0:00:49.042,0:00:50.083
[officer] you look very suspicious.

0:00:50.083,0:00:52.200
[Alvin] cause y'all always looking like crazy...

0:01:02.785,0:01:06.031
[sounds of intense physical struggle and yelling]

0:01:08.499,0:01:10.224
[Alvin] Why you pushing me like that for?

0:01:12.147,0:01:15.910
That's exactly how some shit will go down, just like that, just like that.

0:01:15.910,0:01:18.760
People don't like police because of the harrassment,

0:01:18.760,0:01:20.328
and what civilians don't understand

0:01:20.328,0:01:22.515
is that the police department is like forcing us

0:01:22.515,0:01:26.088
to do these unreasonable stops, or you're gonna get penalized.

0:01:39.263,0:01:40.093
[reporter]

0:01:45.665,0:01:47.842
[commissioner] Well I think that the Mayor is absolutely correct.

0:01:47.842,0:01:52.504
[reporter] Some people are just very hurt by it and upset when they are stopped unnecessarily.

0:01:52.504,0:01:55.506
[commissioner] Well I understand that, some people, y'know,

0:01:55.506,0:01:58.316
you're taking away at the very least, you're taking away people's time.

0:01:58.316,0:02:00.746
So I understand people may not be happy with it,

0:02:00.746,0:02:03.386
but I can also assure you that I go to communities,

0:02:03.386,0:02:05.241
communities of colour, and people want more.

0:02:05.617,0:02:06.832
[reporter] They want more stop-and-frisks?

0:02:06.832,0:02:07.800
[commissioner] Absolutely.

0:02:12.366,0:02:15.298
I had this captain who walked into the precinct

0:02:16.113,0:02:18.776
and gave a speech about harassing the public.

0:02:18.776,0:02:22.070
His words were "we're gonna go out there and we're gonna violate some rights".

0:02:22.070,0:02:27.643
We hear it from the captain down, we want "250s", this is Stop, Question and Frisk.

0:02:30.415,0:02:31.739
[phone dialing]

0:02:44.061,0:02:46.584
I was walking home from my girlfriend's house

0:02:46.584,0:02:48.699
and a cop car went past me.

0:02:48.699,0:02:51.478
A couple of seconds later I heard the car turn around

0:02:51.478,0:02:53.689
and they just popped out, they just all just jumped out of the car.

0:02:54.613,0:02:58.033
I decided to record it because I was getting stopped a lot

0:02:58.033,0:03:01.223
and I didn't have evidence of a cop being disrespectful or anything,

0:03:01.223,0:03:03.743
so I pressed the button and recorded the whole thing.

0:03:08.120,0:03:10.404
[Alvin] I just got stopped like 2 blocks away...

0:03:11.250,0:03:13.158
[Alvin] Cause y'all are always lookin at me like crazy...

0:03:17.181,0:03:19.150
[back and forth]

0:03:19.690,0:03:22.285
[officer] Listen to me, listen to me.

0:03:29.827,0:03:33.800
[officer] because you keep doin' that shit, man, we stopped you last time...

0:03:45.196,0:03:46.806
[officer] Who the fuck are you talkin' to??

0:03:46.806,0:03:47.937
[Alvin] You asked me why I had a book bag on...

0:03:47.937,0:03:48.766
[officer] Who the fuck you think you're talkin' to?

0:03:48.766,0:03:49.756
[Alvin] You asked me if I had a book bag on

0:03:49.756,0:03:51.431
[back and forth, officers swearing]

0:03:51.431,0:03:52.672
[Alvin] Why are you touchin' me for?

0:03:52.672,0:03:53.563
[sounds of struggle]

0:03:53.563,0:03:55.627
He was holding me, he's going through pockets, going up, down,

0:03:55.627,0:03:56.853
he's goin through my sweater

0:03:56.853,0:03:59.126
and that's when he told me to keep my hands on my head,

0:03:59.126,0:04:01.022
so I was like this the whole time.

0:04:01.945,0:04:03.368
[Alvin] What for?

