32 THE QUEENS COURIER • JUNE 18, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
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 fi t
the needs and wants of the communities
they serve — and help put an end to the
injustice and inequality suff ered by people
of color.
Cuomo not only put the ball squarely
in City Hall’s hands, but he also fl ipped
the hourglass over. New York City is on
the clock. What will Mayor Bill de Blasio
do now?
We asked the mayor’s offi ce that question,
and the response was far from
inspiring.
Th ey off ered no specifi cs 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 offi cials 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 fi ne; they can pass a law
before April 1 affi rming 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
Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio in a side-by-side address on March 2, 2020, about the fi rst
coronavirus case in New York City.
of dollars in state funding at a time
when we need every dime we can get.
De Blasio cannot aff ord to play political
football with the governor on this one
— nor can he ignore the calls for signifi -
cant NYPD reform. No more dithering or
empty promises; it’s time for de Blasio to
get serious and take action.
THE QUEENS
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QNS ENDORSES RICHARDS
When Councilman Donovan
Richards announced he was running for
Queens borough president beneath the
Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Corona
Park last October, he shared his vision
for a better Queens.
Richards, who supported Amazon’s
potential move to the borough that
would have provided thousands of jobs
for Queens residents, has advocated for
reform that would address racial bias,
as well as investment in the transportation
infrastructure in eastern Queens,
a more community-driven zoning process
and reform to the community board
structure.
In March, the COVID-19 pandemic
descended on New York City, ravaging
neighborhoods throughout borough,
particularly in his own southeast Queens
district, where he was born and raised.
Richards has experience working
through challenging times, as evidenced
by his work pulling his community
through the devastating days of
Hurricane Sandy, Th at experience, and
his vision for Queens’ future, make him
the logical choice to run Borough Hall.
“Th ere’s no one in this race who can
talk about bringing a community back
from destruction aft er a storm like the
historic Hurricane Sandy, nor the historic
investments for what I call the forgotten
communities in Queens,” Richards
said.
By his side is the respected former
Borough President Claire Shulman, who
is endorsing Richards and has appeared
in campaign ads touting his record,
which she called “incredible.”
“What he’s done for Rockaway and
southeast Queens is unbelievable,”
Shulman said.
Richards was fi rst elected to the City
Council in 2013. Soon aft er, he secured
more than $1.5 billion to help fi x the
enormous sewers infrastructure hole
that led to the decades-old issue of
fl ooding in southeast Queens.
Later, as chair of the Zoning and
Franchises Committee, Richards helped
negotiate a stronger and more inclusive
aff ordable housing plan and he secured
$288 million for his own local rezoning
in Far Rockaway.
Currently the chairman of the
Council’s Committee on Public Safety,
Richards is working on common sense
police reform in the wake of the George
Floyd killing and the Black Lives Matter
protests that followed.
Last month, Richards introduced a bill
that would address the disparity in the
allocation of small business grants and
loans distributed to combat the fi nancial
impact the COVID-19 crisis had
on small businesses. He noted how a
disproportionate amount of the Small
Business Services aid went to Manhattan
and not the outer boroughs.
“Queens received only 9 percent of
loans and 16 percent of grants,” Richards
said. “Th e demographic information
that we’ve seen proves the racial, gender
and geographic disparities that leave our
communities crippled due to underinvestment
and lack of resources.”
He has been endorsed by 32BJ SEIU,
the New York Trades Council, DC 37,
the United Federation of Teachers and
the Queens County Democratic Party
among many other infl uential organizations.
As Queens residents head to voting
sites across the borough for the June 23
primary election, they should choose
Donovan Richards for Queens borough
president.
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