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13 Police Reform Bills State Legislators Say They Can Pass Right Now
By
Caroline Lewis
Published Jun 5, 2020
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Gretchen Robinette / Gothamist
By
Caroline Lewis
Published Jun 5, 2020
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State lawmakers spoke at a rally at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn and at other sites across the state Thursday to promote a package of legislation they say will deliver desperately needed police reform and accountability. The 13 legislative proposals on the table aren’t new, but members of the state’s Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus say they hope to harness the momentum created by protests against racist and violent policing over the past week to push them through.
“Those who have oppressed us have done so with the assistance of the laws in this country,” State Senator Zellnor Myrie said to cheers from the massive crowd gathered at Grand Army Plaza Thursday afternoon. “They’ve been done with the assistance of people in power who are cowards. People with no courage. People who couldn’t step up. Today we step up.”
Although the crowd buzzed with the energy that has built up in demonstrations over the past week, attendees mostly listened attentively. Some in the crowd interrupted the speakers periodically to call for more radical reform, including the end of policing altogether, while others told them to quiet down so they could listen to what the caucus members had to say.
Among the proposals being considered is a bill many activists are calling for that would repeal section 50-A of the Civil Rights Law, a statute that restricts access to police disciplinary records.
Other measures on the table would put greater legal weight behind policies that are already supposed to be in place in New York City. For instance, one bill would ban stop-and-frisk-style racial profiling and require data collection about police stops; another would establish criminal penalties for the use of a chokehold like the one that former NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo used on Eric Garner in 2014. Pantaleo was fired from the NYPD after killing Garner, but was not indicted on criminal charges, even as Garner’s death also sparked mass protests.
“One of the most important bills in this package, [which repeals] Civil Rights Law 50-A, has been around for some time but it’s met resistance, largely due to the power the police union has,” Myrie told Gothamist after the rally. “I think we’re at a watershed moment right now where people are taking to the streets day after day after day in the midst of a global pandemic and seeing that the time is now to act.”
Myrie said other bills in the package are less controversial but will now be considered more urgent. He cited a measure that would permanently establish a special prosecutor to investigate cases in which police officers are involved in the death of an unarmed civilian. Governor Andrew Cuomo, who supports the legislation, initially established the state attorney general as special prosecutor in such cases through a 2015 executive order, but this would codify the position into law.
State Assemblymember Walter Mosely cautioned, however, that, “There are members of the Senate who want to water down these bills. There are so-called Democrats who are working against this package.”
New Yorkers listen to state lawmakers outline police reforms in Brooklyn on Thursday.
Caroline Lewis / Gothamist
At one point, the crowd broke out into chants of, “Pass these bills!” But some in attendance were less supportive of the legislative agenda.
“We cannot change a system that is corrupt!” one protester yelled early on in the rally. “Cut the damn budget! The goddamn police are the crime!”
“Defund the police!” Tanesha Thomas, a Bed Stuy resident who teaches at Montclair State University, yelled intermittently, echoing the message many have chanted and written on signs during the protests.
Thomas, who said she ultimately wants to replace the institution of policing with community-based public safety measures, called the legislation being discussed at the rally “very soft reform, not radical.”
“Cutting their budget isn’t even on the agenda,” Thomas lamented.
The police budget is largely in the hands of city, not state, legislators, some of whom are now coming out in favor of up to $1 billion in cuts to the NYPD’s $6 billion budget.
But the state legislature does appropriate funds for the MTA, which is publicly and privately financed. With Cuomo’s blessing, the MTA is spending $249 million over four years to hire 500 new police officers to patrol the subway--something that went unmentioned at the rally.
Still, many in the crowd were supportive of the lawmakers’ efforts, and they, in turn, called for support from Governor Andrew Cuomo.
“I don’t want to hear no more prayers and no more condolences from Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio,” Assemblymember Diana Richardson, who was pepper-sprayed by police while protesting last week, said at the rally. “Use your power.”
Richardson added a message for Cuomo: “With this legislative package, don’t you dare undermine the Caucus’ agenda.”
At his daily press briefing on Friday morning, Cuomo said he was focusing on a handful of the reforms for this session:
Here is a full rundown of the police reform legislation the Caucus is promoting:
- Repeal of 50-a | A.2513/S.3695 (O’Donnell/Bailey)
- False 9-1-1 Complaints | A.3566 (Ortiz/Benjamin)
- Office of the Special Prosecutor | A.1601a/S.2574a (Perry/Bailey)
- Police STAT Act | A.5472/S.1830b (Lentol/Hoylman)
- Right to Monitor Act | A.1360a/S.3253 (Perry/Parker)
- Local Independent Oversight of Police | S.7527 (Richardson/Myrie)
- Medical Attention for Persons Under Arrest | A.8226/S.6601 (Fernandez/Bailey)
- Establishes the Crime of Strangulation | A.6144/S.6670a (Mosley/Benjamin)
- Failure to Obtain Medical Care | A.3056b/S.4076 (Fernandez/Biaggi)
- Bans Racial/Ethnic Profiling by Police | A.4615/S.1137A (Bichotte/Benjamin)
- Reducing Arrests for Non-Criminal Offenses | A.4053/S.2571 (Aubry/Bailey)
- Body Cameras for NYS Police | A.8674/S.6686 (Walker/Parker)
- Body Cameras for MTA Police | A.8943a/S.06793a (Reyes/Ramos)
Tagged
nypd
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police reform
Caroline Lewis
Caroline Lewis is on the health care beat for WNYC and Gothamist. She has covered COVID, a nurses' strike, the overdose crisis and New York’s marijuana legalization effort, and spent a year investigating patients' medical bills. She always wants to hear about how everyday New Yorkers experience the health system. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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