As they prepared to leave their hotel on the first morning, the four trainers, all white, were nervous. They’d be teaching about bias to a mostly Black group of officers.

They were surprised to find that the group engaged the material more than their mostly white students at the Suffolk County Police Department’s academy. Several Ferguson officers noted that a local colloquialism for ordering from a popular Asian food spot — “going to the Chinaman” — was probably offensive. The restaurant’s owners aren’t even Chinese.

Bias training often gets eye-rolls from officers, but this program tends to elicit authentic conversation and self-reflection, say the cops who developed it. That’s because it approaches the emotionally charged subject of racial bias from an understanding of brain science, according to Suffolk Deputy Police Commissioner Risco Mention-Lewis.

“Once you get me to stop defending myself, then I can listen, and I think that’s what our training does,” she said.

The brain makes shortcuts, the trainers explained. This is why you’re able to sitll raed tihs wouthit a porbelm — our brains use the first and last letters to recognize the words despite the jumble in-between.

Cops draw inferences about situations faster and with higher accuracy than most people, the trainers continued. But no person gets it right every time. When cops get it wrong, people can die.

Those instances are known as fast or slow traps. A fast trap is a split-second decision based on an assumption. An officer might arrive at a domestic call and focus on a male subject, assuming him to be the aggressor — but Ferguson has higher rates of female aggressors in domestic calls, said Chief Jason Armstrong. That misplaced attention can threaten everyone.

Slow traps happen gradually. The trainers played a dashcam video of the traffic stop that resulted in Sandra Bland’s death. The officer was about to let Bland off with a warning, but escalated the situation when she questioned his actions, eventually threatening Bland with a Taser and arresting her. The slow trap was his apparent perception that her attitude equated to non-compliance. Bland died in custody three days later, by suicide, according to police.

That resonated with several Black female officers. They described their own experiences being seen as “the angry Black woman.”

Ferguson’s force was mostly white when Brown was killed. It is now 60% officers of color. Reforms are mandated by the city’s consent decree with DOJ, which requires training on bias-free policing. The Suffolk group went to Missouri after being recommended by DOJ.

The training concluded with a presentation to several community leaders, including City Council Member Fran Griffin. She’d heard that officers fall asleep during these classes, she said, and wanted to know what they actually learned.

A senior officer replied that trainers have to buy into what they’re teaching, which happened for him. A young patrol officer said she usually races from call to call, but she’ll slow down between calls to clear her head.

Mention-Lewis told Griffin that the training fits into a larger philosophy of procedural justice reform.

“Departments are only legitimate when they earn their communities’ trust, and they earn it by being procedurally just,” she said.

This first training by the SCPD isn’t meant to move the needle on racial bias in policing, Mention-Lewis said. It teaches there is a needle. Departments are being asked to navigate communities of color in new ways. They can’t do that until they recognize how differently they’ve been navigating them, compared to other settings the officers may be more familiar with.

The training avoids teaching bias as a Black and white issue, to avoid making people feel defensive or guilty about who they are. It uses the science of the mind to slow-walk its audience to an understanding of race. Prior to the 1960s, racism was acceptable, Mention-Lewis said. After the Civil Rights era, mainstream society decided that to be a good person, you had to be colorblind. Now, she said, we’re trying to take off the colorblind glasses, see the unconscious biases we’ve learned, and stop the harm they cause.

People with power over others need to check their biases the most. It takes courage to look at yourself through the eyes and experiences of others, Mention-Lewis said. And teaching it requires compassion.

“Officers want to be heroes and save people and do a good job, and it’s hurtful to not be seen that way,” she said. “No different than people who think they’re colorblind, and have to acknowledge that they might have biases.”

Danney is a freelance journalist based in Brooklyn.

Officer Joshua Jiminez helped resuscitate an unconscious 5-month-old Bronx boy who fell desperately ill last week, police said.

“I’m happy to be a father,” devoted dad Samy Figueroa, 19, told the Daily News. “He keeps me out of the streets. I want to get a job now.”

Little Cayden Figueroa, born two months prematurely on July 27, fell ill a few days ago with flu-like symptoms, Figueroa told The News.

