A plainclothes police officer confronts a person during the summer 2020 protests against police brutality. Photo: Stephanie Keith/Getty Images On September 29, 2019, Antonio Williams was waiting for a taxi outside the Edenwald Houses in the Bronx when a car quickly drove up to him and three men approached. He began to run and was pursued by two of the men. Then he was tackled to the ground and struggled with the men before shots rang out, striking him fatally in the chest.
Anti-crime units were disbanded two years ago, but Mayor Eric Adams has been adamant about reviving them with an emphasis on halting the flow of illegal guns into the city. Though the units pursued that mission, they also used racial profiling and aggressive tactics that led to some of the most controversial killings by police officers in the past three decades.
“It is our city against the killers,” Adams said the night of Rivera’s death. While he campaigned on stamping out gun violence, Adams had not outlined how he would do so until after so much blood had already been shed during his first three weeks as mayor. “I do think that there is a certain temperament that all police need, but specifically plainclothes anti-crime units. Those police officers that tend to target crime more head on, on a more consistent basis,” said Keith Ross, who worked as an NYPD officer for 21 years and is now an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
In 2014, Eric Garner died during an attempted arrest on Staten Island after Daniel Pantaleo, a plainclothes officer in an anti-crime unit, placed him in a prohibited chokehold. In a widely seen video of the encounter, Garner can be heard saying “I can’t breathe” multiple times as officers hold him down on the pavement. Pantaleo was fired from the force in 2019, five years after Garner’s death.
There are some who see public safety as an issue that should be addressed in ways beyond changing or adapting policing tactics. Adams said his plans would also prevent violence by strengthening communities through providing more resources to violence interrupters, launching a summer jobs program for youth, expanding hospital-based violence-prevention programs, and redeploying mental-health resources.
nia_prater Isn’t he a former cop? What would you expect when you elect a former cop?
nia_prater As somebody who lives in the part of Brooklyn where people aren't routinely murdered in their local bodega, this is a good thing. But again - I don't care, my neighbors aren't recklessly shooting 11 month old girls in the face.
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