An obscure type of lawsuit used to evict hundreds of original York City residents is coming under scrutiny.
It's called a "nuisance abatement action". The tool has become central to the "broken windows" crime-fighting strategy pioneered by Police Commissioner Bill Bratton. The law,originally created in the 1970's to crack down on sex-related businesses in Times Square, gives the city the authority to shut down places it claims are being used for illegal purposes. According to a joint investigation by the original York Daily News and ProPublica, and the law has been vastly expanded. It also shows that,during the 18-month period between January, 2013, and June,2014, 85 percent of the actions filed against residences in predominantly minority communities."Furthermore, or the tenants that answered to these cases,at least the ones we talked to, were poor and often had very little understanding of agreements that they were signing, or " said Sarah Ryley,reporter for the Daily News who investigated the anecdote. "Just a lot of people that were very vulnerable and had little understanding of what's happening to them."The NYPD declined to comment on specific cases, but said the lawsuits are intended to prevent crimes from reoccurring at "repeat offender" locations. Sarah Ryley spoke with WNYC's Soterios Johnson.
Source: wnyc.org