BROOKLYN, NY- Council
Member Jumaane D. Williams (D-Brooklyn) released the following
statement today, after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals removed the
federal judge in Floyd v. New York, and stayed the lower court's ruling
which would have required a series of reforms to the NYPD's
controversial practice known as Stop and Frisk, including the
appointment of a federal monitor. The stay was not based on the specific
reforms ordered by the lower court, or the merits of the case in Floyd,
but on the conduct of the presiding judge in the case.
"In this country, being right on an issue has never meant an easy win. The stay by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals today has
absolutely nothing to do with the positive reforms ordered in the lower
court's ruling or the merits of the case in Floyd v. New York,
including the appointment of a federal monitor to end the abuse of Stop
and Frisk by the New York Policy Department (NYPD). Instead, this stay
has everything to do with an individual judge's own conduct, and even
that is questionable. When the merits of the case were heard by the
lower court, we won. While this stay is frustrating, when the court
hears the merits of the case again, there is no doubt that we will win
again.
With this stay,
however, the people of New York City continue to be put into a state of
confusion over the status of Stop and Frisk, and whether the approach
used by the NYPD, which has led to hundreds of thousands of innocent New
York City residents being unconstitutionally stopped and frisked, will
continue. The people of New York City must have full confidence that
their constitutional rights will not be violated under Stop and Frisk.
Even with this stay, the Community Safety Act, of which I was a lead
sponsor, will soon be enacted and will help protect New York City
residents against the violation of their basic civil right and
liberties. It will establish an independent inspector general to oversee
the use of Stop and Frisk and enable residents to have violations of
Stop and Frisk heard in a court of law. Protecting the rights and
liberties of all New Yorkers is what the two-year fight to pass the
Community Safety Act (CSA) was all about.
It is disheartening
that opponents of reforming Stop and Frisk, including opponents of the
Community Safety Act, continue to hold the people of New York City in a
state of confusion. The chilling effect on the brave members of the NYPD
that the City's attorney spoke about in this case is being caused by
the City's and police union's continued suits and deliberate
misinformation still being purposefully fed to union members,
information that cannot be supported by the judge's orders or the
language in the CSA.
Just two days ago,
Commissioner Kelly was unable to deliver a speech to students at Brown
University. Students protested the New York Police Department's (NYPD)
abuse of Stop and Frisk, and the bias-based profiling that the
department's approach leads to. The damage being done to the image and
brand of the Mayor, the Commissioner and New York City by refusing to
even acknowledge that these practices lead to profiling is only getting
worse. What's more is that the Mayor and Police Commissioner are
lessening the chance of leaving behind a legacy that remembers many of
their positive accomplishments by continuing to oppose these reasonable
reforms, and holding the people of New York in a perpetual state of
confusion.
This stay
represents yet another chapter in the long, historic struggle for civil
rights in this nation, and no rights have been won overnight. Instead of
continuing to fight to protect a practice which has violated the civil
liberties of hundreds of thousands of New York City residents, many of
them black and Latino, the Mayor, along with the Patrolmen's Benevolent
Association's (PBA) and the Sergeant Benevolent Association's (SBA) join
me in moving the conversation of safer streets and better policing
forward by dropping these lawsuits and unifying New York City. No matter
how long this fight lasts, it is a fight worth winning, and a fight
that we will win.
American history is
replete with instances where well-meaning individuals ended up on the
wrong side of a civil rights issue. I am prayerful that this
administration and the respective union leaders will at long last, to
paraphrase Dr. King, acknowledge that the moral arc of our City is
bending toward justice."
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