Last month, police reform advocates in New York were delivered a victory when Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law a package of bills that included the repeal of 50-a, a 1976 measure that had allowed police departments to shield officer misconduct records from the public.
When Mayor Bill de Blasio said in late April that he was creating a task force to lead a “fair recovery” from the COVID-19 pandemic, nestled in his announcement was a brief statement that he also intends to call another Charter Revision Commission. But the mayor hasn’t yet convened that commission, which would be the third to be created while he has been mayor, the second by him alone, and hasn’t explained his rationale for it.
It's been over a month since Black Lives Matter protests started after the police killed George Floyd in May. Since then, protesters in Minneapolis were able to push the city council to disband the police department and begin to reimagine what their security systems will look like.
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson was having a blast: One month after securing an uncertain victory that catapulted him toward the apex of New York’s political pyramid, he joined the morning crew at Fox5 for an impromptu, televised dance party as the Groundhog Day weather segment wound down.
He seemed to be sending New Yorkers a message: With boundless energy and joy, he would embody qualities Mayor Bill de Blasio — somber on the lightest of occasions — does not.
For the thousands of protesters who marched through the streets of New York for more than 30 consecutive days demanding changes in policing, the headlines emerging from the city's budget debate should have signalled victory.
"New York Police Department's budget has been slashed by $1 billion," wrote CNN.
"De Blasio Agrees to Cut NYPD Funding by $1 Billion," said the Wall Street Journal.
"NY City Council approves slashing $1B from NYPD budget," said Fox News.
Earlier this week, Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican Assemblymember from Staten Island who is running to unseat Democrat Max Rose from Congress, sent a missive to supporters.
“Yesterday, wacko mayor Bill de Blasio announced he was caving to Max Rose and the other extreme leftists’ demand and cutting $1 billion from the NYPD budget.”
On Wednesday, after that budget passed in the wee hours of the morning amid an unusual level of dissent within the Council, Scott Roberts, senior director of criminal-justice campaigns at Color Of Change, described it differently.
On the eve of a budget showdown in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced that he will cut $1 billion in funding for the New York Police Department in an attempt to meet the demands of protesters who have occupied and marched on City Hall over the past week.
The specifics of his plan, however, are hard to come by, and police reform activists are concerned that the mayor will work with the city council to hide parts of the police budget in mandates for other social services.
NEW YORK — The national movement to defund the police seemed to score its biggest victory yet over the weekend with a tentative deal to shift $1 billion away from the NYPD.
New York (CNN)At a time of intense scrutiny of law enforcement since George Floyd's death, a movement to slash police department budgets nationwide is gaining momentum in the midst of police reform efforts and an uptick in violent crime in some major cities.
The New York Police Department, the nation's largest police force, faces its financial reckoning this week, with its 2021 budget due before Tuesday.
As nationwide talks and protests continue around the nature and future of US police, a new brief from drug reform advocates reveals that New York City — where many of the country’s biggest protests have occurred — remains a hotbed for low-level drug arrests of mostly Black and Brown residents, costing city coffers millions.