LESSONS LEARNED WHILE ON THE BEAT
On BP’s article regarding Gowanus pollution
COURIER LIFE, FEBRUARY 19-25, 2021 27
WITH BROOKLYN BOROUGH PRESIDENT ERIC ADAMS
One step to achieving meaningful reform in the NYPD
Last summer, New Yorkers
took to the streets by the
thousands to demand systemic
change in the wake of
George Floyd’s tragic murder.
In the weeks that followed,
several instances of police
misconduct were captured on
video and widely distributed
on social media, including a
police offi cer violently pushing
a young woman to the
ground, a squad car ramming
into a crowd of protestors,
and offi cers using a technique
known as “kettling” to trap
protesters.
A Department of Investigation
report later found that
these tactics, along with countless
other examples of excessive
force, helped to infl ame
tensions and harm trust in law
enforcement. To ensure the
NYPD did not repeat these mistakes,
the report proposed a series
of measures to strengthen
oversight and improve police
responses to future protests.
These proposed reforms,
and others recently adopted at
the City and State levels like
the repeal of 50-A, a law that
shielded police disciplinary
records from the public, were
long overdue. But the road to
real, lasting change is long, and
it runs through a position that
many New Yorkers might have
never heard of: our precinct
commanders.
What is a precinct commander?
Often compared to
“mini-mayors,” they are the
most visible representatives of
their departments in the communities
they serve, and have
wide latitude to set policing
practices in their respective areas.
Some take this awesome responsibility
seriously, making
proactive efforts to collaborate
with community stakeholders
to ensure policing is responsive
to their needs. Others choose to
shun these community voices,
leading to tension and antagonism.
Without strong accountability
mechanisms, those in the
latter category are allowed to
remain in leadership positions
despite being a poor fi t for the
precincts they serve. To take
one example, one of the most
egregious instances caught on
camera during last summer’s
protests involved an offi cer,
Vincent D’Andraia, violently
shoving a young woman, Dounya
Zayer, to the ground, causing
her to be hospitalized. Deputy
Inspector Craig Edelman,
who headed the 73rd Precinct
in Brownsville, was standing
directly behind this offi cer
when the assault occurred and
did nothing to intervene.
It later came to light that Inspector
Edelman had been the
subject of numerous complaints
by Brownsville residents for his
aggressive approach to policing
and failure to take a more inclusive
approach to public safety.
Community leaders had been
sounding the alarm about his
lack of fi tness for months prior
to the protests, but these warnings
fell on deaf ears. Inspector
Edelman was relieved of his
command after the video of Ms.
Zayer being shoved surfaced
online, and replaced by Deputy
Inspector Terrell Anderson, a
Black NYPD veteran who grew
up in the community. Inspector
Edelman has still not faced any
departmental charges stemming
from the incident last
summer.
The Edelman episode, and
others like it, underscore the
need for a holistic re-thinking
of how we identify, vet, and appoint
candidates for precinct
commander. If we are serious
about fulfi lling the promise of
community policing, then we
need precinct commanders
who listen to the community,
and work in partnership with
a diverse group of local stakeholders
to make their neighborhoods
safer. Continuing to
take a top-down approach to
appointing precinct commanders,
rather than engaging in a
grassroots process, will undermine
the mission of community
policing, which must be responsive
to what a community
wants and needs.
That’s why I was encouraged
to see City Hall announce
a change in the precinct commander
selection process last
month, bringing it into the
sunlight in response to our
advocacy. Under the new policy,
the NYPD will provide
three to fi ve candidates for local
police precinct councils to
review. The precinct councils
will provide feedback on the
candidates to the Commissioner,
who will then decide
who to appoint.
This is a promising fi rst
step. But we need to go further
to achieve the local oversight
and accountability we seek.
Precinct councils should certainly
be part of the vetting
process, but we need to bring
in people from all walks of life
— like community board members,
representatives from the
business community, faith
leaders, and others. These panels
should not merely have an
advisory role in the process;
they should have veto power
over candidates they deem unacceptable.
Ultimately, this is about
fostering a culture of accountability
and civilian empowerment.
Last summer’s protests
showed in stark terms how we
needed to re-imagine policing.
The urgent task before us now
is rebuilding trust in a sustainable
manner between police
and communities. Let’s start
by putting the community back
in “community policing.”
Eric Adams is borough
president of Brooklyn. He served
22 years in the New York City
Police Department (NYPD), retiring
at the rank of captain, as
well as represented District 20
in the New York State Senate.
Borough President Eric Adams.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Dear Editor,
We want to take a moment to
say THANK YOU to the EPA’s
Christos Tsiamis. While Tsiamis,
project manager for the
Gowanus Superfund cleanup,
was ostensibly “scolded” by
state offi cials for speaking
out about toxic dangers, as reported
in Kevin Duggan’s recent
article in your paper, we
are so very glad he risked a
scolding to tell our community
the truth. It could very well
be a matter of life or death for
people in just a few years if the
ill-advised Gowanus rezoning
passes.
Tsiamis went out on a limb
at the December 1, 2020 Community
Advisory Group meeting
to let the greater Gowanus
community know more about
the longstanding toxic dangers
at the Public Place site, where
housing is being proposed under
the Gowanus rezoning. If
the rezoning passes, it will allow
people to live in buildings
on a site that even after partial
remediation will be dangerous
to the public health. Carcinogenic
coal tar runs down in
plumes over 150 deep under the
site, a former manufactured
gas plant location - remediation
is only being done in a few
spots down to 22 feet - and volatilized
gases will be a persistent
danger to anyone living in
structures on the site.
Why local developers like
the Fifth Avenue Committee
and public offi cials like Council
Members Brad Lander and
Stephen Levin are okay with
this disaster-in-the-making
(there’s even a plan for a school
on this forever-toxic site!) is beyond
us. It seems the De Blasio
administration and its allies
are hellbent on juicing the
numbers on housing units created,
even if those units condemn
low income people to
truly unsafe conditions.
Thankfully, Tsiamis revealed
suspicious early site
design changes (such as removal
of bulkhead “wings”
that would have prevented
coal tar migration into existing
neighborhood housing)
and long-term health risks
that come with a site this problematic
(wells will be needed to
off-gas chemicals forever). He
also confi rmed that the state
Department of Environmental
Conservation (DEC) reduced
the amount of cleanup on the
site in the course of 2020 compared
to what was originally
planned (only 2 feet of soil will
be removed site-wide instead
of 8 as originally promised).
The takeaway is very simple:
Public Place is poisoned
land. No housing on Public
Place.
We have Christos Tsiamis
to thank for his fortitude and
integrity in cleaving to the
truth for the benefi t of public
health and safety in the mucky
world of Gowanus politics.
Sincerely,
Mae Frankeberger
Mark Karwowski
Ruth Benn