2/3 of NYC Adults Say People Of Color Are
Treated Differently By Law Enforcement
New York City was a busy place on Sat 12/13 as 25,000 demonstrators attended a rally in Washington Square Park and marched up 5th Ave. The protest coincided with SantaCon, a pub crawl for Millenials on the next to the last Saturday before Christmas. Protesters chanted “Hands up” while 20-somethings demonstrated “bottoms up.”
A New York Times/Siena College Poll published on Friday found that 64 percent of New York City adults say people of color are treated unfairly by the criminal justice system. When the results are analyzed by ethnicity and language the divide is much sharper: 83 percent of African Americans and 71 percent of Latinos and 45 percent of whites say people of color are not treated fairly. “While 2/3 of whites say the police are doing an excellent or good job, 2/3 of Latinos and 75 percent of blacks say the police are doing only a fair or poor job,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg. Police Commissioner Bill Bratton gets a divided 43-40 percent approval rating, and only 44 percent say New York City police are doing an excellent or good job, compared to 55 percent who say they are doing a fair or poor job.
“Undaunted by the popular backlash against the notoriously rowdy annual gathering, Santacon returned to the streets of New York this year, with thousands donning Santa suits on Saturday for the annual booze-and-Christmas-cheer-fueled bar crawl,” said Time magazine in an article called “The Ho Ho Horror: Santacon 2014 Hits New York City.”
See also: Eric Garner: Sad and Gentle Giant, 12/13/2014
