Advocates and elected officials urged Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo to house homeless New Yorkers in vacant hotel rooms during a press call on Tuesday as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage New York City.
Many advocacy groups are banding together to be a voice for the homeless population during the coronavirus pandemic and are asking that the city's hotel rooms be opened up for them.
Winston Tokuhisa told News 12 he has been homeless since 2006.
“I think we need to recognize that we are the most vulnerable,” said Tokuhisa.
ALBANY — Advocates and elected officials, including New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, are urging Mayor de Blasio and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to house up to 30,000 homeless individuals in unused hotel rooms to help them engage in social distancing and limit the spread of COVID-19.
With support from several New York City council members and state Sen. Zellnor Myrie and state Assembly members Walter Mosley, Yuhline Niou and Harvey Epstein, the group said the move would stem the spread of coronavirus among people living on the streets as well as in homeless shelters.
Community United for Police Reform say Cuomo's budget furthers criminalizes, and endangers, vulnerable minority New York communities during COVID-19 pandemic.
Communities United for Police Reform (CPR), the largest, most diverse coalition fighting for public safety and police accountability in New York, released the following statement about the New York state budget just enacted in Albany:
Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Council Member Rory Lancman, Chair of the Committee on the Justice System, and Council Member Donavan Richards, Chair of the Committee on Public Safety, are calling on the city’s top law enforcement officials to take all necessary measures to keep as many New Yorkers as possible out of the criminal justice system in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
The announcement comes just as, Wednesday morning, it was revealed that a Corrections Officer working on Rikers Island tested positive for COVID-19.
(CNN) Of all the ways the Trump administration has tried to roll back Obama-era initiatives, abandoning efforts to address police brutality, bias and misconduct may be one of the most devastating.
After protests broke out across the country following the police killings of Eric Garner in New York and Michael Brown in Missouri in 2014, the Department of Justice (DOJ) under former President Barack Obama began to ramp up its efforts to combat unconstitutional policing.
NEW YORK (AP) — A police cruiser constantly sits a few feet from a small floral memorial to Eric Garner on the Staten Island sidewalk where he spent his dying moments five years ago.
Tompkinsville Park, which police were targeting for patrols when they encountered Garner selling loose, untaxed cigarettes, remains a gathering place for desperate people.
Expletives flew on a recent hot afternoon as park regulars discussed everything from drugs and mental illness to jail conditions and the bail paid so they could sit on a park bench.
“Fire Pantaleo!” the crowd chanted. “Fire Kizzy Adonis!”
A coalition of police reform advocates is demanding the NYPD fire Officer Daniel Pantaleo for the chokehold death of Eric Garner, and that it discipline all the officers involved in the case.
In a Wednesday letter to Mayor de Blasio and Police Commissioner James O’Neill, more than 60 community groups and family members of people killed by police blasted the mayor for “years-long unnecessary delays and obstruction” following Garner’s 2014 death on Staten Island.
On the fifth anniversary of the death of Eric Garner, a youth-led rally marched around City Hall and in front of NYPD headquarters, demanding that the officer who fatally choked Garner be fired.