Justice for All: Calls for reform spark changes in legal protection for officers
News 12 Staff
Updated on:Jun 02, 2021, 10:24pm EDT
New York City made history this spring when the City Council approved a bill aimed at ending qualified immunity for NYPD officers. The longstanding legal protection is something activists pushed to dismantle when protests calling for police reform erupted last summer. I’ve had several lawsuits against the NYPD, said Hawk Newsome, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Greater New York. I’ve had three cases dropped against me in the last two years against the NYPD, where I was unlawfully arrested and I couldn’t sue those cops personally.
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New York has hit plenty of hurdles already in its Covid-19 vaccination push, including the nor easter rolling in today that forced all appointments at state-run sites to be postponed. But
are white, even though they represent only 32 percent of the city’s population. On the other side, Black and Latino residents make up only 11 percent and 15 percent of vaccine recipients, respectively, compared to being 24 and 29 percent of the population.
City Council Aims To Reduce The NYPD s Footprint With Sweeping New Police Reforms
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The New York City Council announced on Friday that it plans to introduce a comprehensive bill package that would reduce the NYPD’s footprint in the city and improve police discipline and increase accountability.
Among the 11 proposals: stripping the police commissioner s final authority in disciplinary matters, ending qualified immunity for officers who commit misconduct, and giving the council the power to deny a mayor s choice for commissioner.
“Some of these issues, as I’ve been researching them, go back generations,” said one of the package s co-sponsors, Brooklyn Councilmember Stephen Levin. “So the police commissioner’s final authority on discipline that goes back 80 years.