Before Historic Vote to Discharge Community Safety Act, New Yorkers Pack City Hall to Support Reforms

Hundreds of New Yorkers joined Council Members Jumaane Williams, Brad Lander and their colleagues to express broad support for historic action to help bring two Community Safety Act bills to the City Council floor for a vote and passage. The two pieces of legislation would help end the discriminatory police profiling that has increased under the Bloomberg administration – particularly through its stop-and-frisk policy – and establish independent oversight of the NYPD.

“The New York City Council is taking one step closer today to better policing and safer streets for all of its residents,” said Council Member Jumaane D. Williams, lead sponsor of the Community Safety Act. “I'm grateful to my colleagues and the robust advocate community that have worked tirelessly to craft legislation that will advance our City's public safety mission and address the efficacy of policing policies without compromising the Constitutional rights we all share. It's time to rebuild the relationship between our men and women of New York's Finest and the communities they serve. That is the only true way we can work together to eradicate crime, save lives and improve everyone's quality of life.”

“This is a historic day for New York City,” said City Council Member Brad Lander. “We need a police department that boys and girls in this city want to join, not one that they fear. With a ban on police profiling and real oversight for the NYPD, we will have safer streets, stronger police-community relationships, and a more effective police department. Thank you to all of the New Yorkers who fought to make this day possible.”

“Protecting civil rights by banning discriminatory police profiling and establishing independent oversight of the NYPD are integral to improving safety in our city,” said Djibril Toure of Communities United for Police Reform. “If New Yorkers don’t feel the police are serving them, then the safety of all New Yorkers is at risk. Today’s vote will bring us closer to providing historic protections for the rights of New Yorkers and improving safety for all of New York City’s communities.

The legislation to ban discriminatory profiling – Intro. 1080 – builds upon the existing racial profiling law by strengthening it with a clear enforcement mechanism and expanding its protections to LGBTQ and immigrant New Yorkers for the first time, along with other protected classes. Specifically it would:

• Establish a strong and enforceable ban on profiling and discrimination by the New York City Police Department;
• Expand the categories of individuals protected from discrimination. The current prohibition covers race, ethnicity, religion, and national origin. The bill would expand this to also include: age, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, immigration status, disability, and housing status;
• Create a meaningful “private right of action” for individuals who believe they have been unjustly profiled by the NYPD;
• New Yorkers would be able to bring intentional discrimination claims and/or disparate impact claims, though not for monetary damages. 

Despite misleading statements and mistruths being used by opponents to incite fear in the public, the bill does not stop police officers from identifying or pursuing a suspect by race, age, gender, or any other descriptive category. It uses the same exact “determinative factor” standard as the current racial profiling law – signed into law by Mayor Bloomberg in 2004 – that does not presently prevent officers from identifying a suspect based on race.

The only differences between the current racial profiling law and Intro 1080 are:

• It expands profiling protections based on age, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, immigration status, disability, and housing status
• It provides clear mechanisms of enforcement (through a private right of action and option of pursuing a claim through the Human Rights Commission), because the current law fails to provide any enforcement mechanism
• It protects New Yorkers from policies and practices that result in discrimination and a disproportionate impact on certain communities, even if the discrimination is not intentional (i.e. If the Board of Elections decided to stop printing ballots in languages other than English to save money. While not intended to discriminate, such a policy would be discriminatory to voters who do not speak or read English)

The legislation to establish independent oversight of the NYPD – Intro. 1079 – would provide essential review of policing policies and practices, bringing the NYPD into conformity with every other city agency, police departments in other U.S. cities, and other law enforcement agencies like the FBI and CIA. Specifically, the legislation would:

• Assign responsibility for NYPD oversight to the Commissioner of the Department of Investigation (DOI)
  • DOI currently oversees more than 45 mayoral agencies and over 300 other city agencies, entities, boards and commissions
• Oversight would include reviewing NYPD operations, policies, programs and practices.
• Reports would be made public and revisited annually to see if recommendations have been followed.

Despite myths being advanced by the Bloomberg administration on how independent oversight will create confusion and impact safety, its claims simply are not true when compared to the facts on the legislation’s impact.

Furthermore, New Yorkers overwhelmingly reject (86% - 9%) the notion that independent oversight of the NYPD will make the city less safe, according to the most recent Quinnipiac poll.

Under the Bloomberg administration, the use of stop-and-frisk has increased by more than 600%. Nearly nine in ten of those stopped are neither arrested nor issued a summons, and nearly 90% of those stopped are Black or Latina/o. New Yorkers were stopped by the NYPD over half a million times in 2012 and over 5 million stops have been made throughout the Bloomberg administration.

