NYC NOW - July 18, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: July 18, 2023

New footage reveals a Long Island police officer denying a woman translation services, a direct violation of federal laws requiring assistance for non-English speakers. And, a recent study identifies the Bronx as the third most common location for Alzheimer's Disease in the country, following Miami-Dade County and Baltimore. Also, WNYC’s Arun Venugopal visits a Brooklyn community garden providing Mauritanian cuisine, music, and a sense of belonging for city migrants. Lastly, Edward Caban, the first Latino officer to lead the NYPD in its 170-plus year history, is under the spotlight. WNYC's Elizabeth Kim and public safety reporter Samantha Max discuss his leadership and its implications for the city with Tiffany Hanssen.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Tuesday, July 18th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Newly released video shows a Long Island police officer refusing to provide a woman with translation services, even though federal laws require police to assist non-English speakers. The nonprofit Latino justice has released a video

showing a Spanish-speaking woman asked, for a translator as a Nassau County police officer at her door start speaking. Almost immediately, the officer cuts her off. Now, this is the United States of America. We speak English in the United States. Now Latino Justice says it's suing the department for failing to provide competent translation services for residents. Nassau County police have not responded to our request for comment. Nassau County is home to about 160,000 people born in Latin America who speak Spanish at home.

A report last year found that volunteers looking for help over the phone from Nassau County Police in Spanish are only successful about half the time. New research shows where Alzheimer's disease is most common across the country and the Bronx is third on that list behind Miami-Dade County and Baltimore. A study unveiled that the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Amsterdam shows almost 17% of residents 65 or older in Bronx County have Alzheimer's. Researchers say demographics can explain some of the high prevalence. Studies show black and Hispanic people are more likely to have Alzheimer's and the risk of developing the disease increases as people age. Now your forecast, 78 with scattered showers right now, chance of afternoon showers and thunderstorms.

Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. Flash flood advisory now posted to 145, mostly cloudy today in the high of 86. Mauritanian culinary delicacies, music, and a sense of belonging. W.N.C. Zerun Venegal Paul found a Brooklyn community garden has been a haven for migrants struggling to get basic services from the city. Bushwick City Farm is an overgrown ramshackle patch of greenery. A couple dozen migrants sit here, fooling around on an old piano, while a few others make dinner. It's rice with chicken.

Yes, the name in our country is Marudu. That's Mustafa El Habib. He's originally from Mauritania in northwest Africa. Can I say it in Arabic? Yeah. It's potato. Some potato. But that's potato.

Potato, yes, potato. And tomato, right? The food cooks in huge pots over hot coals. It feels like a campground. The men far prefer it to the temporary shelter across the street, where the city's been housing hundreds of other migrants. Richards, a 54-year-old from Venezuela, who withheld his last name due to safety concerns.

He said that for. facility has no showers. It's a disaster in there, he says. City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamelak says the city is arranging for a portable shower trailer outside, and in the meantime tells the men to shower at the public pool nearby. Sergio Tupac Uzarin is with the Mutual Aid Collective, which secured extra toilets for the migrants because there are hardly any in the shelter. A lot of this is just the day-to-day stuff of being like, hey, somebody makes sure that the porta potty is cleaned. They also bought prayer mats for the men, many of whom are Muslim,

and $1,200 worth of groceries. Mustafa al-Habib says he's touched. The people are so kind in this place, not that. He gestures at the city shelter. City officials say they're dealing with thousands of new arrivals and acknowledge they are struggling to keep up. Still, one volunteer, Mariel Acosta, says the men deserve better. It's pretty, you know, the humanizing and oppressive.

She pauses as we watch two migrants on the swing set nearby. Two men swinging on the kitty swings, just laughing and enjoying themselves. This is what we're here for. Sergio Tupac Uzarin says what's happening in this community garden can be replicated citywide. The more sort of spaces like this exist, the better society is going to be prepared for what's coming. City officials say their housing more than 103,000 people in the shelter. system, including more than 53,000 asylum seekers with more on the way. Arun Van de Gopal, WNYC News.

