POLICING & THE COURTS

I will vote to reallocate portions of the NYPD budget to anti-violence community based organizations, mental health services and the Department of Education. I’ll seek to build a coalition to encourage the Manhattan DA to implement court reforms. I’ll vote to legalize marijuana, close Rikers and vote no on budgets to build new jails. So many people that I grew up with are behind bars right now that I think about it everyday - it could have been me. As a teenager, I was in a crowd of young Black people at a casual night out at the movie theater that the police SWAT team treated like a riot mob. The status quo is unacceptable, our current system of public safety is killing Black people, who should still be alive today, with impunity. We must change it. I commit to supporting the following measures:

• Vote to cut NYPD spend and reallocate funding to anti-violence community based organizations, social services and the Department of Education  

• Support community policing 

• Support to reform NYPD DNA database which has been used to collect DNA from minors and people of color who have never been accused of crimes

• Support creation of Elected Civilian Review Board to investigate police misconduct

• Call on the NYPD to reduce arrests for ticketable offenses

• Fight to uphold chokehold ban

• Build coalition to encourage the Manhattan District Attorney to implement a variety of court reform recommendations issued by Judicial Friends Association

• Support the legalization of recreational marijuana in a way that ensures Black communities strongly benefit from the new tax revenue generated 

• Support the end of qualified immunity and indemnification clauses with regard to police union contracts

• Call on the NYPD to focus resources on combating white collar crime

• Close Rikers and don’t build any new jails