Former Democratic political consultant turned satirist and documentary filmmaker Ami Horowitz hit the street of New York City “to get insight on how cops treat black people in America.”
“We’re becoming a police state and they do whatever the hell they want,” one man says to Horowitz.
“Do you think that there’s institutional racism in the police departments?” Horowitz asks another man.
“Yes, absolutely. Not just in New York, nationwide.” the man responds. “Not just in the police departments, in the country itself.”
The clip then cuts to Horowitz explaining that he must travel to mostly black and Hispanic East Harlem to get residents there to “sign a petition to support the NYPD.”
Horowitz is able to receive several signatures for his pro-NYPD petition from Harlem community members. And to Horowitz’s surprise, one man says he thinks the NYPD “needs more presences” in his neighborhood.
The video continues to show Harlem residents sharing positive police stories.
One women says taking away “stop-and-frisk” “really did put more people in danger.”
“When is everybody going to come to their senses and realize we all matter?” one woman said.
“I pray for the NYPD everyday,” another woman says, as the video abruptly concludes.
Interestingly enough, by the end of 2010, the New York City Police Department employed 22,199 patrol officers. Of those, nearly 53 percent were black or Latino. This marked the first time in the city’s history that police officers of color outnumbered white officers, according to police department statistics researched and published by the Wall Street Journal.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson.
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