WEBVTT 00:00:49.042 --> 00:00:50.083 [officer] you look very suspicious. 00:00:50.083 --> 00:00:52.200 [Alvin] cause y'all always looking like crazy... 00:01:02.785 --> 00:01:06.031 [sounds of intense physical struggle and yelling] 00:01:08.499 --> 00:01:10.224 [Alvin] Why you pushing me like that for? 00:01:12.147 --> 00:01:15.910 That's exactly how some shit will go down, just like that, just like that. 00:01:15.910 --> 00:01:18.760 People don't like police because of the harrassment, 00:01:18.760 --> 00:01:20.328 and what civilians don't understand 00:01:20.328 --> 00:01:22.515 is that the police department is like forcing us 00:01:22.515 --> 00:01:26.088 to do these unreasonable stops, or you're gonna get penalized. 00:01:39.263 --> 00:01:40.093 [reporter] 00:01:45.665 --> 00:01:47.842 [commissioner] Well I think that the Mayor is absolutely correct. 00:01:47.842 --> 00:01:52.504 [reporter] Some people are just very hurt by it and upset when they are stopped unnecessarily. 00:01:52.504 --> 00:01:55.506 [commissioner] Well I understand that, some people, y'know, 00:01:55.506 --> 00:01:58.316 you're taking away at the very least, you're taking away people's time. 00:01:58.316 --> 00:02:00.746 So I understand people may not be happy with it, 00:02:00.746 --> 00:02:03.386 but I can also assure you that I go to communities, 00:02:03.386 --> 00:02:05.241 communities of colour, and people want more. 00:02:05.617 --> 00:02:06.832 [reporter] They want more stop-and-frisks? 00:02:06.832 --> 00:02:07.800 [commissioner] Absolutely. 00:02:12.366 --> 00:02:15.298 I had this captain who walked into the precinct 00:02:16.113 --> 00:02:18.776 and gave a speech about harassing the public. 00:02:18.776 --> 00:02:22.070 His words were "we're gonna go out there and we're gonna violate some rights". 00:02:22.070 --> 00:02:27.643 We hear it from the captain down, we want "250s", this is Stop, Question and Frisk. 00:02:30.415 --> 00:02:31.739 [phone dialing] 00:02:44.061 --> 00:02:46.584 I was walking home from my girlfriend's house 00:02:46.584 --> 00:02:48.699 and a cop car went past me. 00:02:48.699 --> 00:02:51.478 A couple of seconds later I heard the car turn around 00:02:51.478 --> 00:02:53.689 and they just popped out, they just all just jumped out of the car. 00:02:54.613 --> 00:02:58.033 I decided to record it because I was getting stopped a lot 00:02:58.033 --> 00:03:01.223 and I didn't have evidence of a cop being disrespectful or anything, 00:03:01.223 --> 00:03:03.743 so I pressed the button and recorded the whole thing. 00:03:08.120 --> 00:03:10.404 [Alvin] I just got stopped like 2 blocks away... 00:03:11.250 --> 00:03:13.158 [Alvin] Cause y'all are always lookin at me like crazy... 00:03:17.181 --> 00:03:19.150 [back and forth] 00:03:19.690 --> 00:03:22.285 [officer] Listen to me, listen to me. 00:03:29.827 --> 00:03:33.800 [officer] because you keep doin' that shit, man, we stopped you last time... 00:03:45.196 --> 00:03:46.806 [officer] Who the fuck are you talkin' to?? 00:03:46.806 --> 00:03:47.937 [Alvin] You asked me why I had a book bag on... 00:03:47.937 --> 00:03:48.766 [officer] Who the fuck you think you're talkin' to? 00:03:48.766 --> 00:03:49.756 [Alvin] You asked me if I had a book bag on 00:03:49.756 --> 00:03:51.431 [back and forth, officers swearing] 00:03:51.431 --> 00:03:52.672 [Alvin] Why are you touchin' me for? 00:03:52.672 --> 00:03:53.563 [sounds of struggle] 00:03:53.563 --> 00:03:55.627 He was holding me, he's going through pockets, going up, down, 00:03:55.627 --> 00:03:56.853 he's goin through my sweater 00:03:56.853 --> 00:03:59.126 and that's when he told me to keep my hands on my head, 00:03:59.126 --> 00:04:01.022 so I was like this the whole time. 00:04:01.945 --> 00:04:03.368 [Alvin] What for? 00:04:03.368 --> 00:04:05.059 [officer] Shut your fuckin' mouth kid. 00:04:05.059 --> 00:04:05.874 [Alvin] Why am I being arrested for? 00:04:05.874 --> 00:04:07.156 [officer] Shut your mouth. 