ALBANY — Citing the recent case in which officers ripped a baby from a woman’s arms while arresting her, the relatives of 16 people killed by police are seeking passage of a bill requiring the NYPD to publicly release officer disciplinary records.
The families of Eric Garner, Delrawn Small, and Saheed Vasell – all fathers who missed Father’s Day with their families – and their community supporters have called for Mayor de Blasio to take immediate action to hold the officers who killed them accountable.
All of the families are being denied accountability by the de Blasio administration, with the NYPD failing to take actions to discipline and fire the officers responsible and withholding vital information from the families and public.
Make it public.
Elected officials, civil rights advocates and relatives of those killed by police officers gathered at City Hall to call for the repeal of a state law they say is obscuring police transparency and protecting bad cops.
The law, known as Section 50-a, is a provision of the state’s civil rights law that shields the personnel records of law enforcement officers from public disclosure.
The legal battle over a New York City police officer’s disciplinary records after the chokehold death of Eric Garner in 2014 cast an obscure statute into the spotlight.
In the weeks since Donald Trump won the presidential election and assumed office, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has sought every opportunity to present himself as opposed to Trump. While de Blasio has promoted his administration as a defender against Trump’s anti-immigrant and racist agenda, he has refused to take concrete action within his own power to protect New Yorkers.
The Legal Aid Society filed a lawsuit against the New York Police Department on Tuesday in an effort to force the agency to disclose information about how officers are disciplined for wrongdoing on the job.
In the face of mounting criticism of his record on transparency, Mayor Bill de Blasio called for changing a state law that the city has said blocks the release of details about disciplinary actions taken against New York City police officers.