Last Thursday, the boy’s mom Nicole Adame, 18, and grandmother, Sandra Sosa, noticed Cayden was struggling to breathe shortly after 9 a.m. When the infant vomited, the two women called for help.

Officers Jiminez and Brian McGee arrived at the Morris Heights residence to find the child was unconscious.

Jiminez, an April graduate of the Police Academy, cleared a buildup of mucus in the child’s throat and began performing CPR, police sources said.

Within seconds, Cayden regained consciousness and started breathing normally. Arriving medics rushed him to Bronx Lebanon Hospital, and he was released about two hours later.

Cayden was home to greet the New Year, and slept peacefully this weekend as his relatives celebrated his return.

His grateful grandfather Santiago Figueroa, 47, praised the efforts of Jiminez and McGee.

“I want to thank the police because they came fast and got here in time,” he said.

They dashed out into the frigid night in whatever they were wearing, without jackets, without shoes, just holding on to their lives.

They were the lucky ones.

A raging fire quickly swept through the five-story building on Prospect Ave. at E. 187th St. — taking with it 12 lives — including a 1-year-old child.

The toddler’s final moments were spent in a bathtub, held by its mother, as they perished, sources told the Daily News.

Heartbreak was etched of the faces of firefighters and medics who tried in vain to save the victims.

Five people perished inside the 25-apartment building, and seven died at two hospitals, authorities said. Three of the other victims were children.

Four others were in critical condition at St. Barnabas Hospital and Jacobi Medical Center, officials said.

Twelve other people were rescued from the building, Mayor de Blasio said.

Among the missing is a U.S. Army soldier.

Kwabena Mensah, 62, said his 28-year-old son, Emmanuel, was home for the holidays. Mensah said his son’s roommate last saw him when the fire broke out on the third floor.

“He was telling the roommate to not come out of the apartment because there was smoke. But when they rescued everyone from the windows, we couldn’t find him. I went to four hospitals, I can’t find him,” Mensah told The News.

At St. Barnabas Hospital, Brian Whittaker, 36, was lending his support to an injured friend’s relatives.

“It’s such a tragedy because they lost so many family members,” Whittaker explained. “The rest of the family is upstairs in the back. They keep passing out and crying. The father is burnt up real bad.”

Whittaker’s friend was badly burned and is in a coma at Jacobi Medical Center. The man’s daughter and three nieces were killed, Whittaker explained.

“They were on the fifth floor so they weren’t able to make it. Who knows how intense the heat was? I saw it on the news and got a call from a bunch of friends. We came over here around midnight and been here since.”

Witnesses recalled terror in the bone-chilling night.

Thierme Diallo fled the building in a panic, awoken by a neighbor.

“Someone knocked on my door yelling ‘Fire! fire! fire!’ I left my cellphone. I took only my wallet because I need to save myself.”

Diallo shivered in his sandals and gym shorts.

“I don’t know how I got out. By the exit there was glass coming down in the flames. I didn’t have socks or shoes. Nothing.” Luc Hernandez, a fourth-floor resident, said she came home about 15 minutes after the fire started and “saw black smoke everywhere.”

The shaken 37-year-old told The News she rushed into her apartment, grabbed her 11- and 7-year-old boys and scrambled down the fire escape.

Meanwhile, someone who lives across the street from the blaze said he saw children rushing down metal grate fire escapes.

“All they had was shorts and shirts,” Rafael Gonzalez said. “No socks. No nothing. I know they were cold. They were screaming for help.”

Gonzalez, 19, said it seemed like the firefighters were so busy battling the blaze they couldn’t help the kids right away.

Another resident, Esther Sakyi, 49, was making a phone call in her fourth-floor bedroom around 7 p.m. when she first noticed something was amiss.

“I was so cold so I went to the living room to see if the heater was working and smelled smoke,” Sakyi told the Daily News on an MTA bus headed for a hotel in Brooklyn where evacuees will be temporarily housed. “I rushed to open the door and the smoke just hit me and pushed me back so I closed it and went to the fire escape.”

She fled into the frigid night before putting on her clothes.

