Elected and Civil Rights Leaders Announce Broad Support for Police Reforms to Help End Discriminatory Policing

Communities United for Police Reform – together with Council Members Jumaane Williams, Brad Lander, Rev. Al Sharpton, NAACP President Ben Jealous and others – announced that over 100 organizations from across the city have endorsed the Community Safety Act that is pending in the City Council. The Community Safety Act consists of four bills to help end discriminatory policing and improve police accountability and has support from a majority of City Council members.

“All New Yorkers deserve better policing and safer streets,” said Council Member Williams, co-chair of the Council's Black, Latino and Asian Caucus. “They deserve to feel their public safety and their civil rights are always protected. That is the mission that drives the Community Safety Act. Its passage will bring an enforceable ban on bias-based profiling and create the first independent oversight entity that can investigate and provide common-sense recommendations to the NYPD. A majority of this city stands behind policing reform, as does a majority of the City Council. Acting boldly, by passing this legislation, must be our course of action.”

In announcing broad community support today, they called for passage of the legislative package as a way to help end discriminatory profiling based on race, religion, sexual orientation, housing status and other protected categories, prevent unlawful police searches, and improve accountability and oversight for the NYPD.

“We all need safe communities -- for our kids, our parents, our friends and loved ones -- but we cannot keep our neighborhoods safe by violating the fundamental civil rights of our neighbors,” said Council Member Brad Lander, co-lead sponsor of the Inspector General proposal of the Community Safety Act.  “New York must not be a city where 'walking while black' or 'praying while Muslim' counts as reasonable suspicion of a crime.  I'm proud to co-sponsor the Community Safety Act to prohibit discriminatory profiling by the NYPD, and to create an NYPD Inspector General to provide the basic, independent, good-government oversight that all agencies need.”

“The mandate for reforms has come and Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly must do what is right for New Yorkers instead of continuing to defend their already damaged legacies of police abuses and civil rights violations,” said Djibril Toure of Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, a steering committee member of Communities United for Police Reform. “The recent anniversary of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination makes clear that our struggle is simply about justice and equality – it’s why so many New Yorkers support these reforms to help end the discriminatory policing that occurs via profiling and unlawful searches and improves accountability and oversight by establishing an inspector general. We support the City Council following through in supporting the passage of the Community Safety Act reforms that will help ensure all New Yorkers are safe and treated without bias by the police.”

“The Community Safety Act is just common sense,” said New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman. “New York City needs a real ban on racial profiling. The Police Department is supposed to serve the public and it should be held to the same standard when it comes to discrimination as every other entity that serves the public, from restaurants to hotels. This minor fix in the law will have a major impact on real people across New York City.”

The Bloomberg administration’s stop-and-frisk policy has come under attack for its profiling of primarily Black and Latina/o New Yorkers, but increasing scrutiny has focused on how the policy and discriminatory policing more broadly impact the LGBTQ community, immigrants, and residents of public housing as well. One of the Community Safety Act bills would strengthen the city’s ban on profiling and expand it to protect New Yorkers from police discrimination based on their gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, immigration status or housing status, among other protected categories.

“From 2011- 2012 the New York City Anti-Violence Project documented a 93% increase in reports of police misconduct and violence against LGBTQ communities in New York City,” said Ejeris Dixon, Deputy Director, Community Organizing and Advocacy the NYC Anti-Violence Project. “The Community Safety Act is a critical tool to prohibit profiling of LGBTQ communities in addition to communities of color, immigrant communities, and many other marginalized communities throughout this city.”

“The reality is that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people of color are among New Yorkers subjected to over 5 million stops by the NYPD over the past decade, and that we have been at the forefront of resistance to discriminatory policing,” said Chris Bilal of Streetwise and Safe (SAS). “We are pleased that over a dozen LGBTQ organizations, including Gay Men’s Health Crisis, The LGBT Center, the Hetrick-Martin Institute, and Metropolitan Community Church, have endorsed this landmark profiling bill that would allow the LGBTQ community to hold the NYPD accountable for decades of discriminatory policing and make it safer for us to walk the streets without fear of profiling based on sexual orientation, gender identity, age, and housing status.”

The groups’ support comes as the constitutionality of the Bloomberg administration’s stop-and-frisk policy is being challenged in federal court. The federal lawsuit – Floyd, et al. v. City of New York – contests that the Bloomberg administration’s stop-and-frisk policy includes racial profiling and suspicion-less stops that violate the Constitution’s protections against racial discrimination and unreasonable searches and seizures. The judge in the federal trial has sought to distinguish between frisks that occur during police stops and more intrusive searches which are only permitted under a higher legal threshold. The unlawful searches of New Yorkers has led to the explosion in marijuana arrests among Black and Latina/o youth – wasting a million police hours, hundreds of millions of dollars, and placing those affected New Yorkers at a disadvantage in seeking employment and higher education.  Such illegal searches have also resulted in the unjust arrests of transgender New Yorkers as sex workers simply because they are in possession of condoms. One of the Community Safety Act bills would help protect New Yorkers from having their rights violated by preventing these unlawful searches.

