CSS Testimony: Public Video Hearing on Police/Public Interactions During Recent Protests New York State Office of the Attorney General

Attorney General James, thank you for the opportunity to submit this testimony.

My name is David Jones, and I am President and CEO of the Community Service Society (CSS).  CSS is a 175-year-old nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the economic, social, and political standing of all New Yorkers through policy, direct service, litigation, and advocacy. 

New York is in a difficult period of unrest, leaving many of us to question the structures we believed would support us.

A raging pandemic has highlighted our inadequate, disparately funded health care system, and continued outbreaks of police brutality against individuals and peaceful protesters only increase tensions. 

Our economy is struggling; businesses small and large have closed and may not reopen, and millions across the state are out of work. Black and brown people have fared the worst, and unless we do something, this will not change.

In this period of extreme suffering, rather than use our limited funds to support the police, we should instead invest in a new social contract that provides for what New Yorkers need to live, grow, and fully participate in the life of the community, namely healthcare, housing, community development, education, food security, and living wage employment, with essential supports like paid sick leave, predictable schedules, and automatic expungement of criminal records that hold people back.

People are hurting. Many of us have lost family members, colleagues, friends, and neighbors to the COVID virus. In all too many cases, these deaths are a result of state and local policies that starved low-income communities while delivering continuous financial support to law enforcement.

For decades, New York’s elected leaders siphoned precious funds away from healthcare in low-income neighborhoods; weakened rent regulations, leading to evictions and displacement that led to doubling up and crowding people into unsafe living situations; and failed to adequately police law-breaking employers who stiffed low-wage workers, forced them to work in unsafe conditions or work while sick, or flat-out refused to hire people with conviction histories.

At the same time our communities are starved of resources and forced to endure conditions no one would wish on their worst enemy.

The law enforcement we have so generously funded has committed repeated, seemingly endless violence against black and brown New Yorkers. This violence includes physical attacks on individuals, but also disparate law enforcement and punishment practices that lead black and brown New Yorkers down the slippery slope of becoming visible to law enforcement, arrested, and saddled with a conviction history.

By way of example, two CSS reports revealed that the “crime” of fare evasion in New York City’s subways has been being selectively enforced by the NYPD in low-income black and brown communities. We also see it in reports of how the force polices “social distancing” rules, with affluent white New Yorkers being allowed to drink and party the day away, while black and brown New Yorkers are arrested, cuffed and charged.

Police incursion into the fabric of daily life of black and brown people – with resulting arrests, prosecutions, and imprisonment – continue to devastate entire communities, leaving millions with the indelible mark of a criminal record.

George Floyd’s murder catalyzed people into action. They are right to protest. Because police violence happens again and again – against black and brown people, protesters, and bystanders – no wonder many believe we have arrived at the breaking point.

In the weeks since George Floyd’s horrific death, New York and cities across the country have been sites of largely peaceful protests.  And there have been multiple reports of police violence directed at protesters, particularly the use of pepper spray, reports of police penning peaceful protesters or passers-by, and reports of protesters in detention more than 24 hours – sometimes for days. 

We cannot continue to support a status quo that perpetuates race and class hierarchies and state-sanctioned violence. Many are testifying today not only because black people continue to be murdered, and because those who stood to protest these wrongs had the unmitigated force of the police unleashed upon them, but because we need to chart a course forward.

CSS applauds the Governor’s police reform legislation, which includes repeal of Section 50-a of the New York State Civil Rights Law barring release of police disciplinary records and bans on police use of chokeholds, and includes several other measures – such as tracking arrests and prosecutions for violations and misdemeanors by race, ethnicity, age and sex, providing publicly-available data to help in the fight against disparate police and prosecution practices.

These long-overdue laws will go a long way to remedying the most destructive aspects of the power imbalances inherent in policing.

And yet critical questions remain: what is the purpose of a police force, and who does it serve? How can it be reformed to move us toward having the kind of society we want to live in?  In the broad context, the police are in an agency relationship with the people.  This relationship must now shift in favor of supporting what is needed for all people to live and grow within their communities.

Any changes enacted – big and small – must align with structures dedicated to addressing human need, whether it is health care, housing, meaningful education and training, self-determined community development, or the right of all New Yorkers to fully participate in their communities and the state’s economy no matter their conviction history.  At their core, these changes must address the problem of structural racism.

Changes should include at least the following:

• Require police training on local community conditions and racial awareness, and ongoing mental health counseling for active officers.
• Ensure that settlements arising from lawsuits concerning police violence are paid by the NYPD out of its own budget and not the City’s general fund.
• Ensure that 911 calls concerning mental health crises are responded to by trained mental health professionals, not the police.
• Limit the size of the police force – dedicate more funds to social services that support communities and their needs.
• Rigorous prescreening of police officer candidates.
• Build new housing for chronically homeless individuals, and otherwise support the “housing first” model of rapid housing for individuals in need.
• Substantially reduce the NYPD budget; redirect funds to support more affordable and low-income housing, universal health care for New York residents; restore and expand New York City’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) and other training pathways.
• Enact statewide expungement legislation that would automatically remove stale criminal convictions from a person’s record.  These records produce a lifetime of difficulty finding work, a place to live, or a future for oneself and one’s family – a grim situation disproportionately and generationally borne by people of color due to decades of racially discriminatory policing and prosecution practices across New York State.

Thank you for the opportunity to submit this testimony. I look forward to working with you as we make needed change and do the hard work of building a state where all of us can succeed, thrive and fully participate in our society no matter our race or ethnicity. 

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Issues Covered