NEW YORK CITY, NY - As reported in the New York Post, City Council members who are pushing soft-on-crime policies now want to delete the New York Police Department's (NYPD) gang database, even though data indicates that there has been a surge in gang-affiliated illegal immigrants relocating to the city.
The database has been operational for over 10 years and contains thousands of entries and intelligence, including distinctive tattoos that many different gangs use as identifiers. Law enforcement considers this database to be a vital crime-fighting tool that the NYPD uses in the war against criminal groups and street gangs.
According to the Post, left wing city politicians "contend that the secret database demonizes minorities" and are trying for the second time to push for legislation that will nix the database. South Bronx Council Member Athea Stevens re-introduced legislation from 2022 by her East Village comrade Council Woman Carlina Rivera, whose bill died in committee.
Stevens alleged that the database "subjects black and brown youth to unclear criteria and sweeps up too many innocent people," adding, "I have seen the need to avoid labeling young people and the additional stigmas that come with these labels." Law enforcement experts and the NYPD disagree, saying the legislation is misguided.
John Jay College of Criminal Justice Professor Michael Alcazar, also a retired NYPD detective said, "It's more invaluable than before. Now we have all these migrants ... You don't have birth certificates, passports, so now we have to really use the database to gather information: their photographs, tattoos, their scars, their gang affiliation."
He said that the legislation is "taking a page from the same book" that brough the city bail reform. He added, "They [City Council] believe that certain segments of the population are being targeted by these databases. It is targeting the criminal population."
Retired NYPD sergeant Joseph Giacalone, a colleague of Alcazar, agreed saying, "As New York City police officers are targeted by the recently immigrated Venezuelan gang members, certain members of the City Council are still pushing to remove the gang database. Let that sink in folks. They would rather see cops shot in the street and New Yorkers robbed at alarming rates than to use common sense."
Giacalone was referring to a 19-year-old Venezuelan illegal immigrant accused of wounding two NYPD officers during a pursuit on a Queens street back in June. Prosecutors said that Bernardo Raul Castro Mata, who admitted to being a member of the notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, fired at one cop's chest at "point-blank range."
Retired NYPD Lt. John Macari said, "I don't know what planet the New York City Council is on. We have gang members coming to the United States to commit crimes. You couldn't have picked a worse time to continue to push through this anti-police, pro-criminal legislation."
The NYPD said that calls to abolish the department's Criminal Group Database are "misguided." The department said it is a vital tool used to combat gang violence. The department added, "Police need to understand the size of these criminal groups, their scope, who its members are, and the crimes they have committed. This is what the database provides and it would be irresponsible for the NYPD to not understand these groups."
The NYPD said, "The database has a strict and transparent set of rules and criteria, multiple levels of review, and is subject to audits to remove individuals no longer active in gang activity." A five-year probe launched by the Department of Investigation in 2018 found "no evidence of harm" to those with suspected gang ties.
The latest stats available from the city Department of Investigation's Inspector General shows that there were 16,141 individuals catalogued in the database as of December 2022.
The database has been operational for over 10 years and contains thousands of entries and intelligence, including distinctive tattoos that many different gangs use as identifiers. Law enforcement considers this database to be a vital crime-fighting tool that the NYPD uses in the war against criminal groups and street gangs.
According to the Post, left wing city politicians "contend that the secret database demonizes minorities" and are trying for the second time to push for legislation that will nix the database. South Bronx Council Member Athea Stevens re-introduced legislation from 2022 by her East Village comrade Council Woman Carlina Rivera, whose bill died in committee.
Stevens alleged that the database "subjects black and brown youth to unclear criteria and sweeps up too many innocent people," adding, "I have seen the need to avoid labeling young people and the additional stigmas that come with these labels." Law enforcement experts and the NYPD disagree, saying the legislation is misguided.
John Jay College of Criminal Justice Professor Michael Alcazar, also a retired NYPD detective said, "It's more invaluable than before. Now we have all these migrants ... You don't have birth certificates, passports, so now we have to really use the database to gather information: their photographs, tattoos, their scars, their gang affiliation."
He said that the legislation is "taking a page from the same book" that brough the city bail reform. He added, "They [City Council] believe that certain segments of the population are being targeted by these databases. It is targeting the criminal population."
Retired NYPD sergeant Joseph Giacalone, a colleague of Alcazar, agreed saying, "As New York City police officers are targeted by the recently immigrated Venezuelan gang members, certain members of the City Council are still pushing to remove the gang database. Let that sink in folks. They would rather see cops shot in the street and New Yorkers robbed at alarming rates than to use common sense."
Giacalone was referring to a 19-year-old Venezuelan illegal immigrant accused of wounding two NYPD officers during a pursuit on a Queens street back in June. Prosecutors said that Bernardo Raul Castro Mata, who admitted to being a member of the notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, fired at one cop's chest at "point-blank range."
Retired NYPD Lt. John Macari said, "I don't know what planet the New York City Council is on. We have gang members coming to the United States to commit crimes. You couldn't have picked a worse time to continue to push through this anti-police, pro-criminal legislation."
The NYPD said that calls to abolish the department's Criminal Group Database are "misguided." The department said it is a vital tool used to combat gang violence. The department added, "Police need to understand the size of these criminal groups, their scope, who its members are, and the crimes they have committed. This is what the database provides and it would be irresponsible for the NYPD to not understand these groups."
The NYPD said, "The database has a strict and transparent set of rules and criteria, multiple levels of review, and is subject to audits to remove individuals no longer active in gang activity." A five-year probe launched by the Department of Investigation in 2018 found "no evidence of harm" to those with suspected gang ties.
The latest stats available from the city Department of Investigation's Inspector General shows that there were 16,141 individuals catalogued in the database as of December 2022.
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Comments
2024-07-25T09:32-0500 | Comment by: Steve
WTF? Another great move by liberal democrats in NYC!!