In the Media

Critics Say New NYC Pot Policy Keeps Race Disparities

06/20/2018
Crime Report

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s new marijuana policy was met with a backlash from the Manhattan district attorney and other critics, who said the change wouldn’t do enough to diminish racial disparities among those who face punishment for the low-level crime, the Wall Street Journal reports. De Blasio and New York Police Department officials announced Tuesday that instead of arresting people caught smoking marijuana in public, officers would iss

Years Later Families of Victims of Police Killings, Including Eric Garner's, Demand Justice

06/19/2018
Black Star News

The families of Eric Garner, Delrawn Small, and Saheed Vasell – all fathers who missed Father’s Day with their families – and their community supporters have called for Mayor de Blasio to take immediate action to hold the officers who killed them accountable.

All of the families are being denied accountability by the de Blasio administration, with the NYPD failing to take actions to discipline and fire the officers responsible and withholding vital information from the families and public.

Pot arrests will be snuffed out starting in September, Mayor de Blasio announces

06/19/2018
New York Daily News

Most pot smokers caught puffing in public won’t get arrested starting on Sept. 1, Mayor de Blasio announced Tuesday.

The new policy is expected to cut the number of pot arrests by about 10,000 a year. Last year, there were 17,500 arrests.

De Blasio made the announcement at a recreation center in East Harlem, the neighborhood that has topped the city for pot busts.

NYC marijuana policy perpetuates unfair targeting of people of color, critics say

The mayor and police commissioner outlined their new policy regarding enforcement of public marijuana smoking offenses on Tuesday.
06/19/2018
amNewYork

The de Blasio administration’s new marijuana policy is being panned by community advocates and criminal justice experts who say it will do nothing to address the racial disparity in policing public smoking offenses.

Finish 50-a

Call for repeal of law on police transparency
06/13/2018
Manhattan Times

Make it public.

Elected officials, civil rights advocates and relatives of those killed by police officers gathered at City Hall to call for the repeal of a state law they say is obscuring police transparency and protecting bad cops.

The law, known as Section 50-a, is a provision of the state’s civil rights law that shields the personnel records of law enforcement officers from public disclosure.

New York Gang Database Expanded by 70 Percent Under Mayor Bill de Blasio

06/11/2018
The Intercept_

THE NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT has quietly expanded its gang database under Mayor Bill de Blasio, targeting tens of thousands of young people of color for increased surveillance even in the absence of criminal conduct.

New Yorkers have been added to the NYPD gang database under de Blasio at a rate of 342 people per month, nearly three times the rate of the prior decade. That’s despite both historically low crime levels and the fact that gang-motivated crime makes up less than 1 percent of all reported crime in New York City.

Ex-tennis star James Blake slams "dysfunctional" NYPD decision on cop who tackled him

06/08/2018
New York Daily News

Former pro tennis star James Blake on Friday slammed the NYPD’s decision to take just five vacation days from a cop who in 2015 mistook him for a criminal and tackled him on a Midtown sidewalk.

Blake called Police Commissioner James O’Neill’s ruling in Officer James Frascatore’s case “dysfunctional.”

Tennis pro James Blake criticizes NYPD disciplinary system

The NYPD officer who used excessive force against James Blake back in 2015 only lost 5 vacation days for the incident, prompting the tennis star to speak out.
06/08/2018
Metro New York

Former tennis pro James Blake has spoken out in response to the news that the NYPD officer who tackled him in 2015 received a penalty of five lost vacation days.

Officer James Frascatore lost five vacation days for his use of excessive force against Blake, the New York Daily Newsreported — half of the penalty recommended by the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), an independent NYPD oversight office.

EXCLUSIVE: Cop who tackled tennis star James Blake hit with five-day penalty, half what board recommended

06/08/2018
Laura Dimon and Graham Rayman

The cop who tackled former pro tennis star James Blake got a penalty of five lost vacation days — half of that recommended by an independent oversight board, the Daily News has learned.

Officer James Frascatore was slapped with the five-day rip by Police Commissioner James O’Neill in February, sources told The News. The decision came five months after Frascatore was found guilty of excessive force following a departmental trial and two years, nine months after the incident.

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