Police in Brooklyn flexed their muscles in Flatbush at an interesting time.
The heavy-handed action by police officers came Thursday, as the race-charged Sean Bell trial was under way in Queens, and the police union was protesting a Brooklyn art exhibit highlighting police killings of blacks, and Commish Ray Kelly was calling for an investigation into bias by his own officers.
In the predominantly African-American section of Flatbush on Thursday night, uniformed officers in droves held up traffic and stopped each and every driver.
Asked by one driver why they were holding up citizens for such a long stretch of distance and time, a supervising officer said they were looking for drunks.
Told by that driver - actually, me - that the best and most efficient way to catch drunk drivers was to pull over cars that are weaving, the officer said, "Thanks," and kept up the operation.
At least we didn't get arrested for driving while arrogant.
Reached the following day for his take on the matter, State Sen. Eric Adams, a former police official, said he found the operation disturbing because, to his knowledge, the police do not take such actions in Brooklyn Heights or other similar neighborhoods.
"We're dealing with a police department that is overly aggressive and believes that no one is checking them," Adams said.
Adams said that the City Council has failed to enforce requirements that police report in a timely way on their stop-and-frisks, with race breakdowns of the actions.
As for a tie-in between the police operation Thursday night (which was along the east side of Prospect Park on Flatbush Avenue) and other controversial happenings (such as Commissioner Kelly announcing a Rand Corporation study of stop-and-frisks by his officers), Adams said, "The police department is known for sending messages of that kind."
Adams added that Flatbush and its neighboring African-American communities are being singled out.
"Drinking is an action that takes place in all parts of the city," he said.
"You should be seeing cars stopped along Montague Street (in affluent Brooklyn Heights) also. But the reality is, they are not."
(By the way, today's Daily News article on the controversial art exhibit knocking police is especially interesting.)
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