The officers who stopped me included 41 year old Officer Ruth Lormil of Brooklyn's 78th Precinct (squad car 3901), a young Hispanic female officer (about 5'5 in height, black hair in a ponytail bun), and a white male officer late 30's early 40's.
After checking my I.D. and seeing if I had any outstanding warrants which they found none, they issued me a summons for disobeying a park sign although there was clearly no park sign in the area, and Officer Ruth Lormil and her female colleague approached me with attitudes and were inappropriately rude, while the white male officer remained in the car and let the two women of color take care of the dirty work of issuing the summons.
How could Officer Lormil and her female Hispanic partner both women of color could partake in such a degree of racial profiling and their actions displayed clearly demonstrated how far blacks and women of color in a position of power are willing to go to sell out and throw under the bus their fellow brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of color only to look good towards their WHITE superiors and assimilate into a white culture of power. But at the end of the day the same white superiors that they're trying to impress by selling out their own people will be the ones who put their own sons and daughters, nieces and nephews behind bars.
Officer Lormil was in fact recognized by the 78th Precinct as 'cop of the month' for arresting two young black males ages 21 and 18 who mugged a 40 year old jogger in the park last month. Call it a sense of ego, but due to Officer Lormil being outright commended on her apprehension of young black males, she along with her partners have made it their mission to target other young black males that they see walking through the park as suspicious.
Now let's really break down these statistics. From 2011- 2012 crime increased by about 7% in 31 of the city's largest parks including Prospect according to NYPD. Included within that 7% spike the number of robberies in Prospect Park in Brooklyn more than tripled in 2012, to 26 compared with eight in 2011. But in articles that focus on the robberies they only highlight robbers who are men of color like as was the case with Officer Lormiel's story which reads "The 40-year-old victim told police that he was running on the park’s main drive at around 1:20 p.m. near the Nethermead arches when two men, a black 21-year-old and a black 18-year-old, ran up alongside him." Now I ask you all to do the task of Googling Prospect Park robberies where the 'criminal' is not listed as black or Hispanic and see what you find. You will find that little if any stories go into detail about the profiles of robbers involved in prospect park or any park robbery for that matter unless the suspect is indeed a man of color.
"Obviously, we want people to feel safe going into parks. That's the reason we have them, so that people can exercise, be out in the open," Ms. Melissa Mark-Viverito chairwoman of the council's Committee on Parks and Recreation, said. "And if people fear for their safety, it's counterproductive….It's a real concern." she added when speaking of keeping the parks safe. But I as a black man fear for my safety in the park, not due to concern of being robbed, mugged or assaulted but in fact due to officers like Lormil and her colleagues and having to remain in constant fear that I will be targeted and harassed just due to the color of my skin despite my clean non existent record.
If young black men are being targeted by police officers black, white and Hispanic within city parks such as Prospect, just so they can easily fill their quota the best way as we as young black men can protect ourselves from unfair targeting and 'letting them win' is by avoiding the park and then we'll see if these low life officers will meet their quotas to keep their jobs.
