Forum At John Jay Today To Address Police Telling Black Teens To Get Out Of The Neighborhood

Following concerns raised by a neighbor at a police community meeting last week, the John Jay Educational Complex will hold a town hall meeting tonight to discuss how the police deal with teens in the area.

As was first reported by DNAinfo, neighbor Sara Bennett told police at the78th Precinct Community Council meeting that she had witnessed police cars after school following groups of kids around 9th Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues — near John Jay — yelling at them to “get out of the neighborhood.” She said she’d complained to Councilmember Brad Lander, to John Jay, and to the police.

“It’s something that feels really disrespectful to the young black kids in our neighborhood,” she said.

“When we have large groups of kids together and we don’t ask them to move, that’s when we get trouble,” Commanding Officer Captain Frank DiGiacomo said at the meeting, adding that there had been an instance where an officer had been kicked in face when a group of kids had gotten into a fight (though he was talking about kids congregating near the Atlantic mall).

Police responded to calls about a fight on Monday, September 22 on 7th Avenue near 8th Street, the date Bennet had mentioned at the meeting, according to DNAinfo, which notes DiGiacomo stating about 50 kids were involved in that incident, though no arrests were made.

Earlier this week, when NY1 went to the school to report on the story, speaking to students who said they’re often told to leave the area. Things got a little out of hand, though, when the news crew had a run-in with a school safety officer, who broke their camera lens after telling them not to film her.

The town hall meeting is taking place tonight, Friday, October 10 from 6-8pm at the John Jay Educational Campus, 237 7th Avenue between 4th and 5th Streets.