Campaign to Reform the NYPD Hails Major Victory for Landmark Civil Rights Legislation!
Major Victory for the Community Safety Act!
New York City Council responds to the demands of New Yorkers!
Early into the morning today, the City Council voted to pass both bills of the Community Safety Act, with a veto-proof majority! DRUM was present at City Hall with Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) well past 2am, when both the bills reached a veto-proof majority and the packed chambers erupted in celebration (Inspector General bill passed 40-11, and the Profiling Ban bill passed 34-17).
For DRUM, this is victory has been over a decade in the making. From 1999-2000, DRUM was formed from the police accountability and racial justice movements in NYC after the shooting of Amadou Diallo, an African immigrant street vendor. As low-income South Asian immigrants, we saw our community as being the newest to experiencing racial and economic injustices. Since then, we joined forces with our amazing colleagues in Black, Latino, worker, and immigrant communities. We are honored to be with many of them today in CPR to finally achieve this historic moment for civil rights in New York City.
Over the last year, directly affected DRUM members (as South Asians and many as Muslim immigrants) joined our allies to courageously speak at press conferences, testify at City Council hearings, meet and call their council members, and share their stories of being targeted by the NYPD. These bills are a result of their experiences of being profiled, stop and frisked, or surveilled, and most importantly based on an overwhelming collective demand across the city for these reforms. The City Council members vote on these bills today is a reflection of their accountability to communities and constituents, and we thank the council members who stood by our communities.
We couldn’t have done this without the leadership of Council members Jumaane Williams and Brad Lander and CPR – Communities united for Police Reform, the Brennan Center for Justice and all our other allies. Perhaps most importantly, we want to thank all those directly affected community members who courageously shared their stories and experiences with the world, and in doing so gave their power and voices to this effort. And of course, we also couldn’t have done it without you, our supporters.
Our work is not yet finished. We expect mayor Bloomberg to veto the bills, and to pressure city council members in order to cut the veto-proof majority necessary to override the veto. But our members will continue to call, pressure, and mobilize to ensure support of the existing council members, and to win support of the skeptical council members.
We need your support to help us ensure passage and implementation of the Community Safety Act, and bring about a culture of real safety and dignity for the communities of New York City. Thank you for your continued support!
And very importantly, we need your continued support to make sure we can keep doing this work until ALL New Yorkers are guaranteed the same civil and human rights.
With gratefulness, excitement, and lots of hope,
Monami Maulik
Founder & Executive Director
DRUM – Desis Rising Up & Moving
