By The Bronx Green Party

Eric Duprey died about two miles from me, in the University Heights section of the Bronx. The 30 year old Duprey was killed – it is reported – after he fled a drug bust on his scooter, which he used to deliver for DoorDash and UberEats. 

In his path of escape – which included the sidewalk - Duprey encountered undercover NYPD Officer Eric Duran. Duran threw a filled picnic cooler, causing the fatal crash. The lethal injury: blunt force trauma to Duprey’s head. 

Thus was it that on August 23, Eric Duprey tragically joined the ever-growing list of US civilians killed by police nationwide, many of them Black or Latino. 

A historical problem, some victim names are now famous: Bronx residents such as Anthony Rosario, Hilton Vega andAnthony Baez. Spanning beyond our borough: Amadou Diallo, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, Philando Castile, George Floyd, and so many more. In 2023 alone, civilians killed by police include Tyre Nichols, pregnant Ta'Kiya Young… and now Eric Duprey.  

Despite ever renewed calls for “reform”, the lethal cycle and lack of law enforcement accountability never seems to end. 

A 13 year NYPD veteran, Eric Duran has 17 complaints on his record, most consisting of “abuse of authority”. Though many were closed as “unable to determine” (aka, he might be guilty but the evidence wasn’t conclusive), Duran’s also been the subject of two lawsuits - one with a $20,000 settlement.  

Certainly, unique aspects of this incident can be discussed. For instance:

* Duprey’s mother claims the charges of drug dealing are false. Though, what son fills his mom in on activities of that sort? But even if Duprey did try to sell, drug dealing’s not – and shouldn’t be - a capital offense. The Drug War itself can be reasonably viewed both as an ongoing human rights violation and a grave policy mistake.  With enforcement draining city resources, the Drug War heavily impacts minority communities and criminalizes voluntary activities - much as Prohibition did before. In other words – even if Duprey was dealing… so what? Doesn’t NYC law enforcement have far more valid crimes to focus on?

* Anyone in this borough knows scooters riding on the sidewalk are a danger, and a constant bane of Bronx life.

BUT – such issues cannot and should not be weaponized to demonize Duprey himself, or excuse his death as “justified.”

Such details aside, who can deny the injury inflicted by Duran’s actions was excessive force - either intentional or at minimum criminal indifference to human life?  Who could throw a cooler at a moving two wheel vehicle, and not expect grave injuries to result?  Duprey’s death has already been ruled a homicide. Duran is now suspended without pay, pending investigation… but as of this writing he remains a free man.  

Such non-response understandably frustrates a grieving community, which has now lost one of their own.

So on September 1st, friends, neighbors, and concerned citizens held a vigil for Eric – the father of three children - over at 2523 Aqueduct Avenue, the street where he died. Though I wasn’t able to attend personally, I’m told by friends who did that photos were posted, farewells written, candles burned… and sobbing mourners hugged.

Afterward, a modest group led by community activist Joshua Lopez marched north to the 52nd Precinct, – where Duran and the rest of the undercover buy and bust squad are employed.

For Lopez, what happened to Duprey hits home: his uncle, John Collado, was also murdered by an undercover NYPD officer on September 7th, 2011. 

Standing on a public sidewalk outside the “52”, the protesters assembled – 30 or so individuals.  Some hung back near the street, chanting and talking amongst themselves. Those closer to the station house rattled the gate and yelled to a row of officers who had formed a defensive line inside. Yes, a few flags were burned.  But the flames were symbolic, and under control. Nothing was thrown. There were no weapons in the crowd, and no officer could justifiably claim to have felt threatened. They were the ones with guns. 

The protesters: armed only with righteously angry and constitutionally-protected-as-free-speech words. 

The 52 precinct’s right in my neighborhood. I arrived soon after the burning of the flags had stopped. Smoke lingered in the air, causing me to speculate maybe a smoke grenade had been thrown (it had not). I’d just struck up a conversation with a local activist who had a tale to tell of being harassed by local cops, when lights began to strobe. It was NYPD vans, approaching southbound along Webster Ave. 

Those vans carried a literal battalion of uniformed NYPD officers, who marched briskly towards the crowd. They were members of the notorious Strategic Response Group (SRG),which brutally cracked civilian heads during the George Floyd protests in 2020. Though it’s a guesstimate, cops from that crew outnumbered protestors about 5 to 1.

Joined by my friends from the vigil, we retreated to Moshulu Park.

Across the street, the NYPD swarmed - targeting Joshua.  No warning, no summons – but arrest for “disorderly conduct” and “using a bullhorn”. After he’d been sprayed by toxic chemicals from a fire extinguisher (even if it had been necessary, which it wasn’t – the cop wielding it couldn’t aim properly at the flag?) Held for 4 hours prior to being released, Joshua reports a few days later he experiences lingering coughs, headaches, body aches and shortness of breath, which could all be signs of something worse.

A nearby tunnel kettled some protestors, limiting possible avenues of retreat. In the face of such a display of force, those protestors who could just… scattered. Gone in the blink was the right to assembly, or to speak words against power. Clearly that night, power disapproved of what we had to say. 