On WNYC, I'm Tiffany Hanson. New York City has a new police commissioner. Here's Mayor Adams announcing the appointment of Edward Caban as the 46th Commissioner in the NYPD's history. This is an amazing moment for not only the Spanish-speaking community, This is an amazing moment for our entire city and country of what we are doing. Caban is the first Latino officer to head the NYPD in the agency's more than 170-year history. Here to tell us more about him and what his leadership of the department means for the city is WNYC's public safety reporter Samantha Max and WNYC's Elizabeth Kim, who covers City Hall. Hi, Sam. Hi, Liz.

Hi. Hi. All right, Sam, so tell us more about Edward Caban. Who is he? What has been his record with the NYPD? So he is of Puerto Rican heritage and he grew up in the Bronx. His dad was actually also a police officer. He served in the transit police. Kaban joined the department in 1991 as a patrol officer in the South Bronx. And then he really rose through the ranks, holding all different kinds of positions throughout the department and throughout the city. And before this position that he's in now, he was serving as the first deputy commissioner. So that's the number two role in the department. So in that position, he was doing different kinds of things like developing policies. He was overseeing the training for all the officers in the department.

And he also was supervising the NYPD's disciplinary system. After he was appointed to the deputy commissioner role, the New York Post put out a report that he and a group of officers had actually, actually been accused of cheating on their sergeant exams back in the 1990s. And the Post had reported that he was found not guilty in that case, but a judge had found strong evidence that the officers had shared their answers. All right, Liz, what in that background makes him an attractive candidate for the department? Well, to start with, it's historic.

He is the first Latino to lead the department. So today was a day in which you got there, and it really felt like not just a news conference. This was a real celebration. There are people holding Puerto Rican flags. They're chanting Eddie, Eddie. And kind of like Sam has laid out for us, it's a testament to the fact that the mayor is, he's appointing the first Latino, but it's also someone who's a homegrown figure, right? Someone who grew up in the Bronx. Sam, what is the state of the department as Caban is set to take over? So he is taking over at a time when most serious crimes like homicide, robbery, and burglary

are down, but it still is like many cities across the country above the crime levels from before the pandemic. Kaban also has to lead a department with about a thousand vacant positions. And when we're talking about diversity, you know, this is a department that it needs to recruit a lot of officers. So some of the experts that I talked to were saying, well, you know, maybe having a Latino at the top of the department will help people of color feel more motivated to join the rank and file. But he also needs to boost the morale of the folks who are already on the force. When you have so many openings in a department, that means that everyone is having to work a little bit harder, you know, longer hours, being shuffled around to different positions

in order to make up for the fact that there's just not enough people. Liz, we've seen a lot of reporting recently that the police commissioner under Adams doesn't really have the same autonomy that that person might have had under former mayor. So how involved is the mayor? Well, by all accounts, he is heavily involved and he's not apologetic about that. He ran on basically his identity and that of being a former police officer. And also for the first time in a long time, we now have. have a deputy mayor for public safety in Philip Banks. That's another person who now exerts power and control over the NYPD. Sam, I want to ask about the reporting, some reporting that you've done

about Mayor Adams's more controversial public safety policies. Gabon will be inheriting those policies. Is he expected to follow the same strategies going forward? I think that's a really good question that, you know, the experts I've been speaking to are wondering, because we just, had 18 months of a commissioner who was struggling to be able to have her own vision for the department. When you have a former police captain who is running the department, you're kind of working in that person's shadow. And when you have a deputy mayor of public safety, who is also a former officer, they will also be having an influence.

So for the mayor, he's had a big focus on getting guns off the streets. He brought back the department's anti-crime units. under a somewhat different form. They're now called Neighborhood Safety Teams. He's flooded the subways with officers. He's instructed officers to take people to the hospital for mental health evaluations if officers don't think they can take care of themselves. So really a lot of signature steps that the mayor has taken that were as well part of

Sewell's stamp on the department because she was leading under him. And now we're going to see if Kaban will take a similar approach or if he will be given more autonomy. I guess the main difference between him and former Commissioner Sewell is that Kaban has decades of internal experience at the NYPD, but he is also close with the mayor, so he might want to just support the mayor's vision. WNYC's Samantha Max and Elizabeth Kim. Thanks so much to both of you. Thanks, Tiffany. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional

dives and subscribe wherever you get your podcast. We'll be back this evening.