Five decades ago, officers of the New York Police Department’s 41st Precinct dubbed their stationhouse “Fort Apache” because they felt it was the only haven in a hostile part of the Bronx. Residents of the area have told me that they, too, used that name because of the “wall” they perceived between their community and the ones who pledged to “protect and serve” them.
The NYPD’s 40th Precinct borders the “Four-one” on the south and west. Like its neighbor, it encompasses neighborhoods—Mott Haven, Port Morris and Melrose-- among the poorest in New York City and the nation. And, although both precincts have diversified their officer cadres somewhat, they are still paler than the communities they patrol, which are almost entirely Hispanic and Black.
Now the “Four-Oh” is mirroring the “Four-One,” if unintentionally, in another way. “Fort Apache” no longer serves as headquarters for the latter. A larger building, ostensibly more suited to the technologies police now use, has replaced it. And its style differs from its predecessor in much the same way that the new headquarters of the 40th diverges from the building it will replace.
The old brick structure, while not exactly a “little house on the prairie,” at least doesn’t look out of place in the residential neighborhood around it. (The street on which it’s located—Alexander Avenue—is in fact part of a New York City designated historic district.) The new edifice, under construction almost a mile away, will include a “community event center,” ostensibly to “deepen the bond between neighborhood and police.”
What sort of bond, exactly, is the NYPD or the city trying to “deepen?” One like the “bond” between “Fort Apache” and the neighborhoods of Longwood and Hunts Point?
“Fort Apache Four-Oh.” I can just hear it now.
Current 40th Precinct Station House, 31 August 2024
Future 40th Precinct Station House, 27 August 2024