In the few minutes the “crowd dispersal” took, we filmed and took photos. While we bore witness, one impression hit me hard: the maneuvers looked exactly like an occupying army. In the eyes of those black-clad troops (in that particular moment at least) we weren’t civilians to be respected or protected… but rather “troublesome elements” to be “controlled.”

Such is far from hyperbole. Even cursory knowledge of civil rights history, and modern NYC politics can highlight how apt that framing it is.

Malcolm X himself used exactly such a comparison in a March 29, 1964 speech. Talking to the New York Militant Labor Forum, Malcolm observed: “The police in Harlem--their presence is like occupation forces, like an occupying army. They’re not in Harlem to protect us; they’re not in Harlem to look out for our welfare; they’re in Harlem to protect the interests of the businessmen who don’t even live there.”

Since then, Harlem has undergone notable gentrification, with the Bronx (sometimes called the Forgotten Borough) taking its forlorn place.  Over the decades, the occupation has not only continued… it’s amplified and turned high dystopian tech.

According to Radley Balko, author of Rise of the Warrior Cop, police militarization has long been a creeping concern. After the 1965 Watts riots, an LAPD SWAT unit was formed… spearheaded in part by Police Chief Daryl Gates. Those of us who are Gen X surely remember Gates best in relation to the Los Angeles crackdown in 1991, over riots sparked by the police beating of Rodney King. 

That was under George H.W. Bush. Whether Democrat or Republican, every successive administration has added to the trend. 

•  Bill Clinton signed the 1994 Crime Bill. Drafted by then Senator Joe Biden, the Bill exploded the prison population and fueled what Michelle Alexander labeled “The New Jim Crow”. 
•  George Bush Jr. oversaw the passage of the PATRIOT ACT, which profoundly eroded civil liberties. Biden passionately promoted that legislation, too. 
•  Spurred by pressure from the Fraternal Order of Police, President Obama lifted a 2015 ban on giving military equipment to police forces,  making it an issue of case-by-case review. 
•  Piling on as his successor, Trump lessened the justification requirements for obtaining military equipment more.  According to a report by NBC News in 2017, the Defense Department’s 1033 program shipped 7 MRAPS (Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected Vehicles) worth $12 million to law enforcement agencies, along with other military gear. And in his 2023 budget, 
•  President Biden has requested $35 Billion for “law enforcement and crime prevention”… in addition to $2 Billion in discretionary funds.

Tear gas is banned in war by several treaties. Yet today in the United States, flash bang grenades, rubber coated bullets and tear gas are often utilized in drug raids and protests… often with injurious and indiscriminate results. There’s no “aiming” with flash bangs or tear gas – everyone in range can potentially get hurt.

That’s nationwide. What of New York itself?  Helmed by retired cop and Democrat Mayor Eric Adams, NYC law enforcement consumes about $29 million dollars a day; around $10-11 billion annually (a decent chunk of it due to overtime police pay.) That’s larger than some foreign militaries. Speaking of...

Just recently, Mayor Adams returned from a trip to Israel. Having met with Israeli police and security officials on his time abroad, Adams spoke of being inspired by Israeli use of drones and motorcycles and wanting to incorporate the use of such “tools” back home. (That’s not at all surprising, given Mayor Adams’ decision back in April to add 2 robot dogs to the force.) Mayor Adam’s enthusiasm for surveillance tech is ominous in many ways. Israel and the US have long collaborated in a police tactic sharing program known as Deadly Exchange. 

Couple that with the NYPD’s use of drones to fly over large gatherings this Labor Day, and Israel’s own history of apartheid and occupation (which Mayor Adams did not choose to criticize), the prospect of an NYPD that respects US Civil Rights and Civilian Lives looks increasingly dim. 

How much oppression can $29M per day buy? And how much does it cost in lost opportunities and stunted lives?  In his April 2023 budget, Mayor Adams called for cuts to public libraries, fire departments, sanitation, parks and homeless services. Though the trims were somewhat alleviated after public outcry, just think what a New York which focused more on social services would look like. 

It’s just a guess, but most likely that alternative NYC would be a place where Eric Duprey wouldn’t feel the NEED to sell drugs to supplement his income, feed his kids, and get by. And even if he did, the money which paid for the sting operation that led to his untimely death would be rerouted to more justified law enforcement goals. Neglected rape investigations, for instance? What about homicides and violent theft?

And it for sure wouldn’t be spent on sending a virtual army of police to stop a handful of justifiably outraged civilians in Norwood from speaking up.

Almost sixty years after Malcolm X’s speech – and after the Black Panthers pioneered “policing the police” – “reform” continues to simply… not work.

We need a different solution. Be that defunding the police, switching direct oversight to local communities, ending qualified immunity, abolition – or any combination thereof - we MUST take this glimpse of occupying, militarized law enforcement as the very real threat it is. If we instead double down on incrementalism, and wait until still more are overpowered at their own “52’s”, the balance of power may be insurmountable. And our protests – much too little. And too late.

For more information, please see Status Coup's recent report on the protest and police response.