DRUM Members Press Reforms at City Council Legislative Hearing

DRUM joined Communities united for Police Reform (CPR) to share experiences of community members and voices of advocates in support of the Community Safety Act for greater accountability and oversight of the NYPD.

My name is Naz Ali. I am a leader in DRUM-Desis Rising Up & Moving, and we are an organization of 1500 low-income South Asians fighting for their rights as immigrants, youth, workers, and as communities of color. I am here today to ask support for the Community Safety Act.

I got involved in DRUM because I am a low-wage worker, and wanted to fight for workers’ rights, but I also care about issues such as unfair policing of our communities. In November of last year, when news reports were confirming the suspicions about the NYPD spying program, DRUM organized a rally to demand for NYPD accountability.  At this rally, I met a community member who joined our group, and he was very energetic, very angry, and chanting really loudly. I thought to myself, that so many people in our community are too afraid to even come out, and here this guy came to the rally by himself. He really cares about this issue. I thanked him for coming out, and told him to stay in touch.

In March of this year, we learned from one of the leaked documents that the NYPD was spying on our organization, DRUM, and many of our allies as well, because we helped organize rallies in support of Sean Bell and his family. So we held a press conference at One Police Plaza. Two days later, as I left my work as a seamstress in Jamaica, Queens, I was followed as I walked home. Nothing was said to me. No one came up to me. Just followed from afar.

Two days after that, the same guy who came to the rally called and said he wanted to meet. So I met him in a restaurant in the neighborhood. I am working with DRUM to collect surveys and stories about NYC Muslim and their experiences with the police. So I wanted to do a survey with him. In my survey, he told he had been profiled by the FBI, by the NYPD, and really upset about these issues. So I thought he would be great to join DRUM, and come share his stories at places like this hearing. But when I got to end of survey and asked him about his occupation, he would only tell me security. After I pressed him for the company name, he told me he worked for the NYPD. I got scared and left soon. Before I left, he asked me if he was now a member of DRUM and could come participate.

I became so scared that for several weeks I stopped talking to people I didn’t know. I stopped doing surveys and collecting stories.

Why is the NYPD sending informants and undercovers to rallies about the NYPD? Why are they sending informants to spy on community organizations like DRUM, and people like me for speaking out? Is this the kind of work the NYPD should be doing? Should we be afraid of our own police department? Now even some of the NYPD informants themselves are saying they are being paid or pressured to “create and catch” people.

I know from the community members that I have spoken to, and the stories that I have collected that the same thing is happening to many other people. We are treated as guilty until proven innocent. That is why they stop-and frisk Black and Latino communities, target low-wage workers, harass LGBTQ communities, surveil Muslim communities, and criminalize youth in schools. But we stand together in solidarity today.

I know that the FBI, the CIA, and the LAPD have independent oversight. Why doesn’t the NYPD? We need an Inspector General to oversee NYPD policies systematically. Good policing requires transparency and accountability.

We need the Community Safety Act!