“I was naked,” she said. “I didn’t have time to put clothes on. I didn’t know what was going to happen.”

The smell from the thick smoke lingered long after the flames were gone as Mayor de Blasio visited the fire scene.

“This is the worst fire tragedy we have seen in this city in at least a quarter of a century,” de Blasio said standing on a street filled with black ice.

“We’re shocked by this loss,” Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said, calling the tragedy “historic.”

The men spoke just blocks away from a 1990 arson at the Happy Land Social Club that claimed the lives of 87 people.

More than 160 firefighters responded to the five-alarm blaze near the Bronx Zoo. The inferno broke out at 6:51 p.m. on the first floor and quickly spread upward. Firefighters responded in three minutes, after receiving more than a dozen 911 calls.

Attempts to reach the building owners were unsuccessful.

Milka Garcia, who lives on the fifth floor of the building said she came home to find her children had been evacuated.

Garcia, 40, said her three kids — one girl and two boys — saw tons of smoke and had to get out through an emergency door.

She said her 10-year-old daughter went to school with one of the victims, who’s about 8 years old, at Public School 205.

“This is horrible,” Garcia said of the fire. “It makes me sad because they were my neighbors, and friends of my daughter’s.”

City Councilman Ritchie Torres said he cried when he learned a child was among the dead in the disaster inside his district.

“It’s traumatic and tragic,” he said. “The only silver lining is the heroism of the FDNY.”

“We’re all struggling with unanswered questions and broken hearts,” said Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.

With Elizabeth Elizalde, Rocco Parascandola, Ginnie Teo, Bruce Diamond

All told, there were 973 heat complaints on Monday, 2,305 on Tuesday, and 2,712 on Wednesday, according to the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development. That includes Eddie Williams, 49, who was living in his studio apartment without heat and hot water since August until the city took emergency measures to assist.

Williams and other tenants at 632 Halsey St. in Brooklyn were forced to boil water for baths and used electric hot plates to cook.

“It was hell,” said Feelo Lopez, 34, who lives in one-bedroom apartment on the second floor. “It became very frustrating asking people to use their showers and constantly eating out. It’s very hard to keep a positive outlook when your landlord doesn’t care.”

Lopez and other tenants repeatedly called 311 to report their landlord and reached out to Legal Aid lawyers for assistance in court.

The city spent over $8,000 to cover repairs to finally get the heat back up.

2899109 2017-12-28T20:19:22+00:00 2018-04-07T09:25:26+00:00 https://www.nydailynews.com/2017/12/28/car-torching-mobster-82-hit-with-8-year-death-sentence/ https://www.nydailynews.com/2017/12/28/car-torching-mobster-82-hit-with-8-year-death-sentence/#respond Thu, 28 Dec 2017 20:17:33 +0000 https://www.nydailynews.com?p=2899226&preview_id=2899226 An elderly gangster’s road rage could cost him the rest of his life.

Vincent Asaro received an eight-year sentence Thursday for ordering the burning of a car that cut him off — and the 82-year-old says the hard time is a “death sentence.”

It was a dramatic finish in Brooklyn federal court for the Bonanno capo, who was banished to prison with his family watching.

Two years ago, prosecutors came at Asaro with charges that he participated in a 1969 murder and the notorious 1978 Lufthansa Airlines heist immortalized in the movie “Goodfellas.” That trial ended with a stunning acquittal.

Earlier this year, prosecutors filed new charges saying that in 2012, an enraged Asaro made underlings track down and a car that cut him off and light it on fire.

Asaro pleaded guilty in June and apologized Thursday for the “stupid thing I did.”Prosecutors urged at least 15 years for the octogenarian with a life of crime.

“This defendant has never been held accountable for his actions,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsay Gerdes said.

But the defense claims authorities were out for revenge on an aging man in failing health.

Elizabeth Macedonio said prosecutors wanted the judge to take the criminal justice system and “turn it on its head.”

“I have no illusions that Mr. Asaro will be rehabilitated by a prison stint,” said Judge Allyne Ross.

“If he had not aged out of a life of crime at the age of 77, I have little hope that he will do so,” Ross said.

