In the Media

Blue Ribbon panel begins review of NYPD disciplinary system that has proved resistant to change

08/05/2018
New York Daily News

As the blue-ribbon panel created by the city’s top cop to review how the NYPD punishes police for misconduct begins its work, history has shown that the disciplinary system is stubbornly resistant to change.

Way back in 1972, for example, the Knapp Commission — formed to probe a police bribery scandal — urged the NYPD to increase penalties for misconduct. The recommendation was not heeded.

Names of officers who killed Saheed Vassell leaked, father and community call out NYPD

08/02/2018
New York Amsterdam News

The father of Saheed Vassell demanded more accountability of the police officers who killed his son.

Last Friday evening, 16 weeks after New York City Police Department officers shot and killed Saheed Vassell, the department leaked the names of the officers involved in the shooting. The officers identified were Leon Dinham, Anthony Bottiglieri, Bekim Molic and Omar Rafiq. Everyone but Rafiq was assigned to the 71st Precinct in Crown Heights, Vassell’s district.

NYPD Watchdog Seeks Sharper Teeth Through Charter Revision

07/31/2018
Gotham Gazette

When the NYPD decided earlier this month to move ahead with its departmental trial against two officers involved in the 2014 death of Staten Island resident Eric Garner, it tasked the Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent watchdog agency, with prosecuting the charges. But that prosecutorial authority has yet to be codified into the City Charter, the city’s central governing document, a change that CCRB officials are seeking through Mayor Bill de Blasio’s charter revision commission.

Advocates set to blame de Blasio for misleading public on Eric Garner case

Gwen Carr, mother of police victim Eric Garner, will accuse Mayor de Blasio of misleading the public on her son's case. Carr, politicians and other advocates were slated to appear at City Hall Tuesday afternoon. (James Keivom / New York Daily News)
07/17/2018
New York Daily News

Supporters of the family of a Staten Island man who died when cops used a banned chokehold in his arrest will accuse Mayor de Blasio of misleading the public on the case.

Eric Garner’s mother Gwen Carr, pols and other advocates were slated to appear at City Hall Tuesday to demand that the NYPD immediately begin disciplinary hearings against Officer Daniel Pantaleo and other cops involved in the fatal 2014 encounter.

Eric Garner Death: NYPD Trial 'Opportunistic' says Black Lives Matter Leader

07/17/2018
Newsweek

The New York Police Department has vowed to move ahead with disciplinary proceedings against the officer involved in the death of Eric Garner if the U.S. Department of Justice does not announce a decision on whether it will press federal charges by the end of August. 

The NYPD's decision to move forward with its trial came on Monday, a day before the four-year anniversary of Garner's death. 

NYPD Plan To Hold Disciplinary Hearing In Four Year Old Eric Garner Case Derided As 'Political Theater'

07/16/2018
Gothamist

Nearly four years to the day after Eric Garner was fatally choked by a police officer on a street corner in Staten Island, the NYPD says it now plans to move forward with internal disciplinary proceedings against the officers involved in Garner's death. In a letter sent to the Department of Justice on Monday, NYPD lawyer Lawrence Byrne said the DOJ has until August 31st to bring criminal charges against the officers, or else the NYPD would go ahead with a long-delayed internal hearing.

‘Stop-And-Frisk’ Filing May Lead To These Reforms After Racist Practice Found Unconstitutional

Concerns still remain about transparency and civil rights violations of people who are stopped by the NYPD.
07/10/2018
NewsOne

A judge has been challenged to order wide-reaching reforms for the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) Stop and Frisk program by a watchdog group that filed a brief in federal court on Monday. The filing came after the racist practice was deemed unconstitutional and yielded previous lawsuits.

Watchdog Urges Judge To Mandate Reforms On NYPD Street Stops

07/09/2018
Associate Press (via 1010 WINS)

NEW YORK (AP)  --  A watchdog group is urging a judge to mandate sweeping changes to the New York Police Department's practice of stopping and questioning people on the street, saying civil liberties and transparency concerns remain.
 
Communities United for Police Reform said in a court filing on Monday that the NYPD isn't giving a full picture of how many stops it makes because it's only required to track ones it puts in the stop-and-frisk category.
 

IN LEGAL PAPERS ACTIVISTS DEMAND MORE REFORMS IN STOP-AND-FRISK; CLAIM UNDER-REPORTING

07/09/2018
Black Star News

Over 90 organizations from across New York City, 15 family members of New Yorkers killed by the NYPD, and others directly impacted by abusive policing supported an amicus brief filed in federal court by Communities United for Police Reform (CPR), urging the judge overseeing the stop-and-frisk cases to mandate the NYPD to adopt specific stop-and-frisk and trespass enforcement reforms.

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