“I am afraid of going out at night,” said Johanna, a 32-year-old transgender Latina woman with Make the Road New York. “If I see police lights flashing, I go into a panic attack. People should be able to walk up and down the streets freely; to do their groceries freely, but as a transgender woman who knows that my community is falsely profiled on a daily basis, I can’t afford to go out and get arrested again.”

“Passing the Community Safety Act would force the police to focus on stopping crime and keeping people safe rather than harassing and discriminating against innocent homeless people sleeping on the train. My message to the NYPD is: just because we are homeless doesn’t mean that we are criminals,” said Sara Diallo, member of Picture the Homeless.

The groups also expressed deep support for the Community Safety Act legislative proposal to establish an inspector general to provide independent oversight of the NYPD’s systemic policies and practices. They pointed to the benefits provided by inspectors general to the FBI, CIA, LAPD, FDNY and other city agencies in dismissing the illogical criticism the proposal has received from the Bloomberg administration.

“It is clear from the language of the bill, that the Inspector General proposal will not cause any hindrance or any interference into the work of the NYPD,” said Linda Sarsour, Executive Director of Arab American Association of New York. “The IG will only bring greater transparency into the workings of the police department which will, in fact, serve to making policing more efficient while protecting the rights of New Yorkers. How can anyone be afraid of public transparency?”

“As South Asian and Muslim communities mobilizing to end NYPD surveillance, we also face daily profiling and stop and frisk experienced by Black and Latino communities - as low-wage immigrant workers and youth. In addition to IG oversight, South Asian and Muslim communities stand in support of the full Community Safety Act needed for comprehensive reform in all communities. How can anyone be afraid of public transparency and accountability? The time for change is now,” said Monami Maulik, Executive Director of DRUM - Desis Rising Up & Moving.

In addition to stop-and-frisk abuses and the legally dubious surveillance of Muslim communities, also highlighted were the multiple scandals related to quotas, the manipulation of criminal statistics, and the failure of the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau and Quality Assurance Division to appropriately respond. 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, and 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.

“Clearly the time for a robust ban on profiling and the introduction of an Inspector General is needed now. For far too many years the NYPD has been acting with impunity and not answering to anyone,” said Nahal Zamani, Advocacy Program Manager with the Center for Constitutional Rights, “Now more than ever, these measures must be passed.”

In the announcement, the overwhelming opposition to stop-and-frisk in the city and increasing support for reforms and change in a new mayoral administration were also emphasized. According to the latest Quinnipiac poll, a majority of New Yorkers is opposed to the Bloomberg administration’s stop-and-frisk policy and want change in a new mayoral administration.

“Whenever I ask the police why I’m being stopped they say I ‘fit the description,’ which seems to be an excuse for racial profiling,” said Aaron Henton, a 28 year old African-American community activist and VOCAL-NY member from East New York. “We need the Community Safety Act to rebuild trust and hold the police accountable to protecting us, not treating every young person of color like a criminal.”

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

“Establishing an Inspector General of the NYPD and passing a strong ban on discriminatory profiling is a necessity,” said Riko Guzman, organizer at the Justice Committee. “One of the most important demands of victims of police violence and their family members is true, un-biased oversight of the NYPD. For the NYPD to really show they care about the communities they serve, transparency and appropriate oversight is needed.”

The Bloomberg administration’s stop-and-frisk policy has consistently been rejected by communities as effective at keeping New Yorkers safe – demonstrated by the unchanging annual numbers of gun violence victims during Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly’s tenure. Despite the 600% increase in 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 1,800.

“The NYPD has for years targeted and racially profiled Black and brown New Yorkers through the use of discriminatory policing practices, such as Stop and Frisk. This kind of policing endangers public safety, erodes police-community relations, and creates two separate and unequal New Yorks based on race,” said ColorOfChange Executive Director Rashad Robinson. “Passing a strong Community Safety Act would be a positive step toward laying a foundation for an accountable police department that does not act above the law, and one that can protect our city while treating us all with dignity and respect.”

ABOUT THE COMMUNITY SAFETY ACT

The Community Safety Act contains four important bills and is endorsed by over 100 organizations.

Intro 800 would ban profiling based on race, religion, immigration status, housing status, sexual orientation gender identity or expression, and other protected categories. 

Intro 799 would protect New Yorkers against unlawful searches by requiring officers to inform New Yorkers of their legal rights.

Intro 801 would require officers to identify themselves and explain why they are stopping someone.

Intro 881 would create a strong inspector general, with subpoena power, to investigate the policies and procedures of the NYPD. 

ABOUT COMMUNITIES UNITED FOR POLICE REFORM

Communities United for Police Reform is an unprecedented campaign to end discriminatory policing practices in New York, 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 unfairly targeted the most by the NYPD. This groundbreaking campaign is fighting for reforms that will promote community safety while ensuring that the NYPD protects and serves all New Yorkers.

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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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