Just one day after NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton resisted calls from City Council members pushing police reform legislation — which followed the news that 1297 new officers will be added to the force— police accountability was scrutinized by several key players, including the NYPD Inspector General, at a forum hosted by good government group Citizens
A group of fourteen progressive City Council members have signed a letter asking Governor Andrew Cuomo to take the investigation out of the hands of local district attorneys any time police-related killings occur.
Community groups and families of those killed by police officers joined state legislators Tuesday outside the Senate Chamber to stress the importance of police accountability and transparency.
Dozens of advocates were joined by black and Latino lawmakers for a rally outside the Senate chambers in the Capitol on Tuesday, asking Governor Andrew Cuomo to appoint a special prosecutor when a civilian dies during police interaction. Iris Baez, mother of Anthony Baez, who died in 1994 after an apparent chokehold during a police encounter, urged Cuomo to sign an executive order to appoint a special prosecutor as soon as possible.
Nothing in New York politics is easy, and Gov. Cuomo’s proposals to reform the criminal justice system — which attempt to respond to the controversy over what many think is the impunity given to the police officers who killed Eric Garner and Michael Brown — are no exception.
NEW YORK CITY—Gov. Andrew Cuomo introduced a plan to allow district attorneys to release grand jury information in cases where police kill unarmed civilians and the panel declines to indict the officers involved.
"People have to trust the justice system," Cuomo said during his State of the State address Wednesday in Albany.