by Ryan Wallerson | May 12, 2015 | Policing
Officer Jeffery Schneider scoured the most vulnerable streets of Sea Gate, New York City’s first gated community, slowly rolling his marked car past sand-bound cul-de-sacs, foreclosed houses and along sand drifts that made reaches of Sea Gate’s high fence, susceptible...
by Samuel Lieberman | May 11, 2015 | Policing
If you tell Big Herc that you want to become a Blood he will stretch his palm out and kindly ask you to repeat yourself. If you are stupid enough to do it, he will slap you in the face. “You still wanna be a Blood?” he’ll ask, and then keep slapping...
by Luke Tress | May 11, 2015 | Policing
It’s a quiet night in Crown Heights. This is a good thing, says Mendy Hershkop, coordinator for the Shomrim, a community defense group based in the neighborhood. He is on patrol with his cousin, Gadi Hershkop, driving slowly in Gadi’s Town & Country minivan. They...
by Bianca Silva | May 11, 2015 | Policing
It’s a cloudy spring afternoon in Coney Island, and Guardian Angel Jose “Crazy J” Gonzalez is on a routine street patrol with his partner, Jose “Mumbles” Colon. Both are dressed in the organization’s signature bright red jackets and slightly darker red berets. As they...
by Maura Ewing | May 9, 2015 | Policing
After a May Day march about a hundred officers milled about in Foley Square in downtown Manhattan. A police barricade separated them from protesters. White police vans lined the sidewalk. The march was over, and the estimated 1,000 protesters who were there at the...
by Brian Josephs | May 9, 2015 | Policing
While the cities below are located hundreds of miles from each other, they all have something in common: Their urban communities are afflicted with poverty and a lack of employment opportunities. Those with criminal records face even steeper obstacles....