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New NYPD data has revealed that around 5 students were arrested every day for the last three months of 2011 in New York City. And of those students, 90 percent were either black or latino.
In accordance with the School Safety Act, which makes it mandatory for the NYPD to release school arrest statistics every three months, the NYPD released the report which was from October 1 to December 31 of 2011. In the report, 279 were listed for being arrested, while 532 more students were issued summonses, most for disorderly conduct.
Although black students are only 29 percent of NYC’s student population, they made up 60 percent of the arrests while latinos made up 30 percent. Among the 279 student who were arrested, 75 percent were male.
This new data has caused quite a stir amongst both students and adults alike. On Feb. 22, students held a demonstration where they chanted “Dignity For All Students” and “More Books, No Cops.”
Donna Lieberman, the executive director for the New York Civil Liberties Union, released a statement which said, “If the Bloomberg administration is truly serious about helping young men of color succeed, then they must address these disparities and focus more attention on education children–not arresting them.”
A spokesman for the NYPD, Paul Brown, was quick to respond to the NYCLU’s criticism. In his own statement, Brown said “The NYCLU talks about arrests in schools but, conveniently, not crimes. There were 801 felonies in schools last year, compared to 1,577 in 2001 before the current administration took office.”
In the last report released on school arrests, back in November, it was revealed that during summer school in 2001, only one student was arrested in NYC every day. But the amount who were black or latino was 94 percent.
