The Jamaica branch of the National Association for the…
By Betsy Scheinbart
Southeast Queens politicians and community leaders debated the pluses and minuses of a city council bill which would enable police to arrest suspected gang members gathering in any public place.
The Jamaica branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People had called the meeting Saturday at Marantha Baptist Church Cultural Center in Queens Village.
“The bill has some good, some productivity, and it also has some negativity,” said Leroy Gadsden, the chairman of the NAACP’s Police Community Relations Committee.
“Our concern … is that this bill gives a whole lot of power to the NYPD,” Gadsden said. “The question is: Can this police department, under the rule of Giuliani, be mature enough to handle this bill?”
The proposed legislation was introduced in November by Queens city council members John Sabini (D-Jackson Heights), Michael Abel (R-Bayside) and Helen Marshall (D-East Elmhurst) and several other council members.
Marshall, the only council member who attended the Queens Village meeting, told the audience of about 50 people that the bill was intended to combat the presence of gangs and prostitution in Long Island City.
“It basically says: If you are a known gang member, the police can ask you to move along,” Marshall said. The person could be arrested and face a penalty of up to 15 days in jail or a $100 fine if he or she refused to leave.
But Marshall, who is running for Queens borough president, said “this bill is not moving, this bill is dead now.”
The City Council’s Committee on Public Safety never discussed the bill after it was introduced, said council spokesman Jake Lynn.
“They are looking at the constitutional issues, looking at other municipalities that have passed similar laws that are being challenged in court,” Lynn said.
Chicago recently passed a similar law, but it was immediately blocked in court, so the New York City Council is holding off on considering the bill until that court case is resolved, Lynn said.
“I wouldn’t say it is dead,” Lynn said. “It is in a holding pattern.”
Marina Sheriff, legislative director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the bill was not needed to combat gang violence.
“These types of bills do not deal with criminal conduct, only assembly,” Sheriff said. “This leaves it up to the police to decide what it is you are doing when you are hanging out on the street corner.”
Sheriff said one clause in the bill was of particular concern to the NYCLU. The clause reads: “The arresting officer must afford the individual to be arrested an opportunity to explain his or her conduct and purpose at the site or to remove himself or herself from the immediate area.”
After reading that, Sheriff said, “I get really nervous because they [the authors of the bill] know that the vast majority of the people aren’t doing anything wrong when they are just hanging out on the street.”
Manhattan Community College Professor James Blake, chairman of the Million Man March planning committee of Queens and a candidate for City Council, said he feared that if the bill were enacted into law, the mistakes of the past would be repeated.
“The laws in the time of slavery used the same language,” Blake said, “— ‘containment,’ ‘control’ — to avoid assembly. They tip-toe around our civil rights.”
Blake said he was once a member of a gang, but community programs helped him to turn his life around.
“We need to be involved with young people and change the problem, not contain it,” Blake said.
Reach reporter Betsy Scheinbart by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300 Ext. 138.
