4 THE QUEENS COURIER • DECEMBER 31, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Sanders joins call for search warrant reform
BY ROBERT POZARYCKI
rpozarycki@qns.com
@robbpoz
The deadly police shooting of
Louisville’s Breonna Taylor back in March
has prompted New York lawmakers,
including state Senator James Sanders
Jr., to make a renewed eff ort at reforming
how law enforcement executes search
warrants.
Th ree New York City elected offi -
cials — Sanders of Queens, state Senator
Brian Benjamin of Manhattan/Brooklyn,
and Manhattan Assemblyman Daniel
O’Donnell — announced new legislation
Th ursday that would curb the use of “noknock
warrants” and further regulate how
police offi cers conduct raids.
Among the legislation’s supporters is
Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, who said
she’s “not the only parent who has lost
a child due to this practice of breaking
down doors with hopes of scoring drugs
and cash.”
“Th ese reform eff orts need to continue
so that no one else loses a loved one
as a result of these dangerous, deadly and
unnecessary practices,” Palmer said. “Th e
lives of innocent daughters, sons, brothers,
sisters, mothers, fathers AND police
offi cers depend upon the immediate elimination
of these raids. We’re counting on
legislators nationwide to act now.”
While the bill wouldn’t eliminate noknock
raids in New York altogether, it
would restrict or prevent the kind of tactics
that Louisville, Kentucky, police offi -
cers used in conducting the raid that led
to Taylor’s death early on the morning of
March 13, 2020.
Plainclothes offi cers knocked on the
door, then stormed into an
apartment as part of a
narcotics investigation;
Taylor, a medical worker,
was with her boyfriend,
Kenneth Walker, at the
time.
Walker claimed he
did not hear the offi -
cers identify themselves
as law enforcement,
which had
prompted him to
think an intruder
had come in. He
pulled out a pistol
and fi red a shot
that struck one
of the offi cers
in the leg; that
p r o m p t e d
police officers
to open
fi re 32 times.
Walker was
not hit, but Taylor was struck six times
and died.
Th e crime prompted national outrage
and protests demanding an end to police
brutality and racial injustice. Th ose calls
were compounded later in the spring following
the police death of George Floyd in
Minneapolis;
Taylor’s name
was oft en recited
at the protests
that broke
out across the
country.
Th e protests
also spurred
l e g i s l a t o r s
across America to rethink law enforcement
and introduce new reforms, from reducing
funding for police departments to changing
police operations altogether.
Along with responding to Taylor’s
death, the legislation that Sanders,
Benjamin and O’Donnell proposed
Th ursday also revives a
nearly 20-year eff ort in New
York to reform search warrant
operations following the
2003 death of Harlem’s Alberta
Spurill, who suff ered a fatal
heart attack during an NYPD
raid of her home.
Sanders further cited studies
that no-knock raids and warrants
are disproportionally
executed more oft en against Black and
Brown people.
“Today, we are putting forth the most
comprehensive, groundbreaking legislation
in the nation when it comes to these
police raids, which should only be used
under extreme circumstances and with
accountability.”
If passed, the bill would limit police
departments across New York state in
their use of no-knock warrants and raids
to solely using such tactics with conclusive
evidence that human life is in jeopardy.
In advance of acquiring such a warrant,
the legislation also mandates that offi cers
obtain in advance the age, gender and
known disabilities of all occupants. All
offi cers must be in uniform; wait 30 seconds
for a response to a knock on their
door; and not use any fl ash bang grenades
in executing each raid.
Additionally, police departments would
be required to make audio and video footage
of each warrant execution available
for independent oversight review.
Research conducted by Campaign Zero
and police scholar Dr. Peter Kraska found
that American police departments executed
60,000 no-knock or quick-knock raids
every year, a twentyfold jump from the
3,000 such operations conducted during
the early 1980s.
Schenps Media reached out to the
NYPD for comment and is awaiting a
response.
Whitestone Republican Club under fi re for maskless party
BY JACOB KAYE
jkaye@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
It’s diffi cult to maintain social distance
in a conga line.
Th e Whitestone Republican Club came
under fi re last week aft er a video of its
members partying and dancing maskless
indoors circulated online.
Shared from a private Facebook group
by journalist Matt Binder, the clip shows
members of the local political club being
led through a conga line by hardline
conservative and City Council candidate
Vickie Paladino.
Th e party, which took place on Friday,
Dec. 11, at Il Bacco Risturante in Little
Neck, appeared to be a celebration void
of COVID-19 guidelines, despite the
Republican Club suggesting otherwise.
“In early December we held a small
gathering observing all the covid sic
guidelines in place at the time,” the club
wrote on its Facebook page this week.
“Every attendee was told to wear a mask
and everyone either had one when
entering or was given one.”
According to the club’s Facebook page,
no one who attended the party has since
come down with the virus, which has
killed over 36,000 people in New York in
the past nine months.
“Yes, we held a holiday party. A good
time was had by all,” the club wrote in a
separate post. “But we are not the mask
police, nor are we the social distancing
police. Adults have the absolute right
to make their own decisions, and clearly
many chose to interact like normal
humans and not paranoid zombies in
hazmat suits.”
Th e party was held the day Governor
Andrew Cuomo announced indoor
dining would be shut down in the state
following Monday, Dec. 14.
Th e video made its way to the Cuomo,
who the owners of Il Bacco sued over
indoor dinning restrictions earlier this
year.
“I saw the video — COVID conga lines
are not smart. Th at’s my offi cial position,”
Cuomo said. “Why you would do
an unmasked conga line in the middle of
a COVID pandemic, whatever your political
persuasion, defi es logical explanation,
as far as I’m concerned.”
Th e Queens GOP fl ocked to support
Joe Oppedisano, the owner of the restaurant,
and his daughter, Tina Oppedisano,
Screenshot via Twitter/@MattBinder
who manages Il Bacco, aft er they fi led a $2
billion class action action lawsuit against
city and state leadership in August, claiming
the shut down in New York City led to
“irreparable harm” for the eatery and the
industry at large.
Th e owner, who crashed a seaplane in the
Flushing Bay in October, is a vocal supporter
of outgoing President Donald Trump.
Neither Il Bacco’s ownership nor
Paladino responded to QNS’ request for
comment.
File photo by
Dean Moses
/WWW.QNS.COM
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