NY Attorney General calls for NYPD shake-up in wake of police protest response

New York Attorney General Letitia James released a preliminary report regarding her office’s ongoing investigation into the NYPD’s response to last month’s protests, highlighting disparities between its treatment of White people and communities of color, and calling for a change-up of the department’s command structure, more diversity among leadership and the “redesign” of police’s role in society.

James released her office’s “Preliminary Report in Ongoing Investigation into NYPD Response to Recent Protests,” in a tweet on Wednesday afternoon, writing, “it is impossible to deny that many New Yorkers have lost faith in law enforcement.”

The report states that the office’s investigation is still ongoing, but "it is clear that too many New Yorkers no longer trust the police to do their jobs effectively and fairly."

In the 57-page document, the office calls for the creation of an "entirely new accountability structure" guided in part by a commission of public and elected officials, including the mayor, members of the City Council and the city comptroller.

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The report also urges the city to legalize or decriminalize more minor, “quality of life” offenses, saying many “are already not greatly enforced in predominately white neighborhoods"

Doing so, the report states, would decrease “unnecessary contact with police and the criminal justice system.”

“In particular, laws with a history of alleged disparate and discriminatory enforcement, such as bicycle operation on the sidewalk, 'jaywalking,'  loitering, and fare evasion, should be repealed or removed from police enforcement,” the report states. “Other offenses that represent a disproportionate number of New York’s total criminal summons, including marijuana possession, disorderly conduct, alcohol consumption, and trespassing, should also be examined.”

The report also urges people to stop relying on police in certain instances, such as traffic enforcement, school safety, homeless outreach and crisis intervention, and states that “everything must be on the table.”

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“Research shows that police use of force rates resulting from traffic stops are highest against Black and Latino men. White and Latina women report experiencing use of force by police at about the same rate, but the rate of force experienced by Black women during traffic stops is much higher, about the same as white men,” the report states. “Armed police officers are not needed for traffic enforcement, particularly when the underlying conduct in question is not criminal, such as a broken tail light, speeding, or not wearing a seatbelt.”

NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Richard Esposito responded to the report in a statement emailed to FOX Business, writing, “This is of course a political and not an investigative document.”

“Rather than rehash rhetoric we should come together — state and local law enforcement and electeds—and confront and solve the crisis at hand,” Esposito said. “Meanwhile, we at the NYPD will continue to protect and serve the public as we have for 175 years.”

James, a Democrat, is investigating allegations that officers used excessive force to quell unrest and enforce a citywide curfew. Multiple clashes caught on video showed police vehicles ramming a crowd, an officer pulling down a man’s mask and pepper spraying him in the face, officers striking protesters with batons and an officer violently shoving a woman, causing her to hit the back of her head on the pavement.

Protests erupted in hundreds of cities nationwide in the wake of the May 25 death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed after Derek Chauvin, a White Minneapolis police officer, kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes -- despite Floyd saying 17 times that he couldn’t breathe.

Racial tensions were running high before Floyd's death, after two White men were arrested in May in the February shooting death of Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, and after Louisville, Kentucky, police shot Breonna Taylor, a Black emergency medical technician, to death in March after executing a no-knock search warrant.

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Although most of the protests were peaceful, in some areas there was violence. Public and elected officials have said in some cases there were organized riots and that some opportunists used the diverted police attention as a chance to commit crimes, such as looting stores.

The Office of the Attorney General’s report highlights disparities amongst White people and communities of color during, and as a result of, the novel coronavirus pandemic, to serve as a “backdrop” against which the protests  occurred.

“These protests occurred as the country was grappling with the dangerous threat posed by the COVID-19 virus and its devastating and disproportionate impact on communities of color,” the reports state. “They were triggered not only by the deaths of Floyd, Taylor, and countless others before them, but by the harm communities of color continue to face as a result of systemic and institutionalized racism.”

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Between May 28 and June 7, the NYPD made 2,087 arrests citywide, according to the report. Of the individuals arrested, 927 were White, 808 were Black, 272 were Latino, 59 were Asian and 21 fell under the “other” category.

The office also called for increased transparency, accountability and oversight and for the creation of a codified "use of force standard with real legal consequences."

Patrick Lynch, president of the NYPD Police Benevolent Association, which represents police officers, said the inquiry, based on the preliminary report, "has reached a foregone conclusion."

"Instead of an impartial review of the protests and their aftermath, the report tells only one side of the story and delivers reheated proposals that have been part of the anti-police agenda for decades," Lynch said in an emailed statement. "If the goal is to heal the rift between police officers and the public, that won’t be achieved without giving meaningful consideration to the perspective of police officers on the street.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.