NYC NOW - May 16, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: May 16, 2023

The Adams administration's budget proposal would cut millions of dollars from a program that delivers meals to New York City’s senior citizens. Plus, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy will nominate Michael Noriega to fill a state Supreme Court seat open since last summer. And finally, a recent NYPD arrest in Brooklyn, is raising questions about how police use force when a child is in harm’s way.

Good evening and welcome to NYC Now. I'm Jene Pierre for WNYC. In New York City, the Adams administration is set to cut millions of dollars from a program that delivers meals to seniors. City Council member Crystal Hudson chairs the committee on aging. She says those cuts would be a problem for the city's most vulnerable residents. Amid such challenging times with high food inflation and economic uncertainty, many seniors who are COVID-19 vulnerable are still not fully comfortable in congregate settings

making these cuts on meals extremely concerning. The number of New Yorkers over the age of 65 is expected to increase over the next few decades, outpacing all other age groups in the city's population. Now to New Jersey, where Governor Phil Murphy has nominated Michael Noriega to fill a state Supreme Court seat open since last summer. The appointment makes Noriega

the Garden State's third ever Hispanic justice and the first whoever worked as a public defender. WNYC's Nancy Solomon has more. Noriega grew up in Union City and works as an immigration lawyer at the law office of John Bramnick, a Republican state senator. Noriega says he spent his career devoted to his clients. Today I vow to work harder than I have ever worked before to honor my parents' sacrifice, to leave my mark, and to uphold my family's troops. tradition of respect for the laws of this wonderful country. His nomination is for the seat previously held by Barry Albin, a liberal who retired last

summer. Murphy has kept up a New Jersey tradition of keeping the court ideologically balanced. Stay close. There's more after the break. In Brooklyn, a recent NYPD arrest is raising questions about how police use force when a child is in harm's way. The incident in question was captured on a cell phone video. It shows a police officer pushing a father who's holding his 20-month-old child. WNYC reporter Bahar Oostodon has the story. It was late at night on a Monday in April.

Three dads, their toddlers, and some friends were gathering at the end of their block in Flatbush. They just left their homeless shelter to pick up some snacks at the corner bodega. John Guerra was one of them. We got chips, some milk. What else they got? Like some cookies.

Yeah, some candies. He said the kids were playing with some toys when the parents put a song on the stereo. Shortly after, a group of police officers arrived saying they got a 3-1-1 noise complaint. It wasn't no rap. It wasn't drill music. It wasn't R&B. It was. Baby shirt do-d-do-do-d-d-do. Police asked Leticia Maldonado, who owned the speaker, to hand it over. Where's the speaker? I said, miss, what do you mean?

What are you asking me for a speaker for? Arrest her. One of the dads pulled out his phone to film. Gera, holding his young son, approached the officers, yelling at them to stop being rough with Maldonado. The video shows one officer shoving Gera twice. Security camera footage from the hair salon on the block showed five officers tussling with Gera while the boy was in his arms. Then five more officers arrived on the scene. Gera says they pushed him against a metal grate and kicked him over and over again. He kept beating me up, talking about, stop resisting arrest.

I wasn't resisting arrest at all. I had my child in my hand and everything. Another dad, Hakeem Durant, watched from the side with his daughter in a stroller. And I'm like, yo, officers chill. Like, he got his baby. Like, let him release him from his baby and then y'all chest tossing. The incident poses a number of questions. What should police officers do if they feel threatened or if they're trying to arrest someone who's holding a baby or with a child?

Joanna Miller is with the New York Civil Liberties Union. Any human being who has any trace of humanity would know that this is not the right way to go about this. The fact that this whole thing started with a noise complaint is a travesty. Why is it even the NYPD that it goes to a noise complaint? You know, they only have one tool and that's force. Miller says officers could have issued summonses for the charges instead of arresting Gera while he was holding his son.

Gara's attorney has since filed a motion, claiming that he was falsely arrested and subjected to excessive force. He plans to sue the city and the officers involved. Police records claim that Gera ignored officers' orders to step back and pushed one of them. The record goes on to say that Officer Victor Kwok then pushed Gera back confirming the video. Kwok has received two formal complaints of police misconduct with the city's civilian complaint review board. one in 2019 for use of force. Andrew Zond is an attorney with the Center for Family Representation. If the police are of the belief that a person is resisting arrest,

certainly police will get rough on a regular basis, whether a person is holding a child or not. Gera was ultimately arrested that night. He said officers drove his son to the precinct in a separate police car and held the boy upstairs for over 10 hours while he was jailed. The NYPD did not respond to our list of questions, including who was responsible for the boy's care. I felt broken. My son was crying to the top of his lungs, and my son got separation anxiety. They didn't even have a bottle for him or nothing.

According to Gera, police told him they would call his cousin to get the boy. I gave the officer a note to get to my cousin when he came, to tell him, like, what, like, let him. People know what he's allergic to. He doesn't eat like rice or noodles and stuff. I told him they're pamper-sized, what type of wipes he can use. Gera was charged with disorderly conduct, obstruction of governmental administration, and endangering the welfare of a child. It turns out, Gera's son wasn't ever with his cousin,

but instead was turned over to the New York City Administration for Children's Services. I asked him where my child was. They kept telling me that he was with my cousin. He wasn't even with my cousin. Again, attorney Andrew Zond with the Center for Family Representation. One could very easily see the police attempting to add and endangering the welfare of a child's charge and the matter being referred to ACS if the child is caught up in an altercation involving an arrest, even if the underlying reason for an arrest has nothing to do with the child.

According to the NYPD Patrol Guide, the arrest of a parent in and of itself doesn't actually require officers to contact. ACS. But in this case, officers gave the boy to the agency who then handed him over to his mother who flew in from Texas to pick him up. A week later, Gera lost custody in a Dallas court hearing. He couldn't travel to the hearing because of his open criminal case stemming from his arrest in Flatbush. The Texas judge didn't allow him to appear virtually. That original noise complaint changed the course of John Gera's life. They took my life away from me. My son changed my life. My son changed my life. My son changed my life.

Since the arrest, Gera's friends and neighbors say police have been patrolling the block in unmarked cars every night. Without his son, Gera has to move out of the neighborhood and re-enter the homeless intake process. The city will then assign him a new shelter. That's WNYC reporter Bihar Ostadon. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday. Three times a day. back tomorrow.