The mayor and top NYPD officials at a community center (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)
Over the last several weeks, the New York City Police Department convened and broadcasted eight “police reform and reinvention listening sessions” in response to Governor Cuomo’s June Executive Order 203 requiring local police agencies to develop a plan that “reinvents and modernizes police strategies.” These sessions were a sham.
Arriving on the heels of the Defund NYPD movement, the City is choosing what, when, and how to listen. The call to “Defund the NYPD,” for example, grew in the wake of an economic crisis as a way for community members to defend city agencies that exist to provide essential services to the people of New York, including wraparound health services, youth services, public education, and support for people experiencing homelessness. Facing mass public pressure of this sort, the NYPD in turn weaponized the budget justice messaging to paint the police as uniquely victimized. The false talking point that the NYPD was defunded by $1 billion was promulgated by Mayor de Blasio himself and circulated quickly, despite the facts, even those published by the Independent Budget Office, showing a modest $400 million reduction. Meanwhile, the New York City Department of Education’s budget we fought to protect was ultimately defunded by $700 million. Now, this week, the multimillion-dollar police academy welcomes 900 new officers as educators report remote class sizes above 50 students and we brace for a teacher shortage.
By nature of being led by the NYPD, the series of NYPD “listening sessions,” hastily announced and quickly concluded, focused on centering police needs rather than community needs – as demonstrated to us through platitudes made by department chiefs like, “Our ultimate goal is to police New York City the way New York City wants to be policed.” The sessions functioned to amplify police propaganda with little resistance, and to discredit the Defund the NYPD movement.
We believe this process is for the police, not for the people. To be for the people would mean ultimately divesting, demilitarizing, and shrinking the hold police have over young people and their communities. We remain committed to our demand of divesting resources from youth policing, and reallocating resources to the kind of work that helps redefine safety: healthcare, housing, education, youth jobs and noncoercive services.
After observing each of these sessions, we recognize these spaces as a mechanism to further grow the reach of policing into the lives of young people. By design, these meetings solicited support for more police-youth partnerships while ignoring the harmful role of policing in the lives of youth of color. With each meeting came more unchecked, cherry-picked testimony designed to grow the NYPD’s budget specifically to run youth programs – existing projects uplifted and praised included football leagues, days spent hiking, mentorship programs, and the like. Meanwhile, the fate of the Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL) and a barebones Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) budget are not afforded the same attention or platform. New York City cannot continue to outsource youth programs to the NYPD while the agencies established for this very purpose – and that do not carry the threat of police violence – are abandoned in the name of austerity.
There is a long history of inciting fear of Black and Latino children as a reason to expand police budgets. Commissioner Shea’s focus on “youth policing” harkens back to the racist, sinister, “super-predator” narrative of the 1980s and ‘90s. We see that legacy continue in the way that the Commissioner has made it his mission to encroach into the lives of New York City’s youth of color, including taking DNA of children without consent, launching a youth policing strategy that includes targeting young people who have been victims of harm, and entering their personal information into NYPD databases as through the gang database.
We condemn this “reinvention” process and this narrative that seeks to use fear to justify an increase in youth-police contact. Ultimately, this process avoids responding to the true demands of this current political moment, which include calls for meaningful investment in the community's ability to support young people, particularly in a time when the public is crying out about the Black lives that have been stolen, interrupted, and criminalized through policing. But we know that youth-police partnerships have historically (and presently) been used as part of a public relations arm of a violent institution. It is not a new phenomenon for the NYPD or any police agency to leverage young people in an attempt to counterbalance public outcry and negative press attention in the wake of widespread police delegitimization.
This process has been built around the goal of “reinventing” policing. Our goal has been and is to remove police from schools as a way to chip away at the institution of youth policing. The $451 million that New York City allocates for school policing each year is money not going toward school nurses, teachers, or counselors. As it stands, the Department of Education doesn’t adequately fund staffed school nurses so school cops take temperatures at the school doors. Educators, restorative justice practitioners, culturally competent mental health counselors, and student coordinators and peacekeepers have the tools to support young people and keep young people safe. Police, the vehicle for the criminalization of young people, are not to be “reinvented.”
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Ashley C. Sawyer is Senior Director of Campaigns and Charlotte Pope is Director of Policy at Girls for Gender Equity. On Twitter @GGENYC.
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A domestic violence hotline (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the dangers facing domestic violence survivors.
Survivors are facing escalating violence, increased isolation, and economic insecurity. And there are new and formidable barriers to finding safety. Tragically, three domestic violence victims in New York City - Vanessa Pierre, Ai Min, and Jessica Mitcham - lost their lives at the hands of abusive partners in recent days.
