In the Media

Cuomo Recasts Social Agenda for a New Term

01/21/2015
New York Times
ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, delivering his State of the State address along with a budget proposal heavy on infrastructure, laid out an ambitious social agenda on Wednesday that focuses on problems not so easily solved with cash: the erosion of confidence in the criminal justice system, public schools and teachers that he said were failing students, and a creeping sense that economic mobility is not what it once was.

Justice agenda aims to reconcile police, public

01/21/2015
Times Herald-Record

ALBANY – The Equal Justice Agenda portion of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State speech primarily addressed the past several months’ protests and concerns over the shooting of unarmed civilians by police in New York and elsewhere.

“People are questioning our justice system, and they’re questioning whether it really is justice for all, and they’re questioning whether it really is color blind,”

Cuomo said. Even if that source of that distrust is just perception, he said, the problem is real, and the community and police have to trust and respect each other.

The Dark Side of ‘Broken Windows’ Policing

01/16/2015
New York Times
In recent weeks, New Yorkers have been watching a family drama unfold among an angry patriarch, the mayor, Bill de Blasio; his petulant charges in the Police Department, apparently as huffy as 12-year-olds told to stop texting; and a mother, Police Commissioner William J. Bratton, who, like mothers everywhere hoping to get Daddy to understand and the children to listen, has been trying to broker peace.

Affirm the right to say no to a police search

Enshrining that right doesn't threaten public safety - it protects ordinary New Yorkers, says a New York City Councilman as he defends his bill known as the Right to Know Act.
01/16/2015
New York Daily News
No legislation in the City Council has been the object of more disinformation than the Right to Know Act, which consists of two police-reform bills. The first requires officers to identify themselves; the second requires them to obtain consent for otherwise unconstitutional searches. As a lead sponsor of both, I want to set the record straight — especially on consent to search, which has been misunderstood and misrepresented.

City Council Tests de Blasio

Proposed Laws Place Mayor Awkwardly Between the Police and His Liberal Allies
01/15/2015
Wall Street Journal

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s efforts to end a bitter rift with parts of the police force could be complicated by his liberal allies on the City Council, whose proposed legislation to revise certain law-enforcement tactics are vehemently opposed by police unions.

One bill would require police officers to gain consent before conducting a street search without probable cause or a warrant.

NYPD commissioner 'routinely rejected' sanctions against chokehold officers

Police watchdog says Ray Kelly, who stepped down in 2013, offered no explanation for not disciplining officers who used banned technique
01/12/2015
Guardian
New York City’s longest-serving police commissioner, Ray Kelly, “routinely rejected” recommendations for disciplinary action against police officers who carried out banned chokeholds on civilians, and offered no explanation for dismissing the findings of the city’s independent police watchdog, a stinging report has found.

The NYPD Slowdown Raises Questions About Bill De Blasio's Big Police Reform Promises

01/09/2015
Business Insider

Tensions between the New York Police Department and Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) have made national news in recent weeks. While some of the strife has stemmed from de Blasio's high profile efforts to reform the department, there is one beef with the mayor's policies that is shared by the police and their critics. 

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