00:04:07.156 --> 00:04:08.864 [Alvin] What am I being arrested for? 00:04:16.126 --> 00:04:20.348 He decided to take my hands from here and he put em behind my back like that. 00:04:22.828 --> 00:04:24.994 [officer yelling] Shut your fuckin' mouth! 00:04:24.994 --> 00:04:27.103 [Alvin] You askin' me questions. 00:04:27.753 --> 00:04:28.931 [Alvin] I was... 00:04:28.931 --> 00:04:30.221 [officer] Have some fuckin' respect. 00:04:30.221 --> 00:04:32.451 [Alvin] Cause you always stop me for no reason...] 00:04:32.885 --> 00:04:34.596 [Alvin] Why, why are you pushing... 00:04:34.596 --> 00:04:36.134 [Alvin] You're gonna break my arm? 00:04:36.857 --> 00:04:39.809 [officer] Who's your father? Your father's on the job? 00:04:39.809 --> 00:04:40.309 [officer/s] Shut the fuck up (etc) 00:04:40.309 --> 00:04:40.809 [Alvin] You're gonna punch me in my face? 00:04:41.297 --> 00:04:42.026 [Alvin] ...got a phone... 00:04:42.026 --> 00:04:42.613 [officer] ...in Traffic? He's a Traffic cop? 00:04:43.552 --> 00:04:44.420 [officer] Figures. 00:04:44.420 --> 00:04:45.255 [officer, mocking] Traffic cop. 00:04:45.255 --> 00:04:45.990 [Alvin] Yep. Don't touch me... 00:04:45.990 --> 00:04:47.948 [sounds of struggle] 00:04:47.948 --> 00:04:49.107 [Alvin recorded] Why you pushin me like that for? 00:04:49.107 --> 00:04:50.077 [officer] Shut your fuckin' mouth. 00:04:50.077 --> 00:04:53.197 [Alvin] Why you pushin me like that for? 00:04:53.649 --> 00:04:55.787 While they holding me, the sergeant's holding me like this, 00:04:55.787 --> 00:04:57.323 he's like "i'm gonna break your arm" 00:04:57.323 --> 00:05:00.177 I'm like, you're gonna break my arm? 00:05:00.177 --> 00:05:01.470 He's like yeah, and I'm gonna punch you in the face, 00:05:01.470 --> 00:05:02.671 I was like, you're gonna punch me in the face? 00:05:02.671 --> 00:05:05.389 He's like yeah, he's like and then I'm gonna arrest you. 00:05:05.389 --> 00:05:06.458 I'm like, arrest me for what? 00:05:06.458 --> 00:05:08.818 And he's like, for being a mutt. 00:05:08.818 --> 00:05:12.031 So he grabbed me by my book bag and he started pushin me down, 00:05:12.031 --> 00:05:13.993 so I'm going backwards down the hill, 00:05:13.993 --> 00:05:15.517 and he just kept pushing me and pushing me 00:05:15.517 --> 00:05:17.765 and looked like he was gonna hit me. 00:05:17.765 --> 00:05:20.608 I feel like they was trying to make me resist, or start fighting back. 00:05:22.169 --> 00:05:23.195 [recording] 00:05:23.195 --> 00:05:24.266 [Alvin] Why you pushing me like that for? 00:05:24.266 --> 00:05:25.335 [officer] I swear to god... 00:05:25.335 --> 00:05:26.481 [Alvin repeating] Why you pushing me like that? 00:05:26.481 --> 00:05:28.118 [officer yelling] Take a fucking walk!! 00:05:28.118 --> 00:05:29.523 ...fucking ?. 00:05:29.523 --> 00:05:35.023 [sounds of intense physical struggle and officer/s swearing] 00:05:38.168 --> 00:05:40.377 I'm mad just hearing that, like, 00:05:40.377 --> 00:05:42.973 Not many words really could describe that, 00:05:42.973 --> 00:05:45.281 it's just disturbing. 00:05:45.281 --> 00:05:49.008 But that's exactly what happened, like, 00:05:49.008 --> 00:05:52.344 I can relate to it, cause I know that situation. 00:05:52.344 --> 00:05:54.258 They just don't got no respect for us, 00:05:54.258 --> 00:05:56.812 and they wonder why we don't have respect for them. 00:05:56.812 --> 00:05:59.472 And for them to just call him a name like that, 00:05:59.472 --> 00:06:03.530 it's just like, that's just crazy. 00:06:03.530 --> 00:06:07.389 [filmmaker?] Do you think that during stops that some police officers try to provoke, 00:06:07.389 --> 00:06:09.158 so they can justify an arrest? 