DISTANCE AND DIVISION
81.6% of NYPD tix to blacks, Hispanics
The NYPD has issued nearly 400 summonses to people for violating social-distancing protocols or other emergency measures related to the coronavirus — with 81.6 percent of the violations given to blacks or Hispanics, according to data released Friday.
Of the people arrested for violating social-distance regulations, 92 percent were minorities, the NYPD data showed.
Within a seven-week span, from March 16 through May 5, police had more than 1 million contacts with the public in the NYPD’s “awareness and educational visits across the five boroughs,” the department said.
During officers’ visits to places such as supermarkets, pharmacies, nail salons, bars, restaurants, parks and religious institutions, 374 summonses were issued “for acts likely to spread disease and to violate emergency measures” related to COVID-19, police said.
A total of 193 of the summonses, or 51.6 percent, were given to black New Yorkers, while 111, about 30 percent, were doled out to Hispanics, the department data show.
Seventeen social-gathering incidents accounted for 163 of the summonses issued citywide, according to the NYPD.
Of the five boroughs, the most summonses were handed out in Brooklyn, with 206, followed by The Bronx, where 99 summonses were issued.
Brownsville’s 73rd Precinct in Brooklyn saw the most summonses given out at 16, a Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office spokesman said.
Meanwhile, the NYPD has made 120 arrests of people violating social-distancing rules — and black people made up 68 percent of those, while 24 percent involved Hispanics, CBS News reported.
According to the Brooklyn DA’s Office, 40 of those arrests were made in Brooklyn between March 17 and May 4. Of those arrested, 35 were black, four were Hispanic and one was white.
Mayor de Blasio commented on the police data at his daily press briefing Friday, saying, “We do not accept disparity, period.”
“When we see disparity, we’re going to address it,” said the mayor, who downplayed the number of social distance-related summonses issued and arrests made as he noted there are 8.6 million city residents.
De Blasio also announced Friday that the NYPD will begin limiting entry at two city parks this weekend that were “more crowded than they should have been” during last weekend’s bout of warm weather.
Ramped-up enforcement will happen at Domino Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and Hudson River Park’s Piers 45 and 46 in Manhattan, the mayor said.