EDITORIAL
CITY HALL MUST TAKE
REFORM ORDER SERIOUSLY
Governor Andrew Cuomo threw down a heavy
challenge for New York City and other localities
across the NYPD: Reform your police departments
by April 1, 2021, or risk losing almost
all of your state funding.
Cuomo made the challenge through an executive
order amid calls to end police brutality and racial
injustice made during the ongoing George Floyd
protests. Every county and municipality has been
charged to reform their police departments and pass
a law establishing those changes over the next nine
months.
Why threaten to withhold funding if the localities
don’t comply with the order? Cuomo explained this
incentivizes the cities and counties to do what he believes
must be done: Modernize and reform each local
police department to better fit the needs and wants of
the communities they serve — and help put an end
to the injustice and inequality suffered by people of
color.
Cuomo not only put the ball squarely in City Hall’s
hands, but he also flipped the hourglass over. New
York City is on the clock. What will Mayor Bill de
Blasio do now?
We asked the mayor’s office that question, and the
response was far from inspiring.
They offered no specifics on how they’ll comply
with the order, saying only that they would work with
the state further. To us, that seems to miss the points
of the governor’s order and related statements.
Cuomo has ordered New York City to reform and
overhaul, from top to bottom, the largest police department
in the country, and to do so in consultation
with not just police officials but the people the NYPD
serves — politicians, activists, protesters, public
safety experts, the general public.
If the city doesn’t want to change anything, Cuomo
said, that’s fine; they can pass a law before April
1 affirming that the NYPD is working as is. But even
if de Blasio doesn’t believe the NYPD needs reform,
it’s clear that the vast majority of the City Council
wouldn’t agree with him. Should the city fail to meet
the April 1 deadline, New York City will lose millions
upon millions of dollars in state funding at a time
when we need every dime we can get.
De Blasio cannot afford to play political football
with the governor on this one — nor can he ignore
the calls for significant NYPD reform. No more dithering
or empty promises; it’s time for de Blasio to get
serious and take action.
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Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio in a side-by-side address on March 2, 2020.
Photo by Mark Hallum
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