Where are the police?

An opinion column a couple of days ago suggested police just stop patrolling in places citizens don’t want them. Some places in NYC now have that, according to Reuters.

“Marcy Houses resident Nisaa, a 22-year-old black woman who declined to give her last name, pointed to a nearby street corner and said that until a few weeks ago, there was always a patrol car parked there.

“She thought the decrease in police presence was a good thing because so many of Marcy's residents feared confrontations with the cops. ‘It actually makes people feel better,’ she said.”

Another woman, though, said she “used to feel more safe” with police around.

Then there’s the expert, Robert Snyder, “an associate professor at Rutgers University who has written about police and community relations.”

"’Police officers are not going to look good if they put on their uniform on and don't fight crime,’ Snyder said.”

http://news.yahoo.com/poor-york-neighborhoods-residents-ask-where-police-222159358.html

The university site has a Robert Snyder, associate professor of journalism and American studies, “author of the newly published Crossing Broadway: Washington Heights and The Promise of New York City (Cornell University Press), which is based on years of research that includes a week patrolling with the New York Police Department in Washington Heights when murder and the crack epidemic were at their greatest heights and race relations in New York City were angry and raw.”

http://news.rutgers.edu/news-source-advisory/rutgers-university-newark-expert-can-discuss-policecommunity-relations-nyc/20141204

The way the university puts it: “In the wake of the Eric Garner case, Robert Snyder, associate professor of journalism and American Studies and author of a new book on how one New York City neighborhood recovered from years of blight and crime, is available to discuss police-community relations in New York City.”