0:04:03.368,0:04:05.059
[officer] Shut your fuckin' mouth kid.

0:04:05.059,0:04:05.874
[Alvin] Why am I being arrested for?

0:04:05.874,0:04:07.156
[officer] Shut your mouth.

0:04:07.156,0:04:08.864
[Alvin] What am I being arrested for?

0:04:16.126,0:04:20.348
He decided to take my hands from here and he put em behind my back like that.

0:04:22.828,0:04:24.994
[officer yelling] Shut your fuckin' mouth!

0:04:24.994,0:04:27.103
[Alvin] You askin' me questions.

0:04:27.753,0:04:28.931
[Alvin] I was...

0:04:28.931,0:04:30.221
[officer] Have some fuckin' respect.

0:04:30.221,0:04:32.451
[Alvin] Cause you always stop me for no reason...]

0:04:32.885,0:04:34.596
[Alvin] Why, why are you pushing...

0:04:34.596,0:04:36.134
[Alvin] You're gonna break my arm?

0:04:36.857,0:04:39.809
[officer] Who's your father? Your father's on the job?

0:04:39.809,0:04:40.309
[officer/s] Shut the fuck up (etc)

0:04:40.309,0:04:40.809
[Alvin] You're gonna punch me in my face?

0:04:41.297,0:04:42.026
[Alvin] ...got a phone...

0:04:42.026,0:04:42.613
[officer] ...in Traffic? He's a Traffic cop?

0:04:43.552,0:04:44.420
[officer] Figures.

0:04:44.420,0:04:45.255
[officer, mocking] Traffic cop.

0:04:45.255,0:04:45.990
[Alvin] Yep. Don't touch me...

0:04:45.990,0:04:47.948
[sounds of struggle]

0:04:47.948,0:04:49.107
[Alvin recorded] Why you pushin me like that for?

0:04:49.107,0:04:50.077
[officer] Shut your fuckin' mouth.

0:04:50.077,0:04:53.197
[Alvin] Why you pushin me like that for?

0:04:53.649,0:04:55.787
While they holding me, the sergeant's holding me like this,

0:04:55.787,0:04:57.323
he's like "i'm gonna break your arm"

0:04:57.323,0:05:00.177
I'm like, you're gonna break my arm?

0:05:00.177,0:05:01.470
He's like yeah, and I'm gonna punch you in the face,

0:05:01.470,0:05:02.671
I was like, you're gonna punch me in the face?

0:05:02.671,0:05:05.389
He's like yeah, he's like and then I'm gonna arrest you.

0:05:05.389,0:05:06.458
I'm like, arrest me for what?

0:05:06.458,0:05:08.818
And he's like, for being a mutt.

0:05:08.818,0:05:12.031
So he grabbed me by my book bag and he started pushin me down,

0:05:12.031,0:05:13.993
so I'm going backwards down the hill,

0:05:13.993,0:05:15.517
and he just kept pushing me and pushing me

0:05:15.517,0:05:17.765
and looked like he was gonna hit me.

0:05:17.765,0:05:20.608
I feel like they was trying to make me resist, or start fighting back.

0:05:22.169,0:05:23.195
[recording]

0:05:23.195,0:05:24.266
[Alvin] Why you pushing me like that for?

0:05:24.266,0:05:25.335
[officer] I swear to god...

0:05:25.335,0:05:26.481
[Alvin repeating] Why you pushing me like that?

0:05:26.481,0:05:28.118
[officer yelling] Take a fucking walk!!

0:05:28.118,0:05:29.523
...fucking <u><u>?</u></u>.

0:05:29.523,0:05:35.023
[sounds of intense physical struggle and officer/s swearing]

0:05:38.168,0:05:40.377
I'm mad just hearing that, like,

0:05:40.377,0:05:42.973
Not many words really could describe that,

0:05:42.973,0:05:45.281
it's just disturbing.

0:05:45.281,0:05:49.008
But that's exactly what happened, like,

0:05:49.008,0:05:52.344
I can relate to it, cause I know that situation.

