (2020). N.Y.C. Commissioner Denies Racial Bias in Social Distancing Policing. Retrieved 16 May 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/nyregion/nypd-social-distancing-race-coronavirus.html
Josiah Bates. (2020) NYPD Will Scale Back on Social Distancing Enforcement. (2020). Retrieved 16 May 2020, from https://time.com/5837596/new-york-mayor-announces-nypd-will-scale-back-social-distancing-enforcement/
Luis Ferré-Sadurní and Maria. 2020. Cramer New York Orders Residents to Wear Masks in Public. Retrieved 16 May 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/15/nyregion/coronavirus-face-masks-andrew-cuomo.html
Poppy Noor. (2020). A tale of two cities: how New York police enforce social distancing by the color of your skin. (2020). Retrieved 16 May 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/04/coronavirus-new-york-police-enforce-social-distancing
Spectrum News Staff. (2020). NYPD Will No Longer Enforce Face Coverings. Retrieved 16 May 2020, from https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2020/05/15/nypd-social-distancing-pilot-program-in-parks-begins-this-weekend
The Associated Press. (2020). New York City to change social-distance policing after outcry. (2020). Retrieved 16 May 2020, from https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/05/10/new-york-city-to-change-social-distance-policing-after-outcry/