In the Media

New York State didn’t have a law that banned cops from having sex with those in custody. That all changed last week.

State legislators passed a bill prohibiting cops from having sex with people in custody, which closes a legal loophole that allowed police to avoid sexual-assault convictions. Cops would get around the possible convictions by claiming that the sex was consensual.

Bill S7708, sponsored by Sen. Andrew Lanza, states that someone in police custody doesn’t have the ability to consent to sex.

The NYPD’S second-in-command Thursday defended its disciplinary process for officers — and Mayor de Blasio agreed with that assessment.

One activist group, Communities United for Police Reform, said both are wrong.

The response was to a question about a Daily News report about police misconduct.

The first of the four-part series revealed disciplinary cases — some that highlight the contention that justice is meted out with disparities in punishment — and took a close look at how a top chief seemingly benefited from his rank to avoid a harsher penalty.

City Hall and the New York Police Department are feeling the heat after a recent Buzzfeed report on the disciplinary action taken against abusive officers.

According to Buzzfeed, between 2011 and 2015, at least 300 NYPD officers who committed offenses such as assaulting civilians, falsifying records and stealing kept their jobs. The website developed its story going through internal NYPD files, phone calls, court records and interviews with prosecutors and officers.

After her son Ramarley Graham was shot and killed by a New York police officer, Constance Malcolm says she dedicated herself to community activism almost by accident.

“I had to be Ramarley’s voice,” she says. “Even now, when you hear about Ramarley’s story, you think, 'Oh, yeah, that was the kid that was running from police into the house, and who hid in the bathroom.' Six years later, and that’s what you hear. I have to try to get that out of people’s mindset.”