Ramon Hernandez has been sitting in a fold-up chair on his Harlem block every summer for decades. One recent evening, the 105-year-old had an evening dominoes game going with a couple of his neighbors as music played out of a nearby parked car. It’s a tradition in the historically Latino neighborhood that has been largely undisturbed for decades.
That is until “the cops started coming about two years ago,” said Edward Tineo, 42, one of the guys who plays dominoes with Hernandez.
The increased police presence “makes me feel bad. I’ve been living here for more than 40 years,” said Hernandez through his granddaughter, who translated for him. He likes to sit outside to “get some fresh air.”
A BuzzFeed News data analysis shows there has been a dramatic increase in 311 quality-of-life complaints on the block starting in 2015, the majority about noise. The uptick coincides with the neighborhood’s gentrification, with more white people moving in, and homes getting more expensive. And while not every 311 call results in a visit from the cops, officers from the local precinct do respond when they’re not handling emergencies.
None of the interactions between police and residents on this Harlem block, on West 136th Street between Broadway and Riverside Drive, have gone viral like #PermitPatty, who called police because a nonwhite girl was “illegally selling water.” Or the black woman detained in California for not smiling at a white neighbor. Or the white woman who called police because black people were having a barbecue. Or the black firefighter who had the cops called on him while doing routine safety inspections in an upscale neighborhood.
But they do have something in common. These viral incidents, on a national scale, and what’s happening locally on 136th Street show how people are quick to call authorities for harmless behavior by minorities. The resulting interactions can result in anything from a calm exchange to potential arrests.
