GANGS Coalition Statement on Recent Gang Takedowns
Activists, Attorneys and Family Members Warn of ‘Precision Policing’
Last week, the NYPD conducted a gang takedown centralized in East Harlem’s Wagner Houses. Media coverage around the predawn operation regurgitated police allegations, with reporters invited beforehand to accompany police during the operation. Despite constant efforts to force-feed police narratives to the public and undermine the presumption of innocence, New Yorkers should be wary of these types of takedowns in light of troubling tendencies by police and prosecutors to overcharge and overreach on gang cases.
In 2016, the largest gang takedown in the history of New York City took place in the Bronx. That takedown similarly received extensive media coverage that took the accused people’s guilt as virtual fact before anyone had even seen a judge. Thanks to a detailed report from CUNY School of Law, the so-called Bronx 120 gang case was shown to have been abusive and overinclusive — if not an outright racist spectacle meant to decimate Black families in that community. About half of the people targeted by the raid were not even alleged to be gang members. Most were not charged with acts of violence.
Last week’s takedown of the so-called ‘Chico Gang’ raises specific concerns. In 2012, the Wagner Houses were the target of a similar takedown; in the wake of that devastating police action, several family members made clear that their targeted loved ones were not, in fact, in a gang. Groups of young people, including children, are often labeled as members of criminal groups by police, thus allowing the use of over-inclusive and harshly punitive conspiracy laws to ensnare them in lengthy prison terms and justifying their abuse and harassment by police. This discretionary ability to not only label someone as a gang member but to define what constitutes a gang gives the Department unchecked power in our criminal punishment system.
The GANGS Coalition urges New Yorkers to be aware of the harms of supposed gang policing and skeptical of these recent takedowns, including the East Harlem raid as well as several operations in Brooklyn that have enlisted the help of the federal government. Our work with family members whose loved ones have been unfairly arrested and prosecuted as “gang members” remind us of how harmful these tactics have been.
While shootings are an obvious and legitimate concern, we must not make the mistakes of the past by overcharging, scapegoating, or downright wrongfully accusing young Black and brown New Yorkers under the label of ‘gang member.’ And it should go without saying that even those who are involved in gangs or crews are still deserving of civil and human rights as well as due process. Instead of military-style raids, the City should further expand community based anti violence initiatives from credible messengers to youth programming. We need more of these interventions — not more gang policing and prosecutions.
Our Coalition calls on reporters and the press corps to refrain from sensationalistic, credulous reporting and exploitative “ride along” journalism that amounts to stenography for police talking points. Information shared with the public should instead reflect the reality of gang policing through the interrogation of police narratives, many of which are clearly discredited by available data, and discussions with people who are directly impacted by racist, classist, and discriminatory law enforcement.