Asaro asked be shipped to a New Jersey or Connecticut prison so he could be close to his family.

“I don’t care what happens to me at this point, your honor. What you sentenced me to is a death sentence,” Asaro said.

Acting Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Bridget Rohde said “Today’s sentence holds Asaro accountable not only for using his power as a member of organized crime to address a perceived slight by another motorist, but for a lifetime of violent criminal activity.”

Macedonio said she planned to appeal the sentence she said was excessive.

]]> https://www.nydailynews.com/2017/12/28/car-torching-mobster-82-hit-with-8-year-death-sentence/feed/ 0 2899226 2017-12-28T20:17:33+00:00 2018-04-07T09:25:26+00:00 https://www.nydailynews.com/2017/11/03/nicole-malliotakis-hangs-for-sale-sign-on-city-hall-to-show-reality-of-mayor-de-blasios-new-york/ https://www.nydailynews.com/2017/11/03/nicole-malliotakis-hangs-for-sale-sign-on-city-hall-to-show-reality-of-mayor-de-blasios-new-york/#respond Fri, 03 Nov 2017 16:27:59 +0000 https://www.nydailynews.com?p=2966602&preview_id=2966602 Republican mayoral candidate Nicole Malliotakis is hoping to hang the testimony of a shady donor around Mayor de Blasio’s neck — by hanging a “For Sale” sign on City Hall.

“This is what’s going on here at City Hall,” Malliotakis said, hanging a sign on the gate outside. “This is the reality of Bill de Blasio’s New York. This is a tale of two cities, where he, his friends, the developers, are doing extremely well and are making a lot of money, yet the rest of New York continues to struggle.”

In the final weeks before the election, de Blasio, an incumbent Democrat, has been dogged by the testimony of his donor, Jona Rechnitz, in a corruption trial of a municipal union leader. Rechnitz has said that in addition to showering gifts on law enforcement figures in exchange for favors, he also forked over $193,000 to de Blasio — and made it explicit he expected favors in return.

Malliotakis, whose campaign has focused largely on quality of life issues, on Friday tried to seize the Rechnitz storyline in the run-up to Tuesday’s election, saying the election will be more than a referendum on issues like homelessness and mass transit.

“The people in this city are going to have an opportunity to vote and vote on the issue of corruption and pay to play,” she said.

The Staten Island assemblywoman has sought to highlight her call in Albany for disgraced Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to step down, long before others jumped on board following his arrest, over payments made to women who accused other members of sexual harassment. She’s also been calling on voters to support a ballot question that seeks to strip crooked pols of their pensions.

And more broadly, she urged them to vote in what experts expect to be a very low turnout election.

“New Yorkers can’t be complacent,” she said.

De Blasio has dismissed Rechnitz as a liar who has exaggerated how often they spoke — but refuses to release phone records or schedules to back up his claims.

“I’m ready to bring my reform movement to City Hall and I ask the people in November to join me in taking these For Sale signs off the gates of City Hall,” she said.

]]> https://www.nydailynews.com/2017/11/03/nicole-malliotakis-hangs-for-sale-sign-on-city-hall-to-show-reality-of-mayor-de-blasios-new-york/feed/ 0 2966602 2017-11-03T16:27:59+00:00 2018-04-07T12:56:06+00:00 https://www.nydailynews.com/2017/11/03/iphone-x-release-draws-huge-lines-of-apple-lovers-willing-to-shell-out-1000-for-the-futuristic-device/ https://www.nydailynews.com/2017/11/03/iphone-x-release-draws-huge-lines-of-apple-lovers-willing-to-shell-out-1000-for-the-futuristic-device/#respond Fri, 03 Nov 2017 15:55:29 +0000 https://www.nydailynews.com?p=2967520&preview_id=2967520 The $1,000 iPhone X hit stores Friday — drawing long lines of techies clamoring for its crystal-clear display and futuristic facial recognition system.

The line outside the flagship Apple store on Fifth Ave. stretched around the block hours after the wallet-busting device landed on shelves.

“It’s an icon,” said Brazilian tourist Marcus Carpes, 52.

