In the Media

Up Close 2/4/24: How Many Stops Act divides Mayor Eric Adams, New York City Council on policing

02/05/2024
ABC 7 NY
t's the biggest battle to date between the mayor and the City Council - and it has led to a division among many New Yorkers. A total of 42 of the 51 council members voted to override the mayor's veto of the How Many Stops Act, despite powerful warnings from New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Adams says more paperwork for NYPD officers means less time to fight crime. So, what impact will the new law have on efforts to fight crime? We talk to former New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton.

Adams Fought the Lawmakers and the Lawmakers Won

01/31/2024
Hell Gate
On Tuesday morning, City Hall was abuzz, as the biggest political conflict of the new year came to a head. City Council had scheduled a vote to override two bills vetoed by Mayor Eric Adams. One bill required City jails to end the practice of holding people in protracted isolation. (The council had already banned solitary confinement nearly a decade earlier, but studies suggested that the Department of Correction has simply continued the practice under other names.)

Mayor Adams Loses Showdown Over 2 Criminal Justice Bills

The New York City Council overrode the mayor’s veto of two bills that would expand documentation of police stops and end solitary confinement.
01/30/2024
New York Times
Police officers will be required to record the race, age and gender of most people they stop and solitary confinement will be banned in New York City jails after the City Council overrode Mayor Eric Adams’s veto of two criminal justice bills on Tuesday.

New York City’s pro-cop mayor loses high-profile fight over policing legislation

Eric Adams adamantly opposed bills ending solitary confinement and requiring more reporting from police officers. The City Council passed them anyway.
01/30/2024
Politico
New York City Mayor Eric Adams — a former police officer focused on combating crime — found himself in a feud Tuesday with the more progressive City Council over two criminal justice reform bills. And in this rare instance, Adams lost. Led by a relatively moderate Democrat aligned with the body’s progressive members, the Council delivered a striking rebuke to Adams by overriding two of his vetoes by an overwhelming margin. The votes capped weeks of lobbying and media appearances from officials on both sides of the debate — a flurry of activity exacerbated over the weekend when police pulled over a Council member who’d spent seven years in jail after being wrongly convicted as part of the “Central Park Five.”

Why NYC Council must override mayor’s veto of How Many Stops Act: Black City Council members

01/30/2024
Daily News
Ten years after the NYPD’s use of stop-and-frisk was ruled unconstitutional by a federal court, Black New Yorkers continue to be the disproportionate target of police stops, too many of which are unconstitutional and underreported.  As Black men in New York City, we know firsthand about the humiliating and genuinely traumatic experiences of being stopped by police in your own community, despite having done nothing to warrant it.

NY City Council votes to override Mayor Eric Adams' veto of the How Many Stops Act

01/30/2024
News 12
New York City police officers will be required to record the apparent race, gender and ages of most people they stop for questioning under a law passed by the City Council, which overrode a veto by Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday. The issue was thrust into the national spotlight in recent days when NYPD officers pulled over a Black council member without giving him a reason.

NYPD Pulls Over the One Guy They Maybe Don’t Want to Pull Over Right Now

01/29/2024
Hell Gate
On Friday night, just as Mayor Eric Adams was making his last stand to try and prevent the City Council from overriding his veto of an NYPD transparency bill involving police stops, the cops happened to pull over the newly minted chair of the council's public safety committee, a man who was wrongfully imprisoned for nearly seven years, Dr. Yusef Salaam. 

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