Name: Diego Bey
Social Justice Group: 2018-2019, Race & Policing
Date of Fieldwork: November 27, 2018
Name of Organization: Police Reform Organization Project
Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Robert Gangi Head of PROP
Type of Fieldwork: Interview
What I did:
we interviewed Robert Gangi, the head of prop and asked him questions like how did his organization stat, and what his organizations their are.
What I learned:
I learned a lot from Mr. Gangi about the police system and the flaws that it has for example how police are obligated to meet their mar for number of arrests every month and if there isn’t any crime in their quadrant and the eventually do nothing that day it looks bad on them. because of this the officers are almost obligated to start trouble in order to meet their mark to keep their reputation up. when starting trouble to meet this mark cops often target those who are powerless against the, such as middle or lower class people or people of color, who have no way to challenge their authority. another thing I learned was that the NYPD has jurisdiction over almost all forms of law enforcement in the New York like the 911 emergency number.
What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:
In this fieldwork I learned that even the small things count and are important. For example, that doing something simple like sitting in at courts to make sure the rulings are fair can make a big impact. Since for years courts have made unfair rulings assigning more extreme punishments for small crimes prop does sit ins in courts to make sure no unfair rulings are made. PROP’s efforts have helped tons of people who couldn’t get help themselves. As Robert Gangi told us the police often target those in marginalized groups that have no power to fight back and PROP’s goal is to make sure these people get the support they deserve and are given by right.