‘Broken’ art society
Artists, ACLU team to illustrate pain of police policy
A Manhattan art exhibit is bringing to life the consequences of “broken windows” policing, using paintings and portraits to illustrate the pain that results from targeting petty crimes.
With animations calling attention to controversial “stop-andfrisk” policies and sculptures that bring substance to calls for reform, the artists are making a bold statement about criminalization of poverty and overpolicing of communities of color.
The show — a New York Civil Liberties project at 9 W. 8th St. — covers a period as far back as 1968, when stop-and-frisk was was approved by the Supreme Court and began to be adopted by police departments.
“There’s kind of this coming together of that with the (former President Richard) Nixon war on drugs and broken-windows policing and quality-of-life crimes of (former Mayor Rudy) Giuliani,” said Donna Lieberman, NYCLU executive director. “Over the years stopand-frisk became really a kind of out of control mainstay of the NYPD, and other police departments around the country replicated that.”
At the front of the museum sits a work by Jordan Webber: a 2006 Chevy Impala painted to look like an NYPD cruiser with the roof peeled back, rear window smashed and plants bursting from it.
Other pieces in the show include 41 wallets suspended from the ceiling, swaying and partly obscuring a portrait of Amadou Diallo, who was gunned down in the Bronx by cops in a hail of 41 bullets in 1998. Police who confronted him mistook the wallet he pulled out for a gun.
Another exhibit features 1,093 toe tags bearing names of everyone in the U.S. killed by cops in 2016, including 13 in New York.
“The Talk,” a painting by Michael D’Antuono shows an African-American boy sitting opposite his parents, who have looks of concern on their faces.
Behind them on the TV is a news report, the screen split between a white cop and a young black boy. The caption reads “No indictment in police shooting of unarmed youth.”
Portraits of Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama stare down from the walls.
“I doubt that Dr. King would have imagined that African-American parents would still find it necessary to warn their young children about the dangers of being Black in America.” D’Antuono wrote on the description plate next to the painting.
The show runs through Sept. 30.