'Enough is enough': New York lawmakers to pass police reform measures criminalising chokeholds and opening up misconduct records

Repeal of 50A should lift shield protecting police with histories of complaints from public scrutiny

New York state legislators are set to pass a sweeping set of police reform measures following two weeks of demonstrations across the US demanding dramatic criminal justice proposals in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and other black Americans.

The bills, which are supported by Governor Andrew Cuomo, include 10 measures to criminalise the use of chokeholds, make police disciplinary records subject to public records, and make it a hate crime to call 911 with a false race-based accusation — a so-called "Amy Cooper bill" inspired by a New York City woman who was captured in widely shared footage calling police to target a black birdwatcher she had falsely claimed was threatening her.

Lawmakers also will repeal a measure in the state's civil rights laws that exempts disciplinary records of law enforcement officers from open records.

The Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act, named for the Staten Island man who killed during his arrest in 2014, will consider police chokeholds aggravated strangulation, which is a felony. His last words — "I can't breathe" — have emerged as a rallying cry in Black Lives Matter demonstrations against policy brutality.

Another piece of legislation will create a special investigations office within the state's Department of Law, under the state attorney general, to investigate and prosecute police killings.

"Protesters are basically right," Governor Cuomo said at his Monday press briefing. "It's all across the globe, and people are saying enough is enough ... It's been the same point over and over again. Bring reforms to the criminal justice system. Bring reforms to policing."

But the New York state assembly and senate houses could not agree to the terms of another bill that would require police departments to collect data for every stop they make, a measure aimed at ending racial profiling and stop-and-frisk. People who argued they were profiled and illegally stopped could then rely on that data and sue the department.

Brooklyn assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte said that Senate's "watered-down" bill is "throwing a bone to all those who were and are victims of racial profiling".

"The Senate believes it is too much of a burden to collect data, even though New York is lagging behind other states in this," she said in a statement.

Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality

•  
•  
•  
• 30 show all

Police clash with people protesting over racism and police brutality

•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  

• 1/30 Philadelphia 

  Police have clashed with protesters throughout the ongoing demonstrations across the US against police brutality and racism in the country, sparked by the recent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor

  AP

• 2/30 San Jose, California 

  AP

• 3/30 Boston, Massachusetts 

  AFP via Getty

• 4/30 White House, Washington 

  AP

• 5/30 New York 

  EPA

• 6/30 Boston, Massachusetts 

  EPA

• 7/30 Washington, DC 

  Getty

• 8/30 Minneapolis, Minnesota 

  Reuters

• 9/30 Chicago 

  Chicago Sun-Times via AP

• 10/30 Des Moines, Iowa 

  The Des Moines Register via AP

• 11/30 Washington DC 

  AFP via Getty

• 12/30 Chicago 

  Chicago Sun-Times via AP

• 13/30 New York 

  Reuters

• 14/30 Washington, DC 

  AFP via Getty

• 15/30 New York 

  Getty

• 16/30 New York 

  AFP via Getty

• 17/30 Columbia, South Carolina 

  AP

• 18/30 New York 

  EPA

• 19/30 Philadelphia 

  AP

• 20/30 Atlanta 

  Journal-Constitution via AP

• 21/30 Hollywood, California 

  EPA

• 22/30 St Paul, Minnesota 

  Getty

• 23/30 Washington DC 

  Reuters

• 24/30 Santa Monica, California 

  AP

• 25/30 Los Angeles, California 

  EPA

• 26/30 Washington, DC 

  Getty

• 27/30 New York 

  Reuters

• 28/30 Atlanta 

  AP

• 29/30 White House, Washington 

  AFP via Getty

• 30/30 White House, Washington 

  AFP via Getty

 

 

Last year, state lawmakers began discussing a repeal of 50A, a nearyl 50-year-old provision in the state's civil rights statutes. Its repeal would lift a shield that protected officers with histories of misconduct and other complaints from public scrutiny.

In a statement, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said: "The horrific murder of George Floyd, the most recent in a long list of innocent people like Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Sean Reed, Tony McDade, and so many more, has led to a rightful outpouring of grief and anger ... Black New Yorkers, like all residents of this state, deserve to know that their rights, and lives, are valued and protected by our justice system."

Other measures in the package of bills will require courts to publish racial and demographic data for low-level offences, affirm the rights of people in police custody to medical and mental health services, and mandate body-worn cameras for on-duty New York State Police officers.

The legislation follows demands from millions of people in the streets over nearly two weeks of protests, calling for dramatic overhauls in American policing and an urgent need to dismantle systemic racism in law enforcement and other institutions.

Demonstrators have argued that policing — which cost state and local governments a combined $115 billion in 2017 — is too broken for incremental reform, and have pushed cities and states to defund or abolish local law enforcement and divert funding to historically under-funded social welfare programmes, including housing, health and education, to begin repairing conditions that create crime.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday announced a pledge to cut funding to his city's police force, while Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was confronted by organisers asking whether he would commit to defund his city's police department.

A veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council supports dismantling the police department and replacing it with a community-based public safety model.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has vowed to cut up to $150 million budgeted to his city's police.

Democrats in Washington DC also are poised to take up federal legislation aimed at addressing police brutality by demilitarising law enforcement and adding more oversight and accountability measures.