For more than a month, 17-year-old Derrian Williams was known as the Liberian immigrant who committed a hate crime against a Mexican immigrant. It was a mind-boggling assertion to anyone familiar with Staten Island’s immigrant communities on the borough’s north shore. But it fit easily into the narrative that fueled last summer’s media frenzy.
Eventually, 18-year-old Christian Vasquez, the alleged Mexican victim, admitted that his beating followed an argument over a marijuana sale, a fact he omitted in the original complaint and two ensuing depositions. On September 14, after 44 days in jail, District Attorney Daniel Donovan dismissed all charges against Williams, on the grounds that the victim’s impugned credibility made it impossible to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
It was the tenth attack on a Mexican in Port Richmond this year, and a spit in the face to the NYPD, who, just 48 hours earlier flooded the neighborhood with patrol officers and turned Port Richmond Avenue into an unofficial precinct.
“Thugs Defy Cops: Commit Yet Another Bias Crime,” the Staten Island Advance headline read the next day.
The “Blacks vs. Mexicans” angle seemed consistent and was attributable to the police if it wasn’t accurate. Even though the police called it a bias attack based solely on the victim’s claim that the assailants yelled, “you fuckin Mexican,” during the beating.
That claim made it a hate crime, which typically ups a defendant’s charge one level. This would have bumped Williams’ class C felony to class B, adding 10 years to the maximum sentence.
Williams was no angel. Though the charges for the attack on Vasquez were dropped, he’s still being detained in a juvenile facility for a Family Court case. His lawyer wouldn’t comment on the case but according to two community leaders, it’s possibly in regards to a burglary he committed when he was 15-years-old.
Whatever his transgressions, Williams didn’t deserve to be blasted as a bigot by a press that lost all sense of skepticism and refused to question their perception of the hate crime narrative. No one even considered the taunts of “African Booty Scratcher,” that Liberian kids sometimes endure from their African American peers.
I don’t know what really happened or what these kids have been through. The DA’s press release about the dismissed charges says that the community needs to “exercise restraint in pre-judging these incidents.” But the community didn’t pre-judge, the police did. And the press fed the community that misinformation. Instead of looking for the truth, they settled for the facts.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Outa Town Cops Policing Staten Island? Not So Much
In recent months, the Village Voice and Daily News have reported on incidents where New Yorkers claimed that they tried to make a crime complaint to police, but were rebuffed.
Consider now, the story of Mayra Hernandez, a Staten Island woman who says that two patrol officers assured her they would report her complaint about someone shelling her home with fireworks, yet the police department says they have no such report.
Under the NYPD Patrol Guide, one of the core duties of a police officer is to take criminal complaints from civilians. Recent accounts showed that officers were ordered to discourage people from filing complaints by referring them to the precinct.
According to Hernandez, however, the officers simply lied to her. They assured her that they’d report the incident to Staten Island’s 120th precinct and also advised her to go to the station house if harassment continued.
“The police said they were going to file a report and handle it,” Hernandez said. “So I didn’t see a need to go at that moment.”
The commanding officer of the 120, John Denesopolis, denied knowing about the incident.
“I never heard anything about it,” Denesopolis said. “There’s no way that could have happened.”
At approximately 10:50 last Sunday night, three of Hernandez’s daughters heard a brief series of explosions.
“It sounded like cherry bombs going off all around the house,” one of the girls said. “Then we smelled smoke. And when my sister Anita went out side to see what was going on, she found nails near the tires of my father’s car.”
The sisters said they called 911 repeatedly to no avail, until their furious mother ran to the patrol officers around the corner on Port Richmond Avenue.
(A cell phone that belonged to one of Hernandez’s daughters showed 911 calls that night at 11:15, 11:32 and 12:23. They also said that they called once from their home phone.)
The incident took place in Port Richmond, a neighborhood fortified with police since late July, because of a spate of bias attacks against Mexicans in the area.
Despite Port Richmond’s dense Mexican population, Hernandez and her family said there are few, if any, other Mexican families on their block. They suspected that neighbors were responsible for the attack.
“It’s ridiculous that my family is the only one getting attacked,” one daughter, Ednita said. “I have neighbors who have shown their discrimination against us.”
Deputy Inspector Denesopolis, however, also doubts the existence of any blocks in Port Richmond with a paucity of Mexican families.
“I find that very hard to believe,” the commander said.
Ok, so here we have a commanding officer aloof to the diversity of a neighborhood in his precinct, where simmering ethnic tensions exploded this year.
Furthermore, two Queens police officers, part of an impact operation in response to bias attacks on Mexicans, didn’t even report an alleged attack on a Mexican family.
Oh, and at least three 911 calls in which no officers responded, despite a mobile command center, two sky-watch towers and phalanx of patrolmen around the corner.
It doesn’t seem related to the department wide corruption recently reported, according to John Eterno, an associate dean of graduate studies in criminal justice at Molly College. A retired NYPD captain who now studies police malfeasance, Eterno added that the police seemed to have acted negligently.
“If it was a bias incident, that could be a big deal,” Eterno said. “If there’s a pattern, if it turns more severe, you’ll need that paper trail.”
Consider now, the story of Mayra Hernandez, a Staten Island woman who says that two patrol officers assured her they would report her complaint about someone shelling her home with fireworks, yet the police department says they have no such report.
Under the NYPD Patrol Guide, one of the core duties of a police officer is to take criminal complaints from civilians. Recent accounts showed that officers were ordered to discourage people from filing complaints by referring them to the precinct.
According to Hernandez, however, the officers simply lied to her. They assured her that they’d report the incident to Staten Island’s 120th precinct and also advised her to go to the station house if harassment continued.
