FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: Kayla Keller, kayla@fitzgibbonmedia.com, 281.682.6212
CJ Frogozo, CJ@FitzGibbonMedia.com, 310 570 2622
New York, NY — The New York City Council’s Public Safety Committee convened yesterday for an oversight hearing at City Hall to discuss the NYPD’s plan to evaluate and enhance its training procedures for officers. This important oversight hearing was called in the wake of tragic police killing of Eric Garner in Staten Islands. More than 40,000 ColorOfChange have raised their voices to demand justice for Garner and an end to NYPD’s discriminatory “Broken Windows” practice and the violence that it creates.
Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of ColorOfChange.org, issued the following statement:
“The NYPD is tasked with serving and protecting, but time and again officers harm or kill unarmed black and brown New Yorkers.
“The long list of unarmed Black and Brown folks killed by NYPD officers includes, Anthony Baez, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, Ramarley Graham and most recently Eric Garner. All of these devastating police killings could have been avoided if officers weren’t casting entire communities as suspects, if police training procedures were revamped and excluded discriminatory tactics, such as Stop and Frisk and Broken Windows and if there was a system in place to hold officers fully accountable when they breach the public trust or abuse their power.
“It’s critical that officers are properly trained in all areas of policing — especially in policing Black and Brown communities — but while our city leaders are examining and making recommendations to enhance police procedure they must also take immediate steps to end the Broken Windows policing practice — or we will continue to see more broken lives and tragic police killings like Eric Garner.”