The goal of a town hall meeting Monday in the East New York section of Brooklyn was to come up with ways to bring the police and community together. NY1's Lori Chung filed the following report.
Some say it's a lack of respect. Others say policing problems in communities of color stem from discrimination.
An airing of concerns in East New York was part of a town hall meeting also aimed at discussing ideas to improve relations with the NYPD.
"I don't feel safe when I see four white officers patrolling my block. I don't," said one person at the meeting.
"I don't have enough income to put a suit every day so you could stop stopping me," said another.
"I think it's important that people hear what's going on so that they know that they're not alone," said Vanika Mock, who attended the meeting.
Mock said she decided to attend because her 14-year-old son has been stopped by police four times since her family relocated here a few months ago.
"That's really frightening for me and for my son, because he's not been raised here," she said.
Many cited the Eric Garner and Michael Brown cases as symptoms of what they say is a broken system.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said the event itself is a response to the recent shooting death of an unarmed man in South Carolina by a police officer who now faces murder charges.
"Many people were angry and frustrated, and we want to allow people to turn their pain into purpose," Adams said.
The ideas here and at future meetings will be compiled into a report for the NYPD.
"We're going turn the report over to the commissioner and his deputy commissioner of training so that they can see on the ground how people felt," Adams said.
Residents like Samantha Harrison are hopeful that relations between cops and the community will change with effort from both sides.
"If the police is fighting with the community and the community is fighting with police, there's never going to be an opportunity for change," Harrison said.
The event was part of a series of meetings. Adams said there were no NYPD members present at the meeting so that residents could feel comfortable enough to speak freely.