Author Archives: aaronferrer

Stop and frisk was a controversial topic throughout the time Michael Bloomberg was the Mayor of New York City. However new Mayor Bill de Blasio and his newly appointed police commissioner Bill Bratton plan to move away from it.

In the first quarter of Mayor de Blasio’s time as Mayor, stops have been reduced by 86 percent. According to the Wall Street Journal, from Jan 1st to Mar 31st, there were roughly 14,000 stops in 2014 compared to nearly 100,000 in 2013 during the same time frame.

Back in early August 2013, Judge Shira A. Scheindlin of Federal District Court in Manhattan found that the policy was unconstitutional and “a policy of indirect racial profiling.” The city is also planning to settle a class action suit, agreeing to reform the stop-question- and frisk policy.

Bratton said the practice would not be used in a discriminatory way.

“We will not break the law to enforce the law, that’s my solemn promise to every New Yorker, regardless of where they were born, where they live, or what they look like,” he said. “Those values aren’t at odds with keeping New Yorkers safe, they are essential to long term public safety.”

But many people have already been affected by this policy over the years when it was at its height.

The New York Civil Liberties Union reports that nine out of 10 stops end with the person being innocent. Since 2002, over 80 percent of people stopped are either Black or Latino. 2011 had the most stops with 685,724, with 88 percent being black or Latino and more than half being between the ages of 14-21. During this time only 9 percent of people stopped were white, 2 percent lower than its usual percentage of about 11 percent.

Despite these numbers and the drop in stop-and-frisk numbers since de Blasio took office, Bratton believes components of the policy are needed.

Bratton wants to reduce the number of stops by reforming the policy. Previously, he told Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson, it was an overused and a flawed system that relied too much on young inexperienced officers sent into high crime areas.

“You cannot police without it, if you did not have it then you’d have anarchy,” Bratton said.

For my podcast I would like to do ticket prices at Madison Square Garden for New York Knick games. The prices are relatively high for games, even when they are not playing a team packed with stars or are even good.  The team is also struggling to put a good product on the court and some might not think the prices are justified for what they came to see. To sit in the “nosebleeds” or top section at the garden it ranges anywhere from $100-$200, especially if a quality team is in town. Other teams who are a at least decent offer gifts and cheaper ticket prices to attend games.  The Detroit Pistons, who are playing just as bad as the Knicks this year have an average of $19 for an upper level seat, the lowest in the NBA. The Brooklyn Nets have tickets currently for similar seating sections priced at $10.

I would interview fans/ticket holders and get there thoughts on the prices to gauge how they feel about the team and the prices. I could also interview businesses in the area to see how the performance of the team affects their business in terms of maybe prices, or amount of customers when they play if at all. There a few angles I can take but this is my current idea.

Aaron Ferrer

For my photo assignment, I am interested in covering a Baruch baseball player who has a good chance of being drafted by the MLB. His name is Nicholas Pomo-Roman. Baruch is not a division I school and it’s not common for players from a school like Baruch to be touted as a potential professional prospect for the upcoming 2014 Draft.

Aside from getting his thoughts and feelings of being a touted prospect, I would like to report his training regimen, how he prepares for games, practices, and a little of his life off the field, including family reactions. I am not sure if it will be a “day in the life” type of thing but I would also like to cover his life off the field and how he handles being a student athlete, especially one who attends a school mostly known for its business school, not its athletics. I would also like to find out if he believes or even wants a career as a professional athlete, or if he just wants to obtain his degree in Business Communication.

The photo essay would be a combination of these things to give people an inside look of how someone who has a potential future in the eyes of the public and how they deal with that spotlight. People are always curious as to how athletes deal with these things like the media, publicity, and fame early on, which can be his possible future and I want to try to give those people, myself included, an opportunity to see this in the grand scheme of things.