Article from Reason by C.J. Ciaramella.
New York lawmakers passed a bill today rolling back a notorious police secrecy law that has hidden misconduct records from the public for decades.
The New York Senate and Assembly both passed legislation repealing Section 50-a of New York’s civil rights statute, which makes law enforcement personnel records exempt from the state’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL). New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said last week that he would sign such a bill.
Civil rights activists and progressive state legislators have been trying to repeal the law for years, saying it shields officers with long histories of misconduct from accountability. Calls for repeal grew after the 2014 killing of Eric Garner by an NYPD officer whose secret misconduct records were later leaked to the media.
However, politically powerful police unions squashed those reform efforts every year, securing the support of Republicans and moderate Democrats, including Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. But in the wake of massive, multi-day protests over the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, the state’s Democrats moved swiftly.
Read the entire article at Reason.
Image Credit:Â By Joi Ito (Flickr: NYPD Drills) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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When will they just get rid of Cuomo the deigo and DeBlowMeO out of office ,just a bunch of communist . They have totally ruined New York .
And I still don’t understand why the left is so angry.
After all the people that elected them got the government they wanted….
So, the democrats are mad because they were elected?
So when will new York make all criminal records public?
How is that repeal going to help bring the out of control left to heel. The problem is not cops, it’s democrats.
Amen
I hope as a part of that new law making the police name public we will also get to see the names of all the people who are making those complaints. Seems only fair! Remember in our justice system the ACCUSED (Police Officer) has the RIGHT to confront his accuser! The accuser’s record should also be made public to see, like the officers pattern of alleged abuse, by the accusers pattern of false accusations! You want and demand transparency Governor , Mayor and Attorney General let us make the whole system TRANSPArent!!
50-A will also release an officers personal and family information to the public. Criminals and their attorneys would be able to use this information to threaten or harm an officer and his family. Cans you just imagine what MS-13 or another gangbanger group can and will do with this information. If you’re happy about this then you really are not thinking this through. If 50-A needs to be repealed, is it going to apply to all elected officials like judges and attorneys as well? If not, then leave our police alone.
BS, this has nothing to do with releasing the addresses of police and family. As a matter of fact almost every judge and LEO in every state is exempt from all public property and tax record identification.
This is about releasing the names of officers that have been investigated for violations of law under color of authority.
Remember under Federal law such violations regardless of whether they include physical harm REQUIRE a 5 to 15 year sentence in FEDERAL prison. The states and local jurisdictions EXEMPT themselves from suit and legal action except by the federal government, even if civil rights are violated.
Those jurisdictions set up “internal affairs” to shield their officers from FEDERAL prosecution. Then they seal the information from the public, including the number and type of accusation, whether the accusation was upheld and what penalty the officer was given, from retraining to suspension.
These are ALL things that MUST be public knowledge in order for the PEOPLE to be safe from the officers. Remember the FOUNDING FATHERS words: ” The people should NEVER fear the government, but the government should always FEAR THE PEOPLE”.
Kinda makes one wonder Who enacted that stupid law to begin with. Even Law Enforcement is Not above the law. Only problem I see here is potential Abuse of repealing that law. I Don’t support police abuse, but I also don’t support a legitimate officers getting harrased by a mistake they have paid for years ago. Very fine line they are walking on here.
Getting rid of police unions would be a welcomed outcome, but then again getting rid of all public employee unions should be the ultimate goal. They rob taxpayers with the ungodly pension plans. And mainly serve to provide the Democrats with the money they pay in union dues. Most are lazy and useless.
I hope the names of those claiming police brutality will also be released. If we need to know what the officers are doing, it would be equally important and valuable to see if there was a pattern in those names as well? Transparency should work both ways!