The specter of Americans, wild with notions of conspiracy theories and desperate to maintain their hold on power, overtaking the Capitol by force without regard for the democratic process or for human life — will not only be an ugly episode when our country’s great enterprise was defiled, but a defining moment when the cloak of patriotism and law and order were thrown off for all to see.
According to the FBI, these extremists are coming to New York. In fact, they are already here. Both NYPD and FDNY officers are under investigation by the FBI for their participation in the failed coup at the Capitol on January 6, 2020. Given reports that police officers were among the attackers, it seems likely that there may be additional insurrectionists embedded in police precincts throughout the state. As citizens, we don’t know who they are, or in what departments. And we have no way to find out. Despite sweeping police reform legislation passed in New York during the summer of 2020 following the killing of George Floyd, we have been left unprotected by a law enforcement system that has allowed racism and hate to fester.
“Police reform” will not actually come to fruition until the police no longer police themselves.
In the coming days there is an urgent need for a public safety plan as well as police oversight, given the violent insurrection at the Capitol and dire intelligence warnings preceding the Inauguration of President-elect Biden. Will our police protect and serve us all? With local police officers’ possible role in the insurrection unknown, and indicators such as the Thin Blue Line flag emblazoned on some departments’ vehicles, how is the public to trust that police are committed to our safety?
The breakdown of trust that has resulted from the repeated traumatization of Black citizens, the failure of police to take responsibility for their misconduct, and the defensive stance of police officers who feel the need to emphasize a line between themselves and the citizenry they have sworn to protect has created an armed force among us that is accountable to no one.
Governor Cuomo has not announced any plan to keep order and safety in New York in the aftermath of the failed coup, despite evidence that a number of the extremist attackers are present in New York. Governor Kate Brown of Oregon has activated the National Guard, as has Governor Newsom in California, and Governor Whitmer in Michigan. With our high-profile Congressional delegation at risk — both Representative Ocasio-Cortez and Bowman have been targeted by hate groups — Governor Cuomo must do the same in New York.
A “treason caucus”of New York Representatives who voted to overturn the results of our democratic election — Representatives Chris Jacobs, Nicole Malliotakis, Elise M. Stefanik, and Lee Zeldin — are certainly an indicator of an appetite for insurrection in New York. Even Westchester County is home to Canadian expatriate Gavin McInnis, founder of the neo-fascist Proud Boys, a Southern Poverty Law Center designated hate group that the Canadian government is taking steps to designate as a terrorist organization. Several Proud Boys members have already been arrested by the FBI for their roles in the attack on the Capitol.
The very lives of our Members of Congress are at stake, as are the lives of citizens and the honorable police officers who stand by their oath.
There must be an immediate and comprehensive assessment of threats to public safety and order in New York, including an investigation of possible threats from within law enforcement. According to the National Police Accountability Project, “[t]he egregious behavior of officers on the scene (at the Capitol) did not happen in isolation. They occurred because of systemic racism which must be addressed immediately.”
New York State has been caught flat-footed, without a system in place for statewide independent police oversight when we are at risk of imminent terrorist acts. The Governor must therefore establish straightaway a mechanism for removal of internal threats within police departments by an oversight authority outside the department. In California, municipalities across the state have adopted the model of civilian oversight and have strengthened these committees with the power to subpoena, investigate, and remove officers.
In New York, Attorney General Letitia James has recommended, regarding the current Civilian Complaint Review Board in New York City, that
“the system to hold independent officers accountable must be both independent of (the NYPD) and transparent to the public. To achieve this, the authority of the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) must be expanded and strengthened to have final disciplinary authority.”
AG James further advised that
“all police officers in New York should be certified through a process that allows for ‘decertifying’ officers engaged in misconduct, preventing them from remaining a police officer or being rehired by another department in the state.”
Governor Cuomo should direct the establishment of CCRBs in all New York municipalities, with the authority to investigate and remove officers, and meanwhile call upon the National Guard to protect the New York delegation to Congress and their staff, homes, and offices.
We cannot rely upon police officers statewide to protect our members who have targets on their backs. The new legislation signed by the Governor in June 2020 brought about a number of provisions that were plainly needed and long overdue; banning chokeholds, protecting the right of a citizen bystander to record police conduct, establishing a cause of action against any officer who does not procure medical or mental health treatment for an individual under arrest, and, perhaps the most significant provision, the repeal of Civil Rights Law 50(2), which shielded law enforcement officers from disclosure of misconduct complaints and disciplinary actions. And yet, even this provision lacks the consequences needed to bring about reform. There is no public, transparent process to investigate and remove officers guilty of misconduct.
Review of police misconduct was seeded in the 2020 reforms, but real reform will take much more comprehensive legislative steps. The Special Prosecutor role that was established within the Attorney General’s Office to investigate and prosecute any officer who causes a person’s death does not, however, provide any review of non-lethal misconduct. Similarly, provision for a Law Enforcement Misconduct Investigative Office within the Attorney General’s Office only empowers that office to conduct audits and make recommendations.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has leveraged the promise of this legislation in her recent investigation of NYPD police practices during Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020. As a result, she has filed suit against the department and made recommendations for further reform.
However, AG James’s recommendations are just that — there is no mechanism to require any department to undertake those recommendations. What, then, becomes of officers who abuse their power in villages and municipalities all over the state? Evidently, they are still among us.