00:06:09.158 --> 00:06:10.748 [officer] Of course they do. 00:06:10.748 --> 00:06:13.651 A lot of police officers be trying to set civilians off, 00:06:13.651 --> 00:06:17.266 and then once they start talking, start cursing, they can lock em up for anything. 00:06:17.266 --> 00:06:20.877 [officer] There was two minorities leaning against the wall, they weren't doing anything, 00:06:20.877 --> 00:06:25.021 and my sergeant ordered me to write them "blocking pedestrian traffic". 00:06:25.021 --> 00:06:27.759 If you're a certain ethnicity, standing on the corner, 00:06:27.759 --> 00:06:31.813 lieutenants, sergeants, they have no problem searching you, violating your rights, 00:06:31.813 --> 00:06:34.237 and racial profiling. 00:06:34.237 --> 00:06:37.549 There was one statement that the sergeant said about what he used to do. 00:06:37.549 --> 00:06:41.708 He used to stop a guy walkin down the street with baggy pants, his underwear hangin out, 00:06:41.708 --> 00:06:42.969 and he'd just stop him. 00:06:42.969 --> 00:06:46.944 He says "I know he's probably up to nothin', but I just stop him anyway, just to get a 250" 00:06:46.944 --> 00:06:50.978 There's this one cop that everybody in the neighbourhood knows, 00:06:50.978 --> 00:06:53.942 stops us like 3 times already, he was like now come here. 00:06:53.942 --> 00:06:59.193 So they got out the car, the threw him on the front of the car, 00:06:59.193 --> 00:07:02.940 I'm still walkin', he spun me around and punched me in my stomach, 00:07:02.940 --> 00:07:07.672 started just pattin us down, and just left us there. 00:07:08.681 --> 00:07:14.066 [commissioner] What we're trying to do is make certain that it's done as professionally as possible, 00:07:14.066 --> 00:07:19.081 that proper respect is shown, and is done according to the law. 00:07:19.219 --> 00:07:21.956 This goes all the way up, all the way up to commissioner's office, 00:07:24.519 --> 00:07:27.360 I say even the mayor's office where they're trying to be proactive and say 00:07:27.360 --> 00:07:30.434 "look, we're stopping people, we're getting guns and drugs off the streets". 00:07:30.434 --> 00:07:34.168 But it's not. I think it's, of the 600,000 people that were stopped last year, 00:07:34.168 --> 00:07:38.387 only 1% of those that were stopped were carrying weapons. 00:07:49.312 --> 00:07:54.342 [clips from newscasts] The NYPD's controversial Stop And Frisk policy... 00:07:54.342 --> 00:08:02.975 Last year, New York police officers stopped and interrogated people nearly 686,000 times... 00:08:02.975 --> 00:08:08.213 ... a lawsuit raises serious questions about quotas, racial profiling, and constitutional rights... 00:08:08.397 --> 00:08:10.904 The public isn't aware of what's happening 00:08:10.904 --> 00:08:12.943 but everything is being looked at as far as numbers, 00:08:12.943 --> 00:08:14.988 and it's a numbers game, ok? 00:08:14.988 --> 00:08:16.269 What did you get last year? 00:08:16.269 --> 00:08:19.141 Well you have to match it and give me more this year. 00:08:29.615 --> 00:08:31.311 [tape recording] 00:09:37.907 --> 00:09:41.388 They're trying to keep all of this stuff quiet, 00:09:41.388 --> 00:09:45.142 so this is my proof that they're putting pressure on me to write summonses. 00:09:45.581 --> 00:09:49.437 Commanders are trying to be proactive, or show that they're being proactive, 00:09:49.437 --> 00:09:51.608 and here you have a system where people are told 00:09:51.608 --> 00:09:55.455 "get those numbers to where they should be, and you're gonna get your promotion." 00:09:55.717 --> 00:09:59.452 The commanding officer wants to become a deputy inspector, 00:09:59.452 --> 00:10:03.318 the executive officer wants to become a commanding officer, 00:10:03.318 --> 00:10:06.365 if you do well by keeping the arrests up and the summonses up, 00:10:06.365 --> 00:10:08.820 you will be promoted to the next rank. 00:10:08.820 --> 00:10:13.796 So they put pressure on the police officers to generate numbers and arrests. 