Legal Aid Society

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LAS Slams NYPD's Dehumanizing "Challenge Coins"

The Legal Aid Society decried the blatant racism on display at the NYPD’s 67th precinct (which covers East Flatbush, a neighborhood with a large West Indian community) after the revelation that collectible coins depicting dehumanizing images of Black people were sold to raise funds for an injured fellow officer in the Summer and Fall of 2017.

The “challenge coins” featured a depiction of a Black man with dreadlocks being “hunted” by white police officers, among other disturbing imagery, according to Gothamist.

Attorneys from Legal Aid condemned the tolerance shown by the NYPD for these racist expressions and pointed to it as further confirmation of the dehumanizing views of Black and Latinx New Yorkers held by many police officers.

“Not only are they making fun of the religion and the beliefs and the culture of the people whom they have committed to protect and serve,” said Anthony Posada, a supervising attorney for the Community Justice Unit at the Legal Aid Society, “they’re saying you are the hunted. You are the savages.”