MESSAGE
| DATE | 2020-06-17 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] 1/4 of the NYPD to be eliminated - not acceptable
|
NYPD Disbands Anticrime Unit as City Leaders Debate $1 Billion in Cuts
to Police
Ben Chapman, Katie Honan and Jimmy Vielkind
6-7 minutes
A controversial New York Police Department anticrime unit will be
disbanded, police officials said Monday, as negotiations over cutting
funding to the department have intensified.
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said at a briefing that the department
would immediately eliminate the citywide unit, which includes 600
plainclothes officers. The unit has been involved in several
high-profile events, including the death of Eric Garner, a black Staten
Island man who died in 2014 after an officer placed him in a chokehold.
Officers in the unit will be reassigned to other units, such as the
detective bureau and the NYPD’s neighborhood-policing program, according
to the commissioner.
Mr. Shea said the decision to do away with the unit was part of an
effort to reform and modernize the NYPD.
“It’s a big move when you look at culturally how we police this city,”
he said.
Calls for reforms to the NYPD and cuts to its funding have come amid
mass demonstrations in the city and across the country over the police
killing of George Floyd and law-enforcement brutality.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said earlier this month that as part of reforms to
the NYPD he would shift funding from the department to youth and social
services. The Democratic mayor said the amount would be less than $1
billion. But late Friday New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, a
Democrat, and other council leaders issued a statement saying they
identified $1 billion in savings to cull from the NYPD budget.
The police department has an annual budget of $5.6 billion.
In the wake of George Floyd’s death, protesters across the country are
calling on officials to defund the police. WSJ’s Shelby Holliday
examines what the phrase means and how it might work. Photo: Ragan Clark
/ Associated Press
“Our budget must reflect the reality that policing needs fundamental
reform,” the statement said.
The city council and the mayor must reach a deal on the city’s budget
and any cuts to the NYPD by June 30. The debate over cuts comes as
preliminary estimates show the city faces a shortfall of up to $1.3
billion in its $89.3 billion budget, largely from the coronavirus
pandemic’s impact on the economy.
The council’s plan includes reducing the police departments 36,000
uniformed staff by attrition, slashing overtime and moving some NYPD
responsibilities to other city agencies. Details on where to redirect
money that would come out of the NYPD budget are being worked out, a
council spokeswoman said.
Mr. de Blasio has said the amount of the cuts would be determined in
budget talks over the next two weeks. He has said he opposes the level
of cuts the council wants.
“The mayor has said we’re committed to reprioritizing funding and
looking for savings, but he does not believe a $1 billion cut is the way
to maintain safety,” his spokeswoman, Freddi Goldstein, said in a
statement Monday.
Councilman Joseph Borelli, a Republican who represents Staten Island,
said the proposed $1 billion cut will hurt communities. He also said it
wouldn’t address larger issues of systemic racism in the NYPD. “This is
what happens when hashtags become policy,” Mr. Borelli said.
The death of Mr. Floyd, a black Minneapolis man who was killed in police
custody, has spurred demonstrations around the country. Many protesters
have called for the defunding of local police departments.
The Legal Aid Society, which represents criminal defendants, lauded the
disbanding of the anticrime unit but said the NYPD needed to go further
by reducing its head count and using those savings to invest in communities.
“Anything less is simply window-dressing to distract away from the
greater systemic issues that currently roil law enforcement in New
York,” the organization said in a statement.
The head of the union representing NYPD officers said eliminating the
unit would harm efforts to fight crime.
“Shooting and murders are both climbing steadily upward, but our city
leaders have clearly decided that proactive policing isn’t a priority
anymore,” Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch said in
a statement.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said over the weekend that he doesn’t believe
defunding police or passing “one-off” laws restricting certain
tactics—such as a ban on tear gas—address underlying strains on
police-community relations.
The Democratic governor issued an executive order on Friday directing
municipalities to undertake a comprehensive review of their police
practices and enact a plan to “promote community engagement to foster
trust, fairness, and legitimacy, and to address any racial bias and
disproportionate policing of communities of color.”
“Let’s actually seize the moment, and let’s redesign the police
department,” Mr. Cuomo said Friday on MSNBC.
Mr. Cuomo also signed bills that would make police disciplinary records
available to public inspection, criminalize the use of chokeholds by
officers and require courts to publish racial and demographic data
relating to low-level offenses.
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
_______________________________________________
Hangout mailing list
Hangout-at-nylxs.com
http://lists.mrbrklyn.com/mailman/listinfo/hangout
|
|