00:10:19.315 --> 00:10:21.014 I mean let's be real, it is a quota. 00:10:21.014 --> 00:10:23.283 Nobody wants to call it that, but that's what it is. 00:10:23.283 --> 00:10:26.969 They call it a performance objective, they call it a goal, they can mask it however they want. 00:10:26.969 --> 00:10:29.549 It's a quota, and it does exist. 00:10:30.127 --> 00:10:32.513 Some of us under the stress make them up. 00:10:32.513 --> 00:10:37.089 Some of us under the stress stop innocent people and search them. 00:10:37.089 --> 00:10:40.783 And there are certain units out there that will just run around and stop everybody. 00:10:43.888 --> 00:10:47.953 What happens to the officer, if they don't do what the police department tells them to do 00:10:47.953 --> 00:10:49.283 as far as these quotas? 00:10:49.283 --> 00:10:50.360 They will come after you. 00:10:50.360 --> 00:10:53.982 Come after you, meaning transfers, give you low evaluations. 00:10:53.982 --> 00:10:56.557 They give you unwanted assignments, 00:10:56.557 --> 00:11:00.821 put you in a post which is very dangerous, high crime, by yourself, in a corner. 00:11:00.821 --> 00:11:02.982 This is a form of retaliation. 00:11:02.982 --> 00:11:06.876 Basically, a change in tours, put you on the midnight, they make you look bad on paperwork 00:11:06.876 --> 00:11:09.966 and that paperwork with trail you for the rest of your police career. 00:11:09.966 --> 00:11:13.552 And knowing that your livelihood's at stake, you meet the quota. 00:11:14.622 --> 00:11:19.130 It does create this feeling of "hey listen I gotta get my numbers" 00:11:19.130 --> 00:11:21.981 When you put that pressure on the officer 00:11:21.981 --> 00:11:25.095 this us vs them mentality does exist. 00:11:28.924 --> 00:11:31.473 When I came into this police department I wanted to help people, 00:11:31.473 --> 00:11:34.053 but the civilian population are being hunted. 00:11:34.053 --> 00:11:38.742 Instead of being protected by us, they're being hunted, and we're being hated. 00:11:38.742 --> 00:11:41.284 The police department is pushing the new guys to be bounty hunters, 00:11:41.284 --> 00:11:43.106 and I use that word because that's exactly what it is: 00:11:43.106 --> 00:11:44.649 they're hunting. 00:11:44.649 --> 00:11:47.853 There's a lot of officers who are fed up and want to do something about it, 00:11:47.853 --> 00:11:50.219 and there's people who are scared. 00:11:50.835 --> 00:11:55.990 There's a lot of officers that would like to tell their story, but nobody wants to hear the truth. 00:11:55.990 --> 00:11:59.032 Nobody wants to hear the bad. 00:12:00.096 --> 00:12:04.781 You need police, but the police department needs to change things. 00:12:06.582 --> 00:12:09.527 At one point I did want to be a cop, to help people, 00:12:09.527 --> 00:12:13.735 and mostly just, like, to be able to wear a badge and a uniform, be proud of it. 00:12:13.735 --> 00:12:17.072 But now I feel like I'm not sure because they're not here to help people any more, 00:12:17.072 --> 00:12:21.310 they're just there to like, stop and humiliate them, make em feel bad. 00:12:23.018 --> 00:12:26.829 There's no excuses for the way they treated me. 00:12:27.578 --> 00:12:30.225 This one individual was thinkin about doin NYPD, 00:12:30.225 --> 00:12:33.171 the first thing I told him is "definitely not". 00:12:33.171 --> 00:12:38.610 This job, racial profiles, will force you to do things that you don't wanna do. 00:12:38.610 --> 00:12:40.973 We're supposed to be the best in the world? 00:12:40.973 --> 00:12:46.227 We're the best at making money, and we're the best at arresting and summonsing everybody.