This course explores the ways in which objects and material culture embody personal narrative. Moving back and forth from ephemeral traces of events and experiences to the culturally invested luxury goods that create legacy to the objects that facilitate daily life, this class will use, as its primary references, examples that draw from queer and African American cultures to underscore the potential of objects to tell the stories that not only reflect majority traditions and experiences but those of the disenfranchised, the details of whose lives are often obscured. In addition to readings that will provide background for class discussion, student will be asked to play the roles of detectives, archeologists, and curators at various sites around New York City. Each student will also be asked to create an annotated material record that reveals the public and private lives of one individual. That record may consist of texts, objects or any variety of media chosen or designed by the student. This blogs serves as an archive for the work done in the context of this course and related materials that become relevant to this exploration.

Thursday, October 9, 2014

NYPD Officer’s Secret Taping Reveals Superior Ordered Him To Stop And Frisk Black Males Ages 14-21


"An NYPD officer gave a powerful assist to a class-action lawsuit against stop and frisk Thursday, according to a New York Daily News article.
Officer Pedro Serrano (pictured), who also testified in Manhattan Federal Court Wednesday, secretly recorded deputy inspector Christopher McCormack telling him to stop “the right people, the right time, the right location,” at a Bronx precinct.
“He meant Black and Hispanics,” Serrano testified on the stand Thursday. Serrano can be heard voicing that suspicion on the tape:
“So what am I supposed to do: Stop every Black and Hispanic?”
McCormack is heard saying in response:
“I have no problem telling you this. Male blacks. And I told you at roll call, and I have no problem [to] tell you this, male Blacks 14 to 21.”
McCormack also told Serrano to mainly focus on the borough’s Mott Haven neighborhood, where “robberies and grand larcenies” are apparently the norm.
Serrano said he recorded McCormack because he had received unsatisfactory performance reviews for failing to meet an alleged monthly quota: 20 summonses and five stop and frisks. Since speaking out, Serrano says his fellow officers have ostracized him as a “rat.” Serrano also claimed the quotas were backed by the Patrolman’s Benevolent Association.
Even though the recording lends credence to the argument that stop and frisk targets minorities, city lawyer Brenda Cooke got Serrano to admit that McCormack never told him to stop all Blacks and Hispanics.
“Those specific words, no,” he said."
-Amalia McCallister
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