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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Anthony Posada, Supervising Attorney of Legal Aid Society's Community Justice Unit, on NYPD's Gang Database
3:08:56
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Anthony Posada, representing the Legal Aid Society, testifies against the NYPD's gang database, arguing that it does not enhance public safety and disproportionately targets Black and Latino youth. He advocates for the abolition of the database and investment in community-based violence prevention programs.
- Criticizes the database for funneling communities to Rikers Island and increasing stop and frisk incidents
- Challenges claims of improvements to the database, citing cases where individuals remain listed despite dismissed charges
- Emphasizes the effectiveness of the crisis management system as an alternative approach to gun violence prevention
Anthony Posada
3:08:56
Good afternoon.
3:08:56
Thank you chair.
3:08:57
Thank you sponsor for bringing this bill to this hearing.
3:09:01
My name is Anthony Posada.
3:09:02
I'm a supervising attorney in the Legal Aid Society's Community Justice Unit.
3:09:05
I have submitted written testimony, I wanna reserve this time to address some of the misstatements and the myths that were made earlier by the previous panel.
3:09:15
To begin with, this database does not produce any public safety at all.
3:09:20
We know that the city has an actual program, an evidence based program, the crisis management system that is tasked of looking at gun violence through the lens of public health with credible messengers, working with people who are part of the community.
3:09:36
And instead of approaching black and Latino youth and throwing them up against the wall or demanding to know where the drugs are in the community, we have community members that are working with them, that are leading them to services and to real connections that can help their lives.
3:09:50
That database does not do any of that.
3:09:52
It only leads our communities and funnels them to Rikers Island.
3:09:56
It exposes them to increased stop and frisk which is even more dangerous.
3:10:02
There have been alleged improvements to the database.
3:10:05
What I know and I have seen is helping people who right now have been labeled and have remained on the database even when they hit that level of review and were kept on the database for arrests that were dismissed and sealed.
3:10:19
For things that other people right now are not even getting arrested for.
3:10:23
They were kept on the database as a result of that.
3:10:26
So this statement of improvements or how the database has gotten better is not accurate and if anything it shows that the police do not need this database, that they can continue investigating, that nothing will stop them from investigating.
3:10:39
So having a list of 99% black and Latino people of a system that is already compromised is not helping our communities, is not making them any stronger.
3:10:49
We need to abolish the database, invest in programs that are already creating meaningful changes in our community by connecting people to services.
3:10:58
That's how we really change this.
3:11:01
Thank you.