The new phone boasts an all-glass design and a slew of new features — including a face unlock, wireless charging, a souped-up camera and water-resistant frame.

The iPhone X is missing one key component: the home button.

The 5.8 inch display allows users to swipe up from the bottom to return to the home screen.

Apple’s latest offering, released just six weeks after the iPhone 8, drew mostly positive reviews from critics and a warm reception from investors.

Shares rose 2.72% in mid-day trading.

“The Super Bowl for Apple is the iPhone X,” GBH analyst Daniel Ives said. “That is the potential game changer.”

Amanda Costa, 24, was so eager to get her hands on the ultra-sleek device that she arrived at the Apple store at 6 a.m.

“This is our last day in New York so we wanted to take this opportunity,” said Costa, who was visiting from Brazil. “It’s so expensive in Brazil.”

Basha Goldwater, a 16-year-old from Midtown who is the captain of her high school robotics team, said she couldn’t wait to swap out her banged-up iPhone 6.

“I’m excited for the new camera and the face recognition technology,” she said. “And the whole front is the screen.”

Randy Goldwater said he hoped that the $1,000 he was shelling out — not including taxes — wouldn’t go to waste. “This should last her a while hopefully,” he said. “They’re so expensive.”

]]> https://www.nydailynews.com/2017/11/03/iphone-x-release-draws-huge-lines-of-apple-lovers-willing-to-shell-out-1000-for-the-futuristic-device/feed/ 0 2967520 2017-11-03T15:55:29+00:00 2018-04-07T12:56:13+00:00 https://www.nydailynews.com/2017/05/26/sailors-and-marines-team-up-with-habitat-for-humanity-to-build-houses-during-fleet-week-in-nyc/ https://www.nydailynews.com/2017/05/26/sailors-and-marines-team-up-with-habitat-for-humanity-to-build-houses-during-fleet-week-in-nyc/#respond Fri, 26 May 2017 19:10:14 +0000 https://www.nydailynews.com?p=3259179&preview_id=3259179 They arrived on destroyers — and then helped build houses.

Twenty sailors and two Marines joined forces at a Habitat for Humanity house in Queens on Friday, one of five local sites revitalized during this year’s Fleet Week celebration.

“It’s nice to just show the community that we care. Even though we’re here to enjoy ourselves, we do care about the community as well, and give back,” Raymond Martinez, a Marine from Texas, told the Daily News.

The 22-year-old volunteer helped build a fence around the Jamaica property that’s one of 23 sites Habitat NYC purchased from the city’s housing authority.

“It was fun. I’ve never done something like this,” Sklyer Mendoza, a 22-year-old Marine originally from Arizona, said after ripping out insulation and gutting the house’s interior.

Both men said it was their first trip to New York.

“It’s a very busy city,” Martinez marveled.

Mendoza said he caught a Billy Joel concert before reporting for construction duty.

“It was awesome,” he gushed.

Organizers said 150 service members pitched in for the two-day, citywide event, with some working alongside Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.

This site in Jamaica had been abandoned for a decade and eventually will go to a low-to-moderate income family that applies and qualifies.

About half the team who worked on it Friday had volunteered at their local Habitat chapters before, coordinator Jennifer Schwerin said.

“They weren’t required to (volunteer). They wanted to be here for the day, which I think was really amazing,” she said, explaining more service members expressed interest in the project than there were slots to fill.

She praised the sea service members’ military precision and ability to work as a team.

“They get more done in a day than we typically do in a week,” Schwerin said. “They wanted to work through lunch. They want to get it done. They felt really strongly about what they were doing here.”

Habitat’s New York City chapter has served 550 families in five boroughs since it started in 1984.

Its goal is to provide the types of affordable home ownership opportunities that can transform a family’s financial status — a difficult proposition in a notoriously expensive market where the home ownership rate is a paltry 31%, less than half the national level of 63.9%.

Just 227 of the 6,844 planned units of affordable housing granted city aid last year are being built for purchase, according to Habitat NYC.

The rest are rentals.

Schwerin said the military members who volunteered Friday didn’t just build houses, they helped build stronger communities.

“We’re grateful that they choose to spend their time with us while they’re here in New York City,” she said.

