Local activist Christina Gonzalez is a tireless opponent of the NYPD's controversial stop-and-frisk program, and has repeatedly confronted individual officers, camera in hand, when she suspects they're overstepping their authority. Which is often. She's become such a ubiquitous presence that the NYPD distributed fliers to officers describing her as a "professional agitator" and warning cops that she "video tapes officers... to portray officers in a negative way and to deter officers from conducting their responsibilities…Do not feed into subject's propaganda." It looks like cops are getting the message.
On Sunday night, Gonzalez confronted several cops in the West 4th Street subway station. The video, below, shows her demanding to know why she was told (by officers on MetroCard machine detail) she can't take video with her cell phone. After one officer refuses to answer her while she's recording him, she follows him down to the platform and proceeds to harangue a handful of cops, demanding their badge numbers. But instead of throwing her to the floor, smashing her phone, and arresting her on some bogus disorderly conduct charge, one officer tries to have a calm and rational conversation. Skip ahead to the 6:10 mark to see our nomination for Shockingly Courteous Cop of the Year:
Yeah, it goes on and on—there's a lot of yelling, but it is noteworthy to watch an interaction between an irate protester and a cop who's actually willing to have a reasonable conversation. But toward the end he finally gives up and says, "You don't want to have a conversation. You just want to scream." We asked Gonzalez about the confrontation, and she shared her point of view with us:
On Sunday evening at around 10 p.m. I entered West 4th Street train station. It was raining and I was bummed about it being a slow night at work. I noticed armed men guarding the man who empties the vault in the Metro Card machines. Usually there is only one armed man, that day there were two. Unusual enough that I decided to take a photo. One armed man comes up to me and asks if I took a picture of them. I said yes. He tells me that I can't do that. I explain to him that I film cops on a regular basis, it is legal, and the same rules should apply to them. Just then 2 officers enter the station. I say "Excuse me officer, am I permitted to film these armed me just that way I am permitted to film police officers?" I began filming. At this point he refused to talk to me, and the video continues from there.
There are many reasons why I am frustrated with NYPD; the 2 dozen murders of young black people at their hands this year, the millions of stops and frisks conducted by them over the decade, the assault of my sister by community affairs officers, my forceful arrests when I was merely asserting my rights, the poster with mine and my partners mugshots that the 30th precinct hung on their wall labeling us professional agitators. But I was particularly angry that night because just the night before my partner Matthew Swaye was arrested at a rally asking billionaire Mayor Bloomberg for help for the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
I was born and raised in Rockaway Beach. My entire family was affected by Hurricane Sandy. I lost everything I owned in a storage unit out there. It took days for any help to arrive from FEMA, Red Cross, NYPD. The only reason people survived was because of Occupy Sandy, Sikhs, community organizations, and loving families of NYC. To find out that FEMA gave 75 Million Dollars to the NYPD for their courageous efforts is sickening. My grandparents were denied temporary assistance from FEMA! To know that the men at HSBC laundered 9 billion dollars with groups that the American people are told are the enemy, while I am arrested for pointing these things out makes me outraged.
