City Council weighs police reform bills
while Albany passes chokehold ban
BY MARK HALLUM
City Council’s Public Safety Committee
weighed on June 9 the gravity
of passing police reform bills that
would ban chokeholds entirely, something
Speaker Corey Johnson says is about six
years too late after the 2014 death of Eric
Garner.
But if the legislation is timely, it has been
made so by protests across the country following
the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis
16 days ago and rocked the city
with masses of demonstrations and riots.
But in the minds of some lawmakers
such as Councilman Donovan Richards,
the question of why police came down so
hard on protesters in the last week was
something he demanded more than a
vague, or “canned,” political answer from
Mayor Bill de Blasio on what he viewed as
an inappropriate handling of the protests.
“When we ask about the police crackdown
on protesters, we are not asking
about the police crackdown on looters.
Stop trying to convolute the conversation,”
Richards said in a message directed to de
Blasio. “I like everyone else condemn any
looting going on, looters are taking away
from the movement we are trying to build.
BY MARK HALLUM
New Yorkers living in
homeless shelters have
a higher mortality rate
from COVID-19 than the general
public due to a lack of private
space to quarantine, according
to a report.
Coalition for the Homeless
released the report on June 9 that
claims statewide, those without a
roof of their own over their heads
suffered disproportionately over
the course of the three month
state of emergency due to congested,
bunkhouse conditions in
shelters that went unaddressed by
the city and state government.
When stacked against other
causes of death for homeless folks,
COVID-19 was the case 157%
more than any other illness in the
month of March.
Shelly Nortz, Deputy Executive
Director for Policy at Coalition for
the Homeless, said it was more to
do with government being slow
to take action action across the
board.
Council Speaker Corey Johnson at a February hearing.
But by focusing on them when you should
be focusing on what protesters want, you
are squandering the opportunity to truly
effectuate the change you promised seven
years ago and have not brought about.”
One way in which the protests have been
seen as inappropriate was by “kettling”
demonstrators within intersections and
charging with nightsticks as seen on May
29 on 13th Street and Broadway. While
looting was extensive as hundreds marched
PHOTO BY MARK HALLUM
Homeless died in disproportionate numbers
from COVID-19 in April: advocates
“Countless missteps have
placed an already at-risk community,
who lack the security, safety
and privacy of a home, in even
greater danger – physically, mentally
and economically. Government
responses to the pandemic at
every level have been far too slow
and have led to unnecessary chaos
for those sleeping in shelters, on
the streets, and on the subway,”
Nortz said. “If New York wants
to emerge from COVID-19 and
move toward recovery, the City
and State must take immediate
measures to address the disparate
toll the coronavirus has taken on
New Yorkers who are homeless.”
The city Department of Homeless
Services did not respond to
multiple requests for comment
from amNewYork Metro, but
complaints about conditions in
homeless shelters around the city
did no go unmentioned.
up Broadway from Canal, protesters went
down on their knees with hands up before
being rushed by NYPD.
Johnson condemned the de Blasio administration’s
lack of action in addressing
police brutality and protecting records on
police misconduct, and put his support
behind bills such as 60-A. An antidote
to the controversial 50-A, this bill will
mandate that authorities post online
complaints against the police department
The MTA shut all trains at the end of lines where scores of
homeless were forced from the trains to be cleaned.
In April, a resident of At Susan’s
Place, a woman’s shelter in
the Bronx, came forward about
the conditions she had been living
with; 8 rooms with 22 beds
each average and no sanitary supplies
or masks being provided to
and individual offi cers for misconduct.
The state legislature passed 50-A reform
Tuesday.
Information from the Civilian Complaint
Review Board and NYPD would be pooled
in one place for the public.
“We can’t let this moment pass the same
way we have done over and over and over
again,” Johnson said. “This is a Democratic
town in a Democratic state. The fact that
we have not delivered any change is inexcusable,
single white Democrat in New York City
has contributed to it. Either through silence
or inaction.
Intro. 6267 will address an issue seem
in photos and video over the course of the
last week and a half of protests in which
NYPD members have been seen covering
their badge number with mourning
bands, tape and other materials, which
is a violation of the department’s patrol
guide, as pointed out by Councilwoman
Alicka Ampry-Samuel during the hearing.
This bill will make it mandatory for badge
numbers to visible at all times, and during
protests in particular.
Chokeholds may not only be banned
in New York City; Albany passed it own
chokehold ban on Monday.
PHOTO BY TODD MAISEL
residents. Not only this, but at the
time, the source who spoke with
amNewYork Metro said there
were 11 COVID-19 cases in the
facility.
DHS refused to turn over
their fi gures for cases they were
it’s shameful and I think every
tracking in this shelter, but denied
these claims as false.
In March, an anonymous
source at a Long Island City
homeless shelter told QNS.com
that those living in the Fairfi eld
Inn were not allowed to take their
meals to their rooms, but had to
eat in the crowded conditions of
the cafeteria.
The conditions in shelters
were known to give homeless
New Yorkers pause when given
the option to accept services long
before the pandemic, however.
During an examination of
NYPD’s homeless diversion
program in February, Councilman
Donovan Richards put it
plainly in a General Welfare and
Public Safety committee hearing:
“People who choose the street
over the shelter know what the
shelter has to offer, and they
choose the street.”
14 June 11, 2020 Schneps Media
/QNS.com
