Advocates Demand NYPD Erase Its Gang Database

NEW YORK CITY — Kraig Lewis slept with his six-year-old son, exhausted from studying for finals at his Connecticut university, when "a mob" of federal officers burst into his home and arrested him because he was stopped and frisked when he was 13, he said.

"Sounds like a nightmare, right?" Lewis said. "They used my dreams against me."

Lewis and dozens of protestors rallied on the steps of City Hall Thursday to demand the NYPD destroy the gang database they say unfairly ensnares people of color in the criminal justice system.

“Erase the Database” protesters, who include social justice groups and public defenders, called for the end of the "Criminal Group Database" just as Brooklyn College's Policing and Social Justice Project released its report condemning the tactic.

"Gangs are not criminal, they are social affiliations," said community organizer Victor Dempsey. "We can not allow affiliation to be criminalized, period."

Former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly established the Criminal Group Database to track alleged gang members in 2012 and it was launched in 2014.

Police say roughly 17,500 thousand people are in the database but a CUNY School of Law analysis of NYPD data puts the number at roughly 37,000, according to a Brooklyn College report on the database released Friday.

New Yorkers can be entered into the database by admitting gang membership to police or if two independent sources confirm membership to police, officials have said.

But non-criminal activity — such as sporting tattoos, gang colors or boasting on social media — might also land a person on the database, according to police, and advocates worry about how those signs are being interpreted.

"Being in the database is subjective," said community advocate Althea Stevens. "There's no concrete evidence that shows why a person should be in the database. Or how they can get out."

And, as Lewis learned on the night of his arrest, admittance into the database can have dire consequences.

Lewis, pursuing his masters at University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, was arrested during the largest gang takedowns in the city's history on on April 27, 2016, he said.

An earlier arrest landed Lewis in the database and tied him to 120 people arrested he said.

Lewis spent the next 22 months in federal custody for crimes he says he did not commit.

"I just couldn't escape the net," said Lewis. "I was collateral damage and I was just one example. There are plenty more."

This assertion is backed up by a recent CUNY School of Law report that half those arrested did not belong to the gang and two-thirds weren't convicted of any violence.

Advocates argue the database is racially discriminatory.

The Proud Boys — a white nationalist group with members recently convicted of gang assault — are not in the database, according to the Brooklyn College report.

But a group called the "Oww Oww Gang" was entered into the database in 2015, according to the Brooklyn College authors Josmar Trujillo and Professor Alex Vitale.

Only Gowanus Houses residents later told Vitale and Trujillo "Oww Oww Oww" is not a gang, it's an amateur hip hop song that was popular at the time.

Legal Aid Society and Brooklyn Defender Services attorneys have thrown support behind abolishing the gang database because it can mean higher bails, isolated prison confinement and stricter punishments for those named.

Legal Aid Society attorney Anthony Posada said the mere allegation of gang membership was enough to land an undocumented New Yorker in the hands of U.S. Immigration.

“The NYPD’s punitive and over-inclusive gang database has ensnared thousands of our clients,” said Posada. "Many who have never even been convicted of a crime."

NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea — then chief of detectives — penned an op-ed in 2018 defending the database, which he claimed is not shared with other agencies and has cut down on violent crime in New York City.

Shea disputed claims that children make up a large number of entries, saying roughly 8 percent are less than 18 years old, and the average age was 27, and database members have an average 11 prior arrests.

"The database is a vital tool for tracking, evaluating, monitoring and investigating these dangerous criminal groups and their members," wrote Shea. "The Criminal Group Database is a necessary tool."