The Bloomberg administration’s stop-and-frisk policy has sparked outrage throughout the city for its profiling of primarily Black and Latina/o New Yorkers. Increasing fury has also focused on how the policy and discriminatory policing more broadly impact the LGBTQ community, immigrants, residents of public housing, and others.

Meanwhile, the policy has failed to make any significant impact on gun violence in New York City. Despite the 600% increase in the use of stop-and-frisk between 2002 and 2011, the number of gun violence victims in New York City has remained at nearly the same level of approximately 1,800.

In addition to stop-and-frisk abuses and the legally dubious surveillance of Muslim communities, there are also issues surrounding the manipulation of criminal statistics and the failure of the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau and Quality Assurance Division to appropriately address them. In one instance, the downgrading of sexual attack victims’ criminal complaints to criminal trespassing misdemeanors allowed a Washington Heights rapist to commit 6 sexual assaults before being caught during the seventh. The misdemeanor classifications prevented the cases from reaching detectives, inhibiting the start of an effort to capture the perpetrator. No police official involved was ever held responsible, including the precinct’s commander who was twice promoted. The three-member panel that Commissioner Kelly appointed in January 2011 to examine whether criminal statistics manipulation was systemic and return a report in 6 months has yet to release anything.

The procedural action being taken on the bills today will free the bills from being blocked in committee, despite having support from a significant majority of council members.

QUOTES

“The purpose of both bills is to bring accountability and prevent unlawful discrimination aiming to improve the relationship between the public and the NYPD,” said Council Member Fernando Cabrera, Co-Chair of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus. “The data available regarding stop and frisk shows that the procedure is alarmingly disproportional in terms of demographic and oftentimes influenced by race.  We cannot allow this form of institutionalized discrimination.  I'm certain that the community deserves better than stop and frisk in order to fight crime, which makes imperative the need of independent oversight to make recommendations on the policies in place.”

“Given the nature of past incidents, the lines of communication between the public and police, especially in our communities of color, have deteriorated because of the discriminatory ways in which policies such as Stop, Question and Frisk are used,” said Council Member Robert Jackson, Co-Chair of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus. “Our city needs law enforcement policies that will benefit the public without undermining individuals’ civil liberties.  The reformed package of bills of the Community Safety Act does just that! It has the potential to restore the NYPD’s relationship with disenfranchised communities, which in return will help secure our city’s public safety.”

“Today is a historic day for our city, as the Council votes for more transparent and accountable policing,” said Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito. “We are also sending a message that bias-based profiling has no place in our city. I want to thank my colleagues Jumaane Williams and Brad Lander for their incredibly hard work in bringing these bills to the floor and to the entire Communities United for Police Reform coalition for demonstrating that sustained grassroots advocacy works.”

“These two bills are carefully crafted, common sense responses that are born out of decades of innumerable, community-wide examples that indicate two things:  the NYPD needs independent, proactive oversight and bias-based profiling—especially in the form of stop, question and frisk—is simply unacceptable,” said Council Member Rosie Mendez. “These initiatives are a necessary step not only in holding the NYPD accountable to reasonable standards but can be helpful in terms of building a substantive bridge between the police and our shared communities.”

“New York City needs both these bills – protecting against profiling and creating an Inspector General for the Police Department – in order to make sure we have effective policing that respects the civil rights of all New Yorkers,” said George Gresham, President of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, New York City’s largest union. “Statistics show that the overwhelming majority of people who are stopped and frisked are innocent- this is a policy which does not work, wastes police resources, violates our rights, causes tension and division in our communities and in fact makes us less safe. We must pass both of these bills now, for the safety, moral integrity and future of our city.”

“New York City’s police reform movement is on the verge of making history,” said New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman. “With the discharge of the Community Safety Act, we are about to see the passage of key civil rights bills that will change real New Yorkers lives, and promote meaningful accountability and transparency over the NYPD.”

“We call on the City Council to do the right thing and pass the Community Safety Act now,” said Kyle Bragg, secretary treasurer of 32BJ SEIU. “The NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices fail to make us safer, but do succeed in the daily humiliation of law-abiding New Yorkers, many of them young people of color. The Community Safety Act is a commonsense, constructive solution to end a destructive, discriminatory practice. Our children cannot and should not wait any longer to feel free and safe to walk the streets of their own communities.”