0:05:52.344,0:05:54.258
They just don't got no respect for us,

0:05:54.258,0:05:56.812
and they wonder why we don't have respect for them.

0:05:56.812,0:05:59.472
And for them to just call him a name like that,

0:05:59.472,0:06:03.530
it's just like, that's just crazy.

0:06:03.530,0:06:07.389
[filmmaker?] Do you think that during stops that some police officers try to provoke,

0:06:07.389,0:06:09.158
so they can justify an arrest?

0:06:09.158,0:06:10.748
[officer] Of course they do.

0:06:10.748,0:06:13.651
A lot of police officers be trying to set civilians off,

0:06:13.651,0:06:17.266
and then once they start talking, start cursing, they can lock em up for anything.

0:06:17.266,0:06:20.877
[officer] There was two minorities leaning against the wall, they weren't doing anything,

0:06:20.877,0:06:25.021
and my sergeant ordered me to write them "blocking pedestrian traffic".

0:06:25.021,0:06:27.759
If you're a certain ethnicity, standing on the corner,

0:06:27.759,0:06:31.813
lieutenants, sergeants, they have no problem searching you, violating your rights,

0:06:31.813,0:06:34.237
and racial profiling.

0:06:34.237,0:06:37.549
There was one statement that the sergeant said about what he used to do.

0:06:37.549,0:06:41.708
He used to stop a guy walkin down the street with baggy pants, his underwear hangin out,

0:06:41.708,0:06:42.969
and he'd just stop him.

0:06:42.969,0:06:46.944
He says "I know he's probably up to nothin', but I just stop him anyway, just to get a 250"

0:06:46.944,0:06:50.978
There's this one cop that everybody in the neighbourhood knows,

0:06:50.978,0:06:53.942
stops us like 3 times already, he was like now come here.

0:06:53.942,0:06:59.193
So they got out the car, the threw him on the front of the car,

0:06:59.193,0:07:02.940
I'm still walkin', he spun me around and punched me in my stomach,

0:07:02.940,0:07:07.672
started just pattin us down, and just left us there.

0:07:08.681,0:07:14.066
[commissioner] What we're trying to do is make certain that it's done as professionally as possible,

0:07:14.066,0:07:19.081
that proper respect is shown, and is done according to the law.

0:07:19.219,0:07:21.956
This goes all the way up, all the way up to commissioner's office,

0:07:24.519,0:07:27.360
I say even the mayor's office where they're trying to be proactive and say

0:07:27.360,0:07:30.434
"look, we're stopping people, we're getting guns and drugs off the streets".

0:07:30.434,0:07:34.168
But it's not. I think it's, of the 600,000 people that were stopped last year,

0:07:34.168,0:07:38.387
only 1% of those that were stopped were carrying weapons.

0:07:49.312,0:07:54.342
[clips from newscasts] The NYPD's controversial Stop And Frisk policy...

0:07:54.342,0:08:02.975
Last year, New York police officers stopped and interrogated people nearly 686,000 times...

0:08:02.975,0:08:08.213
... a lawsuit raises serious questions about quotas, racial profiling, and constitutional rights...

0:08:08.397,0:08:10.904
The public isn't aware of what's happening

0:08:10.904,0:08:12.943
but everything is being looked at as far as numbers,

0:08:12.943,0:08:14.988
and it's a numbers game, ok?

0:08:14.988,0:08:16.269
What did you get last year?

0:08:16.269,0:08:19.141
Well you have to match it and give me more this year.

0:08:29.615,0:08:31.311
[tape recording]

0:09:37.907,0:09:41.388
They're trying to keep all of this stuff quiet,

0:09:41.388,0:09:45.142
so this is my proof that they're putting pressure on me to write summonses.

0:09:45.581,0:09:49.437
Commanders are trying to be proactive, or show that they're being proactive,

0:09:49.437,0:09:51.608
and here you have a system where people are told

0:09:51.608,0:09:55.455
"get those numbers to where they should be, and you're gonna get your promotion."

