Press Releases

“The issue isn’t whether New Yorkers want their quality of life issues addressed – everyone deserves that – or whether the police should enforce the law, but it is in how certain communities are unreasonably targeted for low-level offenses.

“While New Yorkers mourn Eric Garner’s death and demand justice, the same police unions that have consistently stood against common sense reforms are wildly lashing out and making appalling statements that blame and criminalize victims of abusive policing to distract from the real facts and issues. The truth is that they failed to protect officers, and thus the public, from a NYPD quota system that contributed to the explosion of stop-and-frisk abuses.

New Yorkers impacted by discriminatory policing were joined by elected officials and community leaders on the steps of City Hall to demand that all NYPD officers involved in the incident leading to Eric Garner’s death be held fully accountable, and that the de Blasio administration enforce zero tolerance for all police brutality and halt discriminatory, abusive broken windows policing. “The police brutality that stole Eric Garner from his family, and has taken the lives of so many other Black and Latino New Yorkers must end,” said Priscilla Gonzalez of Communities United for Police Reform. “Serious change is needed that proddvides full accountability for all the officers responsible and ensures there is zero tolerance for all police brutality. The de Blasio administration must also come to terms with the role broken windows plays in the abuse of communities of color. The hyper-enforcement of minor infractions that disproportionately targets communities of color must end for police-community relations to truly improve in any meaningful way.”

In response to the death of Eric Garner who was put in a chokehold by a NYPD officer, Communities United for Police Reform released the following statement from spokesperson Joo-Hyun Kang.