3 And yet, public discussions about NYPD floodlight technology and the policing strategy known as “omnipresence” often focus on questions of criminality and safety: what actually reduces crime, who is being policed, whether surveillance facilitates or disrupts the safety of vulnerable neighborhoods. The lights shine into people’s rooms, making it hard for them to sleep.” 2Īs numerous studies have shown, people who are exposed to artificial light throughout the night are more likely to experience health concerns such as sleep disorders, cardiovascular issues, and cancer. Referring to the 2014 New York Police Department floodlight initiative that was instituted in housing complexes with largely Black and brown populations, Brooklyn resident Adilka Pimentel said, “It’s overwhelming. Both insurrectionary and worn in its expression, this tiredness points to the fact that surveillance technology provides one of the most pressing and ubiquitous reasons why we (still) cannot rest. When I went looking for discussions of the surveillance mechanisms present in every aspect of Black peoples’ lives, I found echoes of the same tiredness I heard in acosta and Sosa’s work. Even though I knew that things were likely to remain unexplained, that the combination of a historically Black neighborhood and new white money was enough to justify any method of policing, I wanted to see if I could learn more about what was watching me and the people I love. I wanted to know if there was any ostensible set of rules that decided when the Skywatch tower appeared on that corner of Lincoln Place, and when it just as mysteriously disappeared. Recently, I decided to find out about some of the more opaque methods of policing that I witnessed in my neighborhood. We know that we live in a world that actively promotes Black burnout and death, but must we? It is this weariness, this resigned indignation already too tired for itself (“must we?”), that struck me as I looked through the images for Sosa and acosta’s project. Or, as an online image posted by acosta asked, “MUST WE BE DEAD TO REST IN PEACE?”Īs much as Black Power Naps centers the joy and unexpectedness of reprieve, it is necessarily in deep conversation with a language of tiredness, exhaustion, and loss. 1 There is so much keeping us from laying our heads down to rest. Discussing their motivations for this piece, the artists pointed to the unending labor that has been demanded of Black people from slavery to the present day, an inherited lack of sleep that is only compounded by the conditions of transit inequalities, environmental racism, and low-wage work. The interactive space featured a “holy procrastination station,” a waterbed and a mirror which could only be seen if the viewer was lying down. Cops are merely a flimsy band-aid on a gaping wound a short-term ‘solution’ to a long-term problem.In the summer of 2018, artists Fannie Sosa and niv acosta created Black Power Naps, an installation that invited Black people to revel in the pleasure and necessity of being idle. Instead of utilizing resources to add cops to train stations, we must invest in social services that help with housing and mental health. In short-New York City is suffering from a mental health crisis. This approach is a sign of the return of ‘broken-windows’ policing from the 1990’s, which had detrimental effects for Black and Brown people that they are still suffering from. Instead of decreasing crime, cops in the subway are just giving tickets to people who jump the turnstile (known as ‘fare-evaders’) and kicking homeless people out of the station. Increasing the NYPD’s presence on the train is just a façade designed to get MTA ridership back up since the plummet from the COVID-19 pandemic. How would officers know that havoc would unfold after the train left the platform they were standing on? And if they were on the train when the incident occurred, what could they have done that wouldn’t have risked the lives of the innocent riders? Would more bullets fly? Would there have been fatalities?
We’re going to bring a visual presence to our systems.”įour months after the mayor ordered a larger police presence, Frank James, 62, boarded the N train, set off a smoke bomb, and shot 10 people while the train was in the tunnel. “People feel the system is not safe because they don’t see officers. In January, Mayor Adams deployed more NYPD officers to patrol the subways. This might sound like a decent first step, but it has proven to be ineffective.
After this week’s shooting in a Brooklyn subway station, New York City Mayor Eric Adams vowed to continue increasing police presence on subways to curb crimes.
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