“The role of cop watch organizations is primarily to observe police-community relationships and highlight injustices committed in the name of courtesy, professionalism and respect … something that is only advertised, not provided, especially in the communities of people of color,” determined Jazz Hayden, a longtime observer of police misconduct and a recent NYPD harassment victim.
In a similar manner as urban organizations from the revolutionary 1960s that would surveil, defend from and, in some cases, retaliate against police harassment and/or terrorism, some inner-city civilians came together to spy on police to ensure that they perform their civil duties.
“Our programs are set up in the images of the Black Panther Party and Young Lords in terms of patrolling the police who monitor our communities like an enemy would occupy a country at war,” explained Brother Shep, People’s Survival Program coordinator and Black Panther Party organizer.
According to city records, prior to Bloomberg buying/taking office, citywide stop-and-frisk stats were under 100,000 annually. Last year’s numbers indicate that of the approximately 750,000 reported stop-and-frisks, only 6 percent led to an arrest and less than 1 percent resulted in a gun being found. Regardless, the NYPD claims that the illegal practice is a crime deterrent.
“Our objective is to prepare our people for this occupation that takes place,” said Shep, of the 10-week Anti-Police Terror and Community Control of the NYPD training program.
The summer’s prominence of gun violence, coupled with the presidential campaign, has heightened the police presence throughout New York City. Additionally, new highs were set last year in the “reported” numbers of NYPD stop-and-frisks. Some activists contend that these are only a few factors that resulted in the formation of cop watch organizations.
“The reason we chose to fight against stop-and-frisk is because we believe this is the pipeline that leads directly into the prison-industrial complex,” said Jose LaSalle, an activist with Stop Stop and Frisk. “We know it’s unconstitutional, illegal; it dehumanizes, traumatizes and also criminalizes people.”
Video recording cops’ daily procedures, distributing informative literature and conducting educational seminars are just a handful of tactics utilized to pressure police to abide by the book. These measures also enlighten the community at large about their rights and what to do when stopped by police.
More modern methods are currently utilized nowadays.
“Instead of patrolling the pigs with weapons, like we used to back in the days, we decided to pick up the camera,” said Shep. “In 1995, we started the Violence Prevention Project, co-funded by the William Kunstler Foundation. What we said back then was, ‘Put down the 9 mm and pick up the 8 mm [camera].’”
Added LaSalle, “When someone is there documenting them–because of so many videos that have caught so much police misconduct–they don’t want to be on YouTube, out there in the open like they are the ones contributing to all the negativity. We put their videos up on YouTube so that people can see the confrontations we have with officers.”
A police source conceded that the substantial increase in stop-and-frisk is to “make Black people frustrated so they’ll move out, and make it feel safer for affluent people to move in and pay higher rents and taxes, which benefits New York City.”
Activists also touched on the financially lucrative role stop-and-frisk plays in the overall scheme of things.
“They have [quotas] to meet in order to receive federal, state and local funding,” revealed Hayden. “They have to show in some measurable way that they are carrying out the mission they are being funded for. The NYPD accumulates these arrests so that they can tell their funders, ‘Yeah, keep sending that money … we’re doin’ our job!’ The courts, the police, the prisons, they all work together.”
Brother Shep adds: “So when these pigs roll around and harass our youth, that’s all part of the prison-industrial complex. The main thing they want to do is lock up our young warriors. Go to any courthouse in the morning and you’ll see thousands of people waiting in line–the overwhelming majority of them Black or Latino … it looks like a slave auctioning block!”
This democratic society is based upon a system of “checks and balances,” and while many may be confused about the role law enforcement plays in communities, a select few are not.
“I think it’s only right since we pay them–they are public servants, and we are the public–that we should have the right to monitor them too,” said Hayden. “Especially since they have taken the relationship between the police and the community and turned it upside down, where now they consider themselves our masters and we’re their servants. We have to monitor them to straighten out this relationship.”
Although many cop watch organizations are locally based, they usually patrol abroad daily.
“The objective is not to wait for something to happen then watch, but to be pro- or pre-active before something takes place,” said Shaka Shakur of the People’s Survival Program. “We’re not looking to interfere with police who carry out their duties properly, but we set a presence for those who intend to misuse the people.”
The People’s Survival Program is conducting a 10-week anti-police terror training class at the Assata Shakur/Guillermo Morales Center at CCNY’s NAC Building, room 3/201, that “not only teaches you to know your rights or to do the cop watch and be a cop watch, but actually trains you to be a facilitator,” said Shakur.
Continuing, Shakur said, “We want to skillfully train people how to use their cameras, computers and editing programs to protect themselves using technology most of us have. We want this to be something every community picks up. We’re saying the new weapon for our generation is the camera … that’s our AK-47 or righteous weapon.”
LaSalle shares: “We’re creating a dispatch system where when someone sees police activity, they can call, and this dispatch system will call other cop watch organizations in that area and let them know there’s a stop, and hopefully they’ll be able to get there In time and document it.”
Declared Shep: “We’re making an effort to get all the cop watch organizations in New York to work together.”
Closing, Hayden said, “They work for us, we pay them, they are here to serve and protect, not master and regulate. It has nothing to do with justice or safety of the community–that’s bulls– excuses.”
For more information on the classes, email panthershepcat@aol.com or call 212-650-5008.