]]> https://www.nydailynews.com/2017/05/26/sailors-and-marines-team-up-with-habitat-for-humanity-to-build-houses-during-fleet-week-in-nyc/feed/ 0 3259179 2017-05-26T19:10:14+00:00 2018-04-08T02:20:49+00:00 https://www.nydailynews.com/2017/05/07/man-arrested-for-stabbing-nypd-cop-during-daughters-first-communion-party-in-queens/ https://www.nydailynews.com/2017/05/07/man-arrested-for-stabbing-nypd-cop-during-daughters-first-communion-party-in-queens/#respond Sun, 07 May 2017 22:14:44 +0000 https://www.nydailynews.com?p=3324901&preview_id=3324901 Getting stabbed in the arm at his daughter’s First Communion party was frightening — and the last thing a Queens cop expected, his wife said Sunday.

Ana Diaz said guests at the family’s East Elmhurst home were having a good time Saturday night when a total stranger simply walked through the front door and crashed the party.

Diaz said her police officer husband, Luis, was in another part of the house when the intruder appeared.

“My husband was downstairs in the basement playing with the kids when this man came inside the house,” Diaz recalled. “So we called him to take him out.”

When Luis Diaz, 43, tried to kick the man out of his home, Diego Velasco, 18, allegedly stabbed him twice in the left arm, authorities said Sunday.

Velasco was charged with felony assault in the knifing of Diaz and a 59-year-old relative of the cop’s, officials said. Both the officer and his attacker were treated at New York-Presbyterian Hospital Queens and released, police said.

“It was very scary,” Diaz said as she stood outside the house, where dried pools of blood trailed to the corner.

Velasco was shackled at the ankles and cuffed behind his back as he arrived at the 115th Precinct stationhouse on Sunday. He gave only a quick shake of the head when asked why he stabbed the cop. The suspect, with unkempt hair and wearing a large white T-shirt, remained expressionless and had no visible injuries.

With Elizabeth Keogh

]]> https://www.nydailynews.com/2017/05/07/man-arrested-for-stabbing-nypd-cop-during-daughters-first-communion-party-in-queens/feed/ 0 3324901 2017-05-07T22:14:44+00:00 2018-04-08T04:01:27+00:00 https://www.nydailynews.com/2017/05/06/world-trade-centers-4b-oculus-continues-to-leak-water-day-after-heavy-rains-ravaged-nyc-rails-roads/ https://www.nydailynews.com/2017/05/06/world-trade-centers-4b-oculus-continues-to-leak-water-day-after-heavy-rains-ravaged-nyc-rails-roads/#respond Sat, 06 May 2017 18:22:22 +0000 https://www.nydailynews.com?p=3289148&preview_id=3289148 Water was still finding its way into the World Trade Center’s brand-new $4 billion Oculus on Saturday — a day after a heavy downpour showed just how porous the roof is.

Although significantly less than the deluge experienced Friday, water continued to dribble into a black mop bucket roped off by ornate silver stanchions.

“It looks like an art installation,” Glenn Marin of Jacksonville, Fl., joked.

Fresh spackle could also be found sealing off most of the roof’s leaks.

“They cleaned it up real well,” said James White, 27, of Harlem. “If it was somewhere else, like Uptown or somewhere, it definitely wouldn’t be cleaned this fast.”

Still, White was surprised that the year-old transit hub would already be springing leaks.

“I think it kind of speaks to the quick construction that New York does sometimes,” White said. “There’s no way it should be leaking. This is a brand new building.”

A Port Authority spokesman said repairs were underway.

“We are continuing this weekend to identify problem areas and to take immediately corrective action to prevent future leaks,” the spokesman said.

It was not immediately clear how much the repairs would cost, the spokesman said.

The bird-like structure, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, opened in March, 2016 after years of delays and cost overruns.

]]> https://www.nydailynews.com/2017/05/06/world-trade-centers-4b-oculus-continues-to-leak-water-day-after-heavy-rains-ravaged-nyc-rails-roads/feed/ 0 3289148 2017-05-06T18:22:22+00:00 2018-04-08T03:05:58+00:00