211 - Reading in Solitary with Kraig Lewis and Alex VItale

The Katie Halper Show

Katie Halper

News

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 24 May 2019

⏱️ 95 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

patreon only: The Intercept's criminal justice journalist Alice Speri https://www.patreon.com/posts/27145199 Kraig Lewis was living in Connecticut about to get his MBA when police showed up, took him away and indicted him and 119 other young black and latino men from the Bronx neighborhood he grew up in during what was hailed as the biggest gang raid in New York history. The problem was that most of the people arrested weren't even charged with being gang members. Alex VItale is a professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and the author of "The End of Policing." They're both part of a network of researchers and advocates working to end large gang conspiracy cases. And I spoke with them about the Bronx 120 and why policing doesn't work and won't be saved by body cams or more training.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm a part of the Bronx 120. That's the group that was indicted in 2016, the largest gang raid in New York City history.
0:08.0	And we're bringing light to the injustices of what happened because on the news it was just all about the biggest raid
0:16.5	the 120 gang members but they never really brought to the light the people that were doing the good people
0:22.3	that got caught in the raid
0:23.7	that went down there as collateral damage and that's me and my story and I have a couple
0:28.4	friends that's just like that too.
0:30.9	Good afternoon everyone my name is Preet Barara and I'm the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.
0:37.4	Today we announce what is believed to be the largest gang takedown in New York City history.
0:43.0	They put on the news 120 gang members.
0:46.0	We have charged 120 defendants in two rival Bronx street gangs.
0:51.0	50, 60 people weren't gang members.
0:54.0	They were actually like civilians.
0:55.6	So on the news it says 120 gang members, what you really just took, the community.
1:01.6	That's what you should have put. We swept through the Uptown Bronx community we swept you didn't sweep 120 gang members because they weren't gang members. So why are they in the feds? The charges include allegations of racketeering, narcotics, and firearms offenses.
1:17.3	Multiple murders, attempted murders, shootings, stabbings and beatings.
1:22.8	The majority coped out to marijuana charge.
1:25.1	Like that is wrong.
1:26.3	Like they shouldn't be in the federal penitentiary.
1:30.0	Nearly 700 NYPD officers and federal agents swept through the city to make arrests and to
1:36.1	conduct court authorized searches.
1:38.7	And you're promoting that you're cleaning up the streets of gang members, but you're really not.
1:42.8	So why did we bring these charges and take these actions today?
	...

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