“This country was built on democracy. We end the pledge of allegiance ‘with liberty and justice for all.’ Yet profiling and discriminatory policing mean that there are two sets of laws - depending on where you are and what you look like. This contradicts the very grounds this country was founded upon,” said Picture the Homeless member Ade Singleton. “We need the city council to take a stand for our communities and pass the Community Safety Act to ensure ‘liberty and justice’ for all New Yorkers - Black, Latino, young, or homeless.”

“Racial profiling makes communities unsafe. Today marks an important step in deconstructing one aspect of discriminatory policing practices. We applaud the sponsors and supporters of the Community Safety Act,” said Malcolm X Grassroots Movement member Monifa Bandele. “The ongoing wholesale detainment of black and brown people in the streets of New York must end.”

“As a Bronx native I know my community is sick and tired of being racially profiled and treated as subhuman. Sadly, we become accustomed to this abuse because there is no one to hold the NYPD accountable for its discriminatory practices,” stated Riko Guzman, Justice Committee Organizer. “The profiling ban and oversight bills are a step in the right direction towards fairness and safety in our communities.  They should be passed immediately.”

“It’s time for New York City to make history by passing an enforceable ban on police profiling based on sexual orientation and gender identity, along with race, age, gender, housing and immigration status,” said Chris Bilal, campaign staff at Streetwise and Safe. “LGBTQ youth of color deserve protection on as many fronts as we are policed. There is no better way for Councilmembers to show their support for the LGBTQ community during Pride month than to pass this bill.”

“I have been stopped and frisked ten times over the last four years,” said Damont Dillard, 19 years old, of Make the Road New York's Youth Power Project. “Never was I given reason for the stop and never did I receive an apology. These bills will protect other young men like me from this unfair practice.”

“New Yorkers have made their voices heard. We need to bring reforms to the NYPD and end discriminatory police practices,” stated Linda Sarsour, Executive Director, Arab American Association of New York. “We need the New York City Council to pass the Community Safety Act.”

“Unchecked policies from unwarranted surveillance of Muslims, to unlawful stop and frisks of Blacks, Latinos, and people of color, underscore the need for greater oversight and real tangible changes in the New York Police Department,” said Monami Maulik, Executive Director of DRUM - Desis Rising Up & Moving. “Now is the time for City Council members to demonstrate their positions on these bills, and demonstrate their accountability and responsiveness to communities all over New York City. These bills are first steps to rebuilding community trust, and ensure effective policing.”

“The Legal Aid Society and our front-line staff know that this legislation is urgently needed to prevent continued harm resulting from improper and unlawful policing,” said Steven Banks, the Attorney-in-Chief of The Legal Aid Society. “The legislation is especially important because it provides independent oversight of the NYPD just like other City agencies have, and it expands existing prohibitions on police profiling to protect New Yorkers from profiling based on, for example, gender identity and expression as well as homelessness and housing status.”

“We urge the City Council to vote for fair and accountable policing,” said Michael Price, Counsel for the Liberty & National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. “New Yorkers deserve a police department that will keep us safe and respect constitutional rights.”

“New Yorkers desperately want the kind of change the Community Safety Act could bring and have voiced their support loud and clear and on countless occasions,” said Nahal Zamani, Advocacy Program Manager with the Center for Constitutional Rights, “The New York City Council must pass these bills and ensure a police department that truly works for and is accountable to the people of New York.”

“Many LGBTQ community members, including transgender people, people of color, and youth, report to AVP that they are regularly profiled, stopped and frisked and arrested because they have condoms on them,” said Shelby Chestnut, Co-Director of the Community Organizing and Public Advocacy at the New York City Anti-Violence Project. “The New York City Council should enact policies that prohibit police profiling, including the Community Safety Act, that ensure that this profiling stops and that police officers are held accountable for homophobic, biphobic, and transphobic behaviors.”

“It is possible to protect the rights of all New Yorkers without sacrificing the rights of any of us,” said Brittny Saunders, Senior Staff Attorney for the Center for Popular Democracy. “The Anti-profiling and the NYPD Oversight bills will help make this happen. It’s time for the Council to stand up for civil rights and demand safety and respect for everyone in this City.”

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About Communities United for Police Reform

Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) is an unprecedented campaign to end discriminatory policing practices in New York, and to build a lasting movement that promotes public safety and policing practices based on cooperation and respect– not discriminatory targeting and harassment.

CPR brings together a movement of community members, lawyers, researchers and activists to work for change. The partners in this campaign come from all 5 boroughs, from all walks of life and represent many of those unfairly targeted the most by the NYPD. CPR is fighting for reforms that will promote community safety while ensuring that the NYPD protects and serves all New Yorkers.

Learn more: http://changethenypd.org/
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