State lawmakers vote to repeal 50-a with support from all seven Queens senators
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AN NYPD OFFICER ARRESTS A DEMONSTRATOR FOR VIOLATING CURFEW WEDNESDAY NIGHT. AP PHOTO/JOHN MINCHILLO
By David Brand
The state Senate and Assembly have voted to repeal a section of state law that cloaks police personnel records from public view, following nearly two weeks of sustained protests against racist police violence across New York.
The law, known as 50-a, dates back to 1976 and has for years faced criticism from justice reform organizations and victims of police violence who say the measure masks patterns of abuse by officers. The law faced renewed scrutiny after the death of Eric Garner, a Black Staten Island man brought to the ground by an NYPD officer using a banned chokehold in 2014.
Though the legislative session ended last month, lawmakers returned to Albany Monday to vote on the 50-a repeal bill and other reform measures after the police killing of George Floyd, a black resident of Minneapolis, galvanized nationwide protests that have lasted for 12 days.
NYPD officers and cops elsewhere in the state used aggressive, and at times excessive, force to suppress the demonstrations, which persisted in New York City even after Mayor Bill de Blasio imposed an 8 p.m. curfew. A Brooklyn cop was arrested for shoving a woman and two Buffalo officers were charged with assault after pushing an older man to the ground. Videos also show NYPD officers driving their SUV into a crowd of demonstrations and pulling down a man’s mask to pepper spray him in the face.
“It’s time we start listening to those who are closest to the pain,” said Queens State Sen. Jessica Ramos during a speech on the Senate floor announcing her vote to repeal 50-a.
Ramos and five other Queens senators — Leroy Comrie, Michael Gianaris, John Liu, James Sanders Jr. and Toby Ann Stavisky — co-sponsored the 50-a repeal bill. Joseph Addabbo Jr., the seventh Queens senator, also voted for the repeal bill, which passed 40-22.
The legislation “increases transparency amongst governmental agencies, improves public safety relations with the community, reveals the disciplinary records of law enforcement agents who are properly investigated for misconduct, while still protecting personal information of officers,” Addabbo said in a statement.
In addition to 50-a, the senate began to vote on a series of measures to increase transparency around racial and demographic arrest data, ban the use of police chokeholds and codify the right to record police activity.
“Proud to vote in the affirmative for these measures to improve the public’s trust in police & protect Black lives,” Comrie tweeted Tuesday. “These measures are only our first steps in the direction of accountability and transparency.”
Hours after the Senate vote, the Assembly passed the bill to repeal 50-a. “Our community has been fighting for the notion that if we don’t have transparency in the police department then we can’t have real change for decades,” said Corona Assemblymember Catalina Cruz during an appearance on WBAI’s “City Watch” Sunday.
Before nationwide protests arose in the wake of Floyd’s death, the 50-a repeal bill had withered once more in Albany. Democratic lawmakers, facing intense backlash to a bail reform bill included in last year’s budget, were hesitant to push additional criminal justice reform bills during the most recent session. The COVID-19 crisis then shutdown the legislature for weeks and lawmakers returned in late-May to pass a smattering of new legislation.
But the political and social calculus changed after a bystander recorded a police officer kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes, even as Floyd told the officer, “I can’t breathe.” His plea echoed the final words of Garner, the Staten Island man whose 2014 chokehold death triggered nationwide demonstrations for police reform and fueled the growing Black Lives Matter movement.
“Today's repeal of New York state's infamous police secrecy law 50-a, is an important step towards ending an era of special rights for police and the ability of police departments to hide patterns of brutality, sexual violence and other police abuses," said Communities United for Police Reform spokesperson Carolyn Martinez-Class.
CPR and advocates immediately shifted their attention to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who had pledged to sign the law if it passed.
Police reforms are just “one pen stroke away,” said Tina Luongo, the head of Legal Aid’s Criminal Defense Practice. “We urge Governor Andrew Cuomo to enact this bill into law at once.”
Police unions and Republican lawmakers condemned the votes in speeches on the Senate floor and elsewhere in the state.
“We’ve been left out of the conversation. We’ve been vilified. It’s disgusting,” said New York Police Benevolent Association President Mike O'Meara. “The legislature abandoned us.”
