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Q&A
Introduction to gang database discussion and overrepresentation of black and brown youth
0:50:24
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70 sec
Council Member Tiffany Cabán initiates a discussion about the NYPD's gang database, focusing on the overrepresentation of black and brown youth. Babe Howell from the G.A.N.G.S Coalition responds, highlighting issues with the database's criteria for inclusion.
- The discussion reveals that social connections heavily influence whether a youth is placed on the gang database.
- Many people are documented based on 'known associates,' which can include family members, friends, or even casual acquaintances.
- Less than one-third of those documented based on known associates had enough information to support their inclusion in the database.
Tiffany Cabán
0:50:24
I wanna ask a couple of questions about, the gang database.
0:50:28
So just to get in a little bit further detail, you talked about, obviously, the over representation particularly of black and and brown youth on the database.
0:50:39
Can you tell me whether, in your experience, research that social connections that are, like, heavily influenced by proximity, influence whether a a youth is placed on that list?
Babe Howell
0:50:57
Yes.
0:50:57
100%.
0:50:58
And in fact, the OIG OIG's report, showed that many, many people were documented based on known associates, which could be a cousin, a friend, someone that they, wish a happy birthday to on social media, but often just, you know, photos of Go
Tiffany Cabán
0:51:15
to school with, live on the same floor.
Babe Howell
0:51:17
Exactly.
0:51:19
And and there just one moment.
0:51:21
There they found that less than 1 third of those documented based on known associates had enough information to even support that.
0:51:31
So, you know, kind of a crazy