0:09:55.717,0:09:59.452
The commanding officer wants to become a deputy inspector,

0:09:59.452,0:10:03.318
the executive officer wants to become a commanding officer,

0:10:03.318,0:10:06.365
if you do well by keeping the arrests up and the summonses up,

0:10:06.365,0:10:08.820
you will be promoted to the next rank.

0:10:08.820,0:10:13.796
So they put pressure on the police officers to generate numbers and arrests.

0:10:19.315,0:10:21.014
I mean let's be real, it is a quota.

0:10:21.014,0:10:23.283
Nobody wants to call it that, but that's what it is.

0:10:23.283,0:10:26.969
They call it a performance objective, they call it a goal, they can mask it however they want.

0:10:26.969,0:10:29.549
It's a quota, and it does exist.

0:10:30.127,0:10:32.513
Some of us under the stress make them up.

0:10:32.513,0:10:37.089
Some of us under the stress stop innocent people and search them.

0:10:37.089,0:10:40.783
And there are certain units out there that will just run around and stop everybody.

0:10:43.888,0:10:47.953
What happens to the officer, if they don't do what the police department tells them to do

0:10:47.953,0:10:49.283
as far as these quotas?

0:10:49.283,0:10:50.360
They will come after you.

0:10:50.360,0:10:53.982
Come after you, meaning transfers, give you low evaluations.

0:10:53.982,0:10:56.557
They give you unwanted assignments,

0:10:56.557,0:11:00.821
put you in a post which is very dangerous, high crime, by yourself, in a corner.

0:11:00.821,0:11:02.982
This is a form of retaliation.

0:11:02.982,0:11:06.876
Basically, a change in tours, put you on the midnight, they make you look bad on paperwork

0:11:06.876,0:11:09.966
and that paperwork with trail you for the rest of your police career.

0:11:09.966,0:11:13.552
And knowing that your livelihood's at stake, you meet the quota.

0:11:14.622,0:11:19.130
It does create this feeling of "hey listen I gotta get my numbers"

0:11:19.130,0:11:21.981
When you put that pressure on the officer

0:11:21.981,0:11:25.095
this us vs them mentality does exist.

0:11:28.924,0:11:31.473
When I came into this police department I wanted to help people,

0:11:31.473,0:11:34.053
but the civilian population are being hunted.

0:11:34.053,0:11:38.742
Instead of being protected by us, they're being hunted, and we're being hated.

0:11:38.742,0:11:41.284
The police department is pushing the new guys to be bounty hunters,

0:11:41.284,0:11:43.106
and I use that word because that's exactly what it is:

0:11:43.106,0:11:44.649
they're hunting.

0:11:44.649,0:11:47.853
There's a lot of officers who are fed up and want to do something about it,

0:11:47.853,0:11:50.219
and there's people who are scared.

0:11:50.835,0:11:55.990
There's a lot of officers that would like to tell their story, but nobody wants to hear the truth.

0:11:55.990,0:11:59.032
Nobody wants to hear the bad.

0:12:00.096,0:12:04.781
You need police, but the police department needs to change things.

0:12:06.582,0:12:09.527
At one point I did want to be a cop, to help people,

0:12:09.527,0:12:13.735
and mostly just, like, to be able to wear a badge and a uniform, be proud of it.

0:12:13.735,0:12:17.072
But now I feel like I'm not sure because they're not here to help people any more,

0:12:17.072,0:12:21.310
they're just there to like, stop and humiliate them, make em feel bad.

0:12:23.018,0:12:26.829
There's no excuses for the way they treated me.

0:12:27.578,0:12:30.225
This one individual was thinkin about doin NYPD,

0:12:30.225,0:12:33.171
the first thing I told him is "definitely not".

0:12:33.171,0:12:38.610
This job, racial profiles, will force you to do things that you don't wanna do.

0:12:38.610,0:12:40.973
We're supposed to be the best in the world?

0:12:40.973,0:12:46.227
We're the best at making money, and we're the best at arresting and summonsing everybody.