“The police said they were going to file a report and handle it,” Hernandez said. “So I didn’t see a need to go at that moment.”
The commanding officer of the 120, John Denesopolis, denied knowing about the incident.
“I never heard anything about it,” Denesopolis said. “There’s no way that could have happened.”
At approximately 10:50 last Sunday night, three of Hernandez’s daughters heard a brief series of explosions.
“It sounded like cherry bombs going off all around the house,” one of the girls said. “Then we smelled smoke. And when my sister Anita went out side to see what was going on, she found nails near the tires of my father’s car.”
The sisters said they called 911 repeatedly to no avail, until their furious mother ran to the patrol officers around the corner on Port Richmond Avenue.
(A cell phone that belonged to one of Hernandez’s daughters showed 911 calls that night at 11:15, 11:32 and 12:23. They also said that they called once from their home phone.)
The incident took place in Port Richmond, a neighborhood fortified with police since late July, because of a spate of bias attacks against Mexicans in the area.
Despite Port Richmond’s dense Mexican population, Hernandez and her family said there are few, if any, other Mexican families on their block. They suspected that neighbors were responsible for the attack.
“It’s ridiculous that my family is the only one getting attacked,” one daughter, Ednita said. “I have neighbors who have shown their discrimination against us.”
Deputy Inspector Denesopolis, however, also doubts the existence of any blocks in Port Richmond with a paucity of Mexican families.
“I find that very hard to believe,” the commander said.
Ok, so here we have a commanding officer aloof to the diversity of a neighborhood in his precinct, where simmering ethnic tensions exploded this year.
Furthermore, two Queens police officers, part of an impact operation in response to bias attacks on Mexicans, didn’t even report an alleged attack on a Mexican family.
Oh, and at least three 911 calls in which no officers responded, despite a mobile command center, two sky-watch towers and phalanx of patrolmen around the corner.
It doesn’t seem related to the department wide corruption recently reported, according to John Eterno, an associate dean of graduate studies in criminal justice at Molly College. A retired NYPD captain who now studies police malfeasance, Eterno added that the police seemed to have acted negligently.
“If it was a bias incident, that could be a big deal,” Eterno said. “If there’s a pattern, if it turns more severe, you’ll need that paper trail.”
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Canibus & Lauryen Hill Are Proof Wyclef Can't Handel Haiti
After the way Wyclef Jean sabotaged Canibus’ career, who would trust him with Haiti? Ya dig right.
You probably think this is insensitive, given the suffering of the Haitian people but if Wyclef couldn’t make a star out of the most promising rapper of the late 1990s how can he help the poorest country in the western hemisphere?
I’ll leave it to the New York Times to focus on his squandered charity, Yele Haiti, but no one has talked about what a scum bag this guy has been in hip-hop.
Wyclef really brings out the worst in people. Lauryen Hill made an album that won five Grammys, but admittedly fueled by vengeance toward Mr. Jean. Still, L Boogie’s flash of greatness came at the expense of every ounce of common decency she had. Now her comeback resulted in five shitty Rock The Bells performances. But listen to Lost Ones to know what a dick Wyclef is.
Back to Canibus and Haiti. This is the kid who took LL Cool J to war with Mike Tyson in his corner. The Ripper Strikes Back was ill but Canibus’ 2nd Round KO was probably the best diss song next to Tupac’s Hit Em Up. He had the balls and the words. If you don’t remember DJ Clue’s Canibus vs DMX mixtape then you probably hibernated through 1997.
Wyclef produced Bus’ first album, Can-I-Bus. Compare this freestyle to Nigganometry, arguably the best song on the Can-I-Bus album. Sure, it takes a lot more than insane lyrical talent to make it in hip-hop but if Wyclef gave Canibus the same energy that he gave Big Pun in Caribbean Connection, maybe Bus would’ve lived up to his potential. But because of Wycleff two of hip-hop’s greatest musicians will forever epitomize the Bronx Tale line about wasted talent.
So what can Wyclef do with the poorest country in the western hemisphere, eh?
You probably think this is insensitive, given the suffering of the Haitian people but if Wyclef couldn’t make a star out of the most promising rapper of the late 1990s how can he help the poorest country in the western hemisphere?
I’ll leave it to the New York Times to focus on his squandered charity, Yele Haiti, but no one has talked about what a scum bag this guy has been in hip-hop.
Wyclef really brings out the worst in people. Lauryen Hill made an album that won five Grammys, but admittedly fueled by vengeance toward Mr. Jean. Still, L Boogie’s flash of greatness came at the expense of every ounce of common decency she had. Now her comeback resulted in five shitty Rock The Bells performances. But listen to Lost Ones to know what a dick Wyclef is.
Back to Canibus and Haiti. This is the kid who took LL Cool J to war with Mike Tyson in his corner. The Ripper Strikes Back was ill but Canibus’ 2nd Round KO was probably the best diss song next to Tupac’s Hit Em Up. He had the balls and the words. If you don’t remember DJ Clue’s Canibus vs DMX mixtape then you probably hibernated through 1997.
Wyclef produced Bus’ first album, Can-I-Bus. Compare this freestyle to Nigganometry, arguably the best song on the Can-I-Bus album. Sure, it takes a lot more than insane lyrical talent to make it in hip-hop but if Wyclef gave Canibus the same energy that he gave Big Pun in Caribbean Connection, maybe Bus would’ve lived up to his potential. But because of Wycleff two of hip-hop’s greatest musicians will forever epitomize the Bronx Tale line about wasted talent.
So what can Wyclef do with the poorest country in the western hemisphere, eh?
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