Sergeant Edwin Raymond is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by a group of New York City police officers who have become famous as “the N.Y.P.D. 12.” They claim that, despite a 2010 statewide ban, officers are forced to meet monthly quotas for arrests and summonses—and that those quotas are enforced disproportionately on people of color. “They can’t enforce [quotas] in Park Slope, predominantly white areas,” Raymond says. “But yet here they are in Flatbush, in Crown Heights, in Harlem, Mott Haven, south side of Jamaica, enforcing these things.” He walks Jennifer Gonnerman through the process by which so-called quality-of-life or broken-windows policing—advocated forcefully by the former New York police commissioner William Bratton—led to a form of systemic racism in policing. Although he was concerned about what blowing the whistle would do to his career, Raymond was promoted to sergeant, and he continues to hear from people around the world who are concerned about the spread of quota policing—which he calls “Bratton’s cancer.”
Daily
Our flagship newsletter highlights the best of The New Yorker, including top stories, fiction, humor, and podcasts.
The New Yorker Radio Hour
An N.Y.P.D. Whistle-Blower, and a Tale of Old Times Square
Edwin Raymond called out the police for systemic racism—and lived to tell the tale. And David Simon says that America has yet to reckon with the impact of pornography.
On Television
“The Deuce” and the Birth of Porn
The show is a classic David Simon joint, in which sex workers and porn actors are treated like any other alienated workforce.
By Emily Nussbaum
The Political Scene Podcast
What to Expect from Trump’s First Criminal Trial
A cast of characters from Donald Trump’s past is due to appear in the first-ever criminal trial of a former President of the United States.
Critics at Large
“Civil War” ’s Unsettling Images
Alex Garland’s latest film, in which the U.S. has collapsed into brutal internecine conflict, has polarized audiences with its depiction of violence—and its evasion of politics. In art and in life, how do such visuals change the viewer?