At this critical time, the programs domestic violence survivors depend on for essential services are more important than ever. We know that the city and state are facing profound budget challenges. As a result, the nonprofits that respond to violence and support survivors are bracing for reductions in city and state funding of the contracts that support these vital services.
I lead one of those nonprofits, Safe Horizon, the nation’s largest victim services agency. We support thousands of victims of domestic violence every year, and we are deeply concerned about what reductions in public funding would mean for our programs, our staff, and victims of domestic violence, especially when so much is at stake.
When most operations in New York City ground to a halt this spring, Safe Horizon’s domestic violence shelters remained open to ensure survivors and their families had a safe, supportive place in which to heal. Advocates at our 24-hour hotlines continued to respond around the clock to victims of violence and abuse who needed shelter, crisis intervention, or safety planning assistance. Attorneys at our Domestic Violence Law Project expertly navigated virtual court proceedings to obtain orders of protection for New Yorkers at risk of further violence.
In short, Safe Horizon and the entire network of domestic violence service providers in New York City rose to the challenge and helped keep victims and their families safe.
But right now, organizations like Safe Horizon are facing a stark future. Even as access to shelter, legal services, and safety planning is more important than ever, the public funding that supports our work is at risk.
I don’t want to mince words: Nonprofits like Safe Horizon save lives every day. Cuts to our budgets would leave countless victims of domestic violence and other crimes at risk of greater harm.
We urge our elected leaders to protect funding for organizations like Safe Horizon. We cannot afford to lose more lives to domestic violence, especially when we know that safety, security, and access to life-saving resources are possible when we invest in these programs.
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Liz Roberts is Interim CEO of Safe Horizon, the nation’s largest victim’s services agency. Every year Safe Horizon helps 250,000 victims of violence, crime and abuse find safety, support, hope and connection. If you or someone you know is suffering from violence or abuse, call Safe Horizon’s 24/7 hotline at 1-800-621-HOPE.
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Frontline healthcare workers (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)
Skipping family gatherings. Skipping necessary doctor’s appointments. Missing school. Missing time with friends. Losing jobs. And the deaths of loved ones. At this point, COVID-19 has affected every single American in one way or another.
As a frontline healthcare worker, I have seen firsthand the damage this pandemic has caused. While the death toll has surpassed 225,000 in the United States alone and hospitalizations begin to rise again, I have gone to work and risked my life to save the lives of others.
It did not have to be this way. And that’s why I’m urging everyone to join with me in voting for a change of leadership so we can begin to contain this devastating pandemic. No matter where you live or whether you’ve ever voted before, if you’re eligible to vote, please go out and make your voice heard for change.
President Trump and his administration – and most of us in the healthcare profession – knew in January that there was a serious virus already in the U.S. that had the potential to wreak havoc on our everyday lives. By March, we knew this was not the typical flu, but something that would spread at a much higher rate if we did not take the precautions necessary to mitigate its impact.
States began to close themselves because there was no official mandate from the federal government. President Trump repeatedly said the virus would go away quickly and easily. Meanwhile, hospital beds filled up and our access to personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks, gloves, and gowns began to disappear, thanks to a lack of planning by the federal government that put healthcare workers at even greater risk.
In past circumstances, we have relied on science to guide us through these difficult illnesses. Contact tracing, testing, and wearing a facemask are essential. Yet, despite plenty of warning and ample time to put these measures into place, our national leadership chose to limit these proactive measures, because as President Trump phrased it in a June 15 tweet, testing “makes us look bad.” That was several months into the pandemic. After having tested positive and being hospitalized himself, the president still mocks the use of masks and downplays the virus’ risk and toll.
We need to once again allow science to guide us. President Trump has failed to protect the American people through his actions, and there are hundreds of thousands of grieving families today, and more every day, because of his administration’s inaction.
There are also millions of Americans out of work, and many families are facing childcare crises and evictions. Healthcare workers like myself are working hard every day to simply keep victims of this pandemic alive, and there is no real end in sight as we enter the winter season where things are projected to get much worse.
Healthcare workers are not the only ones who have a say in the current state of affairs—everyone should be casting their vote. Even if you live in New York or another state where you may not think the electoral votes are in play, everyone’s votes matter and are shown in tallies of the final results.
Seeing firsthand the effects of this pandemic while our president not only does nothing, but in fact makes matters worse, is as much a call to action as possible. This year, more than ever, healthcare workers must let their voices be heard and cast a vote. And so must anyone who sees the wreckage that the virus has caused, made much worse by the president’s failed leadership.
COVID-19 has ruined the lives of far too many families, and led to too much heartbreak, frustration, anger, and fear. Just like wearing a facemask, do the responsible thing, and do your civic duty. A vote on Tuesday is a vote to end this pandemic.
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Chandra Tameshwar is a Registered Nurse who has worked in Brooklyn for five years and is a member of 1199 SEIU.
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