New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed into law a series of major police reform bills that will make disciplinary records public and ban police chokeholds, as Rev. Al Sharpton praises him for ‘standing with us when no-one else will’.
The package of bills, which the governor described as ‘nation-leading’ and ‘aggressive’, orders transparency of police records, bans chokeholds, bans false race-based 911 calls and makes the attorney general the independent prosecutor in killings of unarmed civilians by police.
Cuomo also issued an executive order mandating reforms to local police departments and warned that if such steps are not taken, these departments will have all state funding cut.
Cuomo signed the new bills in a press conference Friday attended by the mothers of Eric Garner and Sean Bell, unarmed black Americans who died at the hands of police in New York.
The move has come in response to the widespread protests calling for an end to police brutality and racism across America following the killing of black man George Floyd who died when a white Minneapolis cop knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes on Memorial Day.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed a major police reform bill that makes disciplinary records public
The governor signed in the series of police reforms Friday to make cops more accountable and pave the way for police reform following the deaths of multiple black people during arrest or in police custody over the years.
‘The truth is this: Police reform is long overdue, and Mr. Floyd’s murder is just the most recent murder,’ Cuomo said.
‘This is not just about Mr Floyd’s murder. It’s about being here before – many, many times before.
‘It is about a long list that has been all across this country that always makes the same point – injustice against minorities in America by the criminal justice system,’ Cuomo added as he presented a list of names of black men and women who have been killed by police officers in America.
‘Today is about enough is enough,’ he said, as he blasted the ‘systemic discrimination and injustice in this nation’ which dates back to Martin Luther King Jr in 1968 and Rodney King in 1992.
The bills, which faced opposition from a coalition of law enforcement unions, include the ‘Eric Garner Act’, which bans cops from using chokeholds and allows prosecutors to charge cops if they do use the tactic and injure or kill someone in the process.
The law is named after Garner, who died after being put in a chokehold by NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo on Staten Island back in 2014.
His death was caught on camera as he was heard pleading for his life, saying ‘I can’t breathe’ – the same final words spoken by Floyd.
Chokeholds were already banned by the NYPD at the time of Garner’s death but the new law now makes the controversial restraint a class C felony which carries up to 15 years in prison.
Pantaleo was able to stay on the force until 2019 and was also able to keep his disciplinary records hidden from public view thanks to 50-a.
The governor was praised by Rev. Al Sharpton over the move, who had joined Cuomo along with State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie at the unveiling of the historic bill
Cuomo also announced the repealing of the 50-a in the widespread reforms unveiled today – now making police disciplinary records public.
‘That should be done in every police agency in this country,’ Cuomo said of the reforms to New York police.
Other laws signed in to New York Friday include ordering that all state police officers must now wear body cameras, that cops must report any time they fire their weapon in which a person could have been hit within six hours of the incident, and also making false race-based 911 reports a crime.
The latter comes in response to the disturbing confrontation caught on camera where white dog walker Amy Cooper, dubbed ‘Central Park Karen’, called the cops on black man Christian Cooper, saying ‘an African American man is threatening my life’ because he asked her to leash her dog.
Cuomo also issued an executive order requiring local governments and police agencies to develop and adopt plans to reform police forces across the Big Apple and address use of force, police bias and other issues within their departments.
Reforms must be developed with local communities and must ‘reinvent and modernize police strategies’, Cuomo said.
Sharpton, who spoke during Floyd’s funeral in Houston last week (pictured) and has long called for an end to police brutality and racism, said: ‘He has raised the bar.’
If governments fail to take these steps by April 1, they will not receive funding from the state, Cuomo warned.
‘We’re not going to fund police agencies in this state that do not look at what has been happening, come to terms with it and reform themselves,’ he said.
Cuomo admitted there is ‘no quick fix to this’ but said there needs to be systemic reform of police departments.
The governor was praised by Rev. Al Sharpton over the move, who had joined Cuomo along with State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie at the unveiling of the historic bill.
Sharpton, who spoke during Floyd’s funeral in Houston last week and has long called for an end to police brutality and racism, said: ‘He has raised the bar.’
Police unions have opposed the changes with the Police Benevolent Association saying that making public all police complaints would be unfair to officers.