Police Reform Legislation Moves Swiftly Through New York State Legislature Facebook Twitter Flipb
New York's legislature moved swiftly Monday to pass a first wave of police reform legislation, including a ban on chokeholds, a prohibition on race-based profiling, and a measure requiring police departments and courts to track arrests by race and ethnicity to help identify patterns of bias.
The session followed a historic wave of protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. The protests evolved into a referendum on police brutality.
New York state, where marches drew thousands of people into the streets, has a troubled history of violence by police officers against unarmed black and Hispanic men.
State Sen. Luis Sepulveda told lawmakers police tactics have led to the death and "utter humiliation" of many people of color.
"I can speak from personal experience. When I was 18 years old, I was arrested because a police officer didn't like the way I looked at him," Sepulveda said.
The ban on chokeholds – which passed unanimously with bipartisan support – was named in honor of Eric Garner, a black man who was confronted by police for selling loose cigarettes in 2014. Garner died after a New York City police officer put him in a chokehold. Garner's dying words, "I can't breathe," were captured on cell phone video and became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement nationwide.
https://www.npr.org/2020/06/08/872637497/police-reform-legislation-moves-swiftly-through-new-york-state-legislature
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