Gov. Cuomo Gains Victory With The Police Reform Package

By Breanna Robinson

On Friday June 12th, Governor Andrew Cuomo  signed the The NYS Police Reform & Reinvention Collaborative, a police reform package necessary for the betterment of the police force and the safety of Black people.

The governor states that the protesters have positively changed the sentiment of the country and the attention of lawmakers. The next step is to define the reform that's needed to enact change. The police reform package, that is signed by the governor, gives New York's 500 districts nine months to create and fully enact police reform or the state will cease funding (the budget cuts will total at $1 billion dollars). Within the plans, addressing crowd management, police brutality, bias awareness training, community-based outreach and the escalation training are all critically important factors to fully make this change.

In addition, following the death of George Floyd, Governor Cuomo laid out policies for reform called the “Say Their Name” agenda. These policies allow the  transparency of prior disciplinary records of law enforcement officers, banning chokeholds by law enforcement officers ( due to Eric Garner’s death ), prohibiting false race-based 911 reports ( Amy Cooper’s law) and making them a crime, and designating the Attorney General as the sole prosecutor for matters of death, or wrongful incrimination against unarmed civilians due to law enforcement practices.

Although the nation is taking positive strides towards a better future for the people, there is still a long way to go in order for these set of laws to remain paramount and fully effective from  here on out.

cover image via Waer