I am fighting for $1 billion in cuts to the NYPD this year, and I am committed to voting no on a budget that does not make significant cuts to the NYPD.
This is the most anxious time for our city and country that I can remember. In New York City and lots of other places, too many police officers are escalating conflict.
Judiciary Chair Nadler, Reps. Velázquez and Jeffries, Doctors, and Public Defenders Call on Federal Courts to Stop Processing Nonviolent Arrests and Release At Risk Individuals After First Federal Inmate Diagnosed with COVID-19
New York, NY — Today, as the first cases of COVID-19 were identified on Rikers Island, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Council Member Brad Lander held a tele-press conference with Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) and other advocates to call on Mayor de Blasio, Governor Cuomo, and New York City’s District Attorneys to suspend broken windows arrests and similar criminal penalty enforcement policies, and to release most people incarcerated at Rikers who are over 50 years old, in order to protect vulnerable New Yorkers from exposure to, and spread of, COVID-19.
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I don’t like voting to build jails. But I believe voting yes today is our most likely path to incarcerating the fewest people, in the least inhumane conditions. And our best chance to turn the work of the campaign to Close Rikers into tangible, City-sponsored, decarceral policy.