Today, Mayor de Blasio released the second part of his proposed police ‘reform and reinvention’ plan, in response to Governor Cuomo’s executive order 203 mandating municipalities to submit plans to New York State by April 1st. Just like the first part of the Mayor’s plan, part two proposes more cosmetic reforms that will do nothing to reduce police violence or increase safety. (CPR’s statement on Part 1 of the Mayor’s plan can be found here.)
The Mayor continues to claim the plan was developed with community input, however, he allowed the NYPD to lead and control much of New York City’s process of developing this plan and the First Deputy Mayor’s office dismantled a multi-stakeholder committee last year after just one meeting.
The NYPD attempted to create an illusion of community engagement—a requirement of the executive order—by holding virtual events, but these events served as NYPD propaganda sessions. They did not include many of the organizations with the most significant and long-standing experience fighting police violence or the many family members whose loved ones were killed by the NYPD and who help lead NYC’s police accountability movement.
Below is a statement in response to part two of the Mayor’s plan from Communities United for Police Reform’s spokesperson and Executive Director of the Justice Committee, Loyda Colon:
“Last week Mayor de Blasio released a police reform plan that was full of lies and false claims and today he released a surprise Part 2 that is just as shameful” said Loyda Colon (they/them), spokesperson for Communities United for Police Reform and Executive Director of the Justice Committee. “This isn’t a plan that will decrease police violence or increase accountability – it’s a plan that will expand the NYPD’s already bloated budget and outsized power in NYC.
“Instead of reducing police violence or increasing accountability, the report includes proposals that will lead to more funding and tools for the NYPD to co-opt social justice practices like ‘restorative justice,' more funding for the NYPD to play new roles, allow the continuation of abusive policing in schools by simply moving school safety officers from the NYPD to the Department of Education, and promote fairy tales that the NYPD will police and reform itself. It’s a bad joke that this administration continues to falsely claim that weak paper reforms that have come out of the Floyd stop-and-frisk monitorship to date, ‘represent a fundamental transformation,’ even though the facts make clear that racial disparities in stops are no different than the Bloomberg era.
“It's a plan that will increase policing of Black, Latinx and other communities of color and expand NYPD funding and power.
“To the point of accountability— while the officers who killed Eric Garner, Delrawn Small, Antonio Williams, Kawaski Trawick, and brutalized countless protesters in the past year remain on the force, the de Blasio administration and the NYPD have no credibility. This plan does nothing to reduce police violence and is insulting to New Yorkers who have been demanding real change.”
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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 reduces reliance on policing. CPR runs coalitions of over 200 local, statewide and national organizations, bringing 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 most unfairly targeted by the NYPD.