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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Protests Further Tarnish Police Trust in Virus-Hit New York

Now a week into sweeping protests against racism and police violence, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio started to return his focus Wednesday to the virus still killing dozens every day in some boroughs.

MANHATTAN (CN) — Now a week into sweeping protests against racism and police violence, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio started to return his focus Wednesday to the virus still killing dozens every day in some boroughs.

Covid-19 is the “single most important thing” happening in the city right now, said de Blasio, who has displayed no sign of doubt that New York City will begin ending virus-related lockdown measures on Monday, June 8, as scheduled.

Because it can take up to two weeks for people infected with the novel coronavirus to display symptoms, any new cases sparked by this week’s protests likely go undetected until one week after the city reopens.

New York for months has been the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak in the United States, but public health experts signed an open letter supporting the protests this week, saying racism and white supremacy are urgent public health issues.

Unrest sparked by the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd dates back only as far as Memorial Day, but New York’s Finest had been under pressure long before then regarding enforcement of social distancing measures.

Data released last month showed 90% of all those arrested and 82% of those issued summonses for violating social-distancing requirements were black or Hispanic. 

Bennett Capers, a professor at Brooklyn Law School who studies the relationship between race, gender, technology, and criminal justice, said he sees future social-distancing enforcement as a “problem of diminishing legitimacy.” 

“It’s well known that the more legitimate the police seem — in terms of equal enforcement, in terms of everything — the more people are likely to voluntarily comply with the police,” Capers said in an email Wednesday. “And right now, the police are now seeming less legitimate to a broader swath of the population.”

He added that he hopes people will see the police aren’t actually necessary to enforce social distancing.

“People will social distance, and wear masks, because it’s the right thing to do, and because everyone else is doing it,” Capers wrote. “I’m hoping people will realize that compliance with social norms doesn’t require the police at all.”

Jennvine Wong, a staff attorney for the Cop Accountability Project at the Legal Aid Society, said she had personally observed NYPD members at one protest without personal protective equipment, even as protesters and demonstrators took measures such as masks, gloves and hand sanitizer to mitigate the risk of virus spread. Wong said she offered masks and gloves to officers but was turned down. 

Wong’s report matches media accounts and photos that show mask-freepolice at protests in recent days.

“These protests are necessary as the urgent need to address racism and racial violence compounds the already disparate effects of Covid-19 on people of color, especially black people in America,” Wong said in an email. 

“We remain concerned about the increased interactions with the police for unnecessary enforcement measures and the unsanitary conditions of holding cells where people are reporting it is impossible to socially distance,” the lawyer added. “The police are exacerbating the situation rather than mitigating risks by continuing to interact with the public in a manner that erodes trust.”

The Legal Aid Society tweeted Wednesday that about 400 New Yorkers citywide had been left in detention without seeing a judge for over 24 hours, a violation of New York’s arrest-to-arraignment requirement. The action also “needlessly” places people “at increased risk of contracting Covid-19,” the group said. It has filed an emergency lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court over their prolonged detainment. 

In the past few days, according to The New Republic, NYPD officers have “violently thrown protesters to the groundarrested journalistsmaced a state senator, and used a car door to strike a man standing in the street.” In another case, police removed the mask of a black man who had his hands in the air to pepper-spray him in the face. 

“This amplifies the call of advocates for the police to be entirely removed from the enforcement of public health measures like social distancing,” Wong wrote of the police’s behavior in recent days. 

But when faced with a reporter’s question Wednesday about defunding the police agency, whose budget hovers around $6 billion, de Blasio sided with the NYPD. 

“We've asked him to show consistent restraint no matter what is said or done to them, and they have done that overwhelmingly,” he said. Later in his response he invoked the John Lennon song “Imagine.”

“We’re making a lot of progress, I truly believe,” he said, after reminiscing that the song had been played at his inauguration. “I believe the protest movements themselves … the reforms made within the NYPD, are progress, deep progress. But for folks who say defund the police, would say that is not the way forward.” 

Some members of City Council do want to cut back on the NYPD’s budget, something they pushed for even before the protest, as the Covid-19 pandemic depleted the city’s coffers

De Blasio and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority say subways and buses will resume “full service” for Phase 1 of the reopening, though that phrasing is a bit of a misnomer as the subways will not be open 24 hours as in the past but will continue to close for disinfecting between 1 and 5 a.m. 

Rush-hour service would be increased, and there will also be hand sanitizer in stations, de Blasio said, adding that face coverings will be mandatory. Though he said buses, subway cars and stations will all have capacity limits, de Blasio did not specify what those limits would be. The MTA has requested volunteers to help in subway stations as well as the deployment of more police officers.

Three months after the city’s first documented case of the virus, New York finally has free universal testing, the mayor announced Tuesday. The achievement came quietly, drowned out as with much other pandemic updates with news about the protests. 

“Covid-19 is still a real threat, we're still battling that, I know,” said Governor Andrew Cuomo in his own daily press conference Wednesday. “It’s not on the front pages today, but it is still in people, and in society.”

New York state counted 374,085 cases and 24,079 Covid-19 deaths as of Wednesday, though the fatality numbers are likely low as the state only tracks confirmed cases. 

The mayor announced Wednesday that the city had just 39 new hospital admissions for suspected Covid-19, and just 4% of people tested for the virus tested positive as of the city’s most recent numbers. The city had 201,806 confirmed cases and 21,688 confirmed and presumed Covid-19 deaths as of 1 p.m. Wednesday. 

Categories / Civil Rights, Government, Health

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