NYC NOW - July 16, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: July 16, 2024

New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez has been convicted on all charges related to a conspiracy to help the government of Egypt and other favors in exchange for cash, gold, and a luxury car from three New Jersey businessmen. Meanwhile, a new report finds the pay gap between men and women in New York City is wider among high-salary jobs than in middle or low-wage jobs. Plus, Wednesday marks ten years since Eric Garner died on Staten Island after being placed in a chokehold by an NYPD officer. WNYC’s Race and Justice Reporter Arun Venugopal says that a decade later, Garner’s parting words continue to echo across the nation, but the legacy of his death is still being sorted out.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jenny Pierre. Senator Bob Menendez has been convicted on all charges related to a sweeping conspiracy to help the government of Egypt and other favors in exchange for cash, gold, and a luxury car from three New Jersey businessmen. WMYC's Nancy Solomon reports. The jury spent less than two full days coming to the guilty verdict for Menendezes. and two of the businessmen. The 70-year-old Menendez, who's been involved in politics, his entire adult life, could end up spending the rest of his life in prison. He's resisted calls to resign from the Senate, but Charles Schumer has already called for him to step down now,

and it seems likely he'll drop his bid for re-election this November. Menendez was indicted last September after the FBI found more than a half a million dollars in cash and gold bars in its home, one of three people accused of bribing him pleaded guilty and testified against him. His wife, Nadine, is charged and will face a trial after she recovers from breast cancer surgery. A new report finds the pay gap between men and women in New York City is wider among high-salary jobs than it is middle- or low-wage jobs. The report is a collaboration between the nonprofit women creating change and the Center for New York City Affairs at the new school. It says men and women in education jobs who earn in the 10th percentile make nearly the same amount. Men in the 90th percentile earn nearly twice as much as their women counterparts,

even after accounting for education level and experience. And the disparity is wider for women of color. Researchers attribute the disparity to child care needs and discrimination by employers. Up next, it's been a decade since Eric Garner died after being placed in a chokehold by an NYPD officer on Staten Island. His death sparked a national conversation about race and policing. But what lasting impact has his death had on the fight for justice and equality? That story after the break. Wednesday marks 10 years since Eric Garner died on Staten Island after being placed in a chokehold by a member of the NYPD.

He was being arrested for allegedly selling loose cigarettes. His final words, I can't breathe, almost immediately entered the public lexicon and became shorthand for systemic. racism. WMYC's race and justice reporter, Arun Van de Kappaal, says that a decade later, Garner's parting words continue to echo across the nation, but the legacy of his death is still being sorted out. The video of 43-year-old Eric Garner's killing had a galvanizing effect on our society, when we're still trying to make sense of. That moment did feel so right with possibility. Michael Denzel Smith is the author of Innsel Smith. Invisible Man got the whole world watching, a young black man's education.

He says the killing of Garner was quickly followed by the police killing of Michael Brown, and then a cascade of killings of other unarmed black men, including Walter Scott and Philando Castile and 12-year-old Tamir Rice. All these deaths became national news. The outrage was driven by technology. Tricia Rose is a sociologist and author of Metaer, racism. She says the combination of smartphones and social media presented members of the public with something they'd never encountered before. That first time that you hear someone asking you

to not kill them. Harvard historian Khalil Gibran Muhammad says in the wake of Garner and Brown's deaths, countless young Americans became newly politicized around issues of race and policing. For them, this was an Emmett Till moment for their generation and it's going to stay with them for the rest of their lives. Vince Warren is the executive director at the Center for Constitutional Rights. He says viral videos helped change public perceptions of black people who are injured or killed by the police. So it is no longer sort of an established national narrative that this black human must have

done something wrong or was about to do something wrong so that it was fine that the police used excessive force. Warren says perceptions of police officers also changed. to the extent that society no longer granted them a blank check. That is a page that we have turned. People are not going back. Still, experts say the legacy of Garner's death isn't clear cut. On one hand, New York City criminalized the use of chokeholds,

and the number of police departments requiring officers to wear body cameras has grown since Garner's death. But research shows they don't significantly alter police behavior. Finally, criminologist Philipson's incisors. says the number of police officers charged in fatal shootings has barely shifted since 2014. Experts who wanted sweeping change say their expectations have since dimmed. The centrality of policing to the very nature of black freedom in this country

was on trial during the height of the protests inspired by Garner and others. Khalil Gibran Muhammad of Harvard. The court of public opinion largely ruled in favor. favor of more policing. Muhammad says in time, perhaps local communities will use data to hold police agencies accountable. But he doesn't expect anything dramatic in the near future. The problems from his perspective extend well beyond policing. He points to the national campaign against critical race theory, which essentially boils down

to teachings on systemic racism. And he says school districts across the country have banned books on black history. There is not one. One iota of doubt in my mind that the movement for police accountability in this country that was inspired by the deaths of Eric Darna and so many others has been an accelerant, a direct catalyst for the national backlash against racial justice in this country. Then came the video of George Floyd's killing in 2020. For Warren of the Center for Constitutional Rights, it was a last straw.

It really put me into a depression where I just literally could not watch another black human be brutalized that way. Each one of these incidents was chipping away at my soul. Warren says he decided to take a sabbatical from work. He stayed at home and played music. He even put out an EP of his music under the handle St. Woke. The first track opens with the police siren off in the distance. When Warren came back to work after a few months, he says he felt renewed. But he no longer watches those videos, saying they feed into the mass consumption of black pain.

What they're signifying is essentially a reiteration of the social order that every black human in America knows. Michael Denzel Smith was in his 20s a decade ago and was in many ways the embodiment of a young person rising up against the system. but he's now approaching middle age and feels less connected to the movement. He says there have been so many videos documenting black killings at the hands of police officers in the last decade and so few instances of consequence or punishment. To his mind, the racial order hasn't been challenged so much as reinforced. What hope are you to be left with, right? Like what does your rage even mean in the face of that?

He recounted a recent incident he witnessed at, Park. The kids at the playground were playing with their water guns. All of them were white except for one, a tall 10 or 11-year-old black boy. The boy grew upset that the others were spraying his face, so he flung his water gun at one of them. Smith says he called a kid over. I was just like, look, you have to be careful. These white people will call the police on you. He says he did what he felt he needed to do to protect the boy, but he's conflicted. Smith was at the playground that day with his young daughter. She's not yet one and a half.

He wants her to be safe, too. But as she grows older, he also wants her to hold on to her sense of wonder and adventure. I don't want to make her world small. I don't want her to feel as if she doesn't have a place here. He knows that someday he'll have to sit down with her and share certain truths, as black parents have done for generations. I want her to operate with us. awareness that the world is different for you than some of the kids that you're in daycare with.

It's just a fact. And for this reason, he says the fight cannot end. That's WMYC's Race and Justice reporter, Arun Van de Kappaul. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Jenae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.