At this Bronx workshop, teenagers are taught how to de-escalate NYPD confrontations
WNYC News | Mar 29, 2023
Every week in a conference room at Lincoln Medical Center in the Bronx, Kraig Lewis teaches about a dozen teenagers the six Rs for interacting with police: Don’t run, don’t resist, right to an attorney, refuse all searches, refuse food, and the right to remain silent.
“We’re here to enlighten them and teach them the right way to move in New York City,” said Lewis, an organizer with the Legal Aid Society who is running the sessions over the course of eight weeks. “Because one false move, they’ll end up in jail, or even worse.”
NYPD data crunched by the New York Civil Liberties Union shows that youths aged 15 to 17 were stopped by the NYPD at a higher rate than any other age group between 2003 and 2021. Once they were stopped, they were then frisked, arrested and assaulted by officers at the same rates as adults.
Such negative interactions prompted Legal Aid to team up with antiviolence organizations across the city to host Know Your Rights workshops to teach young people how to more safely deal with police officers. While Legal Aid has been running Know Your Rights workshops for nine years, the new program is intended to create “youth ambassadors” who can take the information they learn and share it with their peers.
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