NYPD commish says social distancing is not the new stop-and-frisk

Police Commissioner Dermot Shea brushed off any comparison of the new social distancing enforcement to the contentious stop-and-frisk policy — blaming “illegal social clubs” for the disproportionate share of tickets issued in minority neighborhoods.

“I think it’s a fair comment, but it’s the last thing that’s happening, to be honest,” Shea said on NY1 Monday morning when asked about the comparison.

“When you look at those incidents, the vast majority of those summonses are accounted for in a very small number of incidents.”

Shea disputed claims by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and others that cops are handing out masks to high-income, mostly white folks in Manhattan while busting skulls in the boroughs.

“What they don’t say [is] officers are also handing out masks in neighborhoods in Brooklyn, as well,” he said.

Social distancing enforcement became a hot button in New York City early last week after a handful of videos showing violent arrests flooded social media.

In a rare accord, both the city’s conservative Police Benevolent Association union and liberal Public Advocate Jumaane Williams have said that cops should not be enforcing the public health decree. Adams also called using the NYPD for enforcement “all wrong.”

Shea conceded, though, the racial breakdown on enforcement requires further review.

“We saw, unfortunately, in parts of the city, illegal social clubs and things of that nature going on. So when you pull those out, those numbers are skewed, but believe me, I am not telling you that there is not a disparity in those numbers, because even with that pulled out, there is.”

“But you need to go back and see what’s going on. Some of these disparities were there before.”

After the NYPD released demographic data on Friday of nearly 400 summonses connected to social distancing enforcement — 80 percent of which were given to black or brown New Yorkers — city district attorneys vowed not to prosecute arrests.

More than 90 percent of the arrests made for people violating social distancing rules involved black or Hispanic residents, according to a report from CBS.

The NYPD has not publicly released demographic data on the arrests.

But Shea said Monday that the DAs have no hand in the summonses given out by the police and defended his officers’ actions, highlighting a street brawl with cops from this past weekend.

“This is not what should happen, unfortunately, we need compliance both ways,” he said.

“It’s not the end of the world if you’re going to receive a summons. It should not be escalating into fights with our officers. And we need — quite frankly, more people to stand up and say that.”

“We police this city fairly, it’s something we’re aware of, it’s something we’re going to continue to make sure we do whatever we do, fairly and across this city evenly.”