Pols blast NYPD cops’ ‘testilying’
Mayor de Blasio struggled to justify daily chauffeured trips to his Brooklyn gym while pitching a “Green New Deal” on Earth Day.
Citywide carbon emissions would be reduced another 28% by 2030 as part of the $14 billion plan to curb the greenhouse gas fueling climate change, de Blasio announced in Queens on Monday. “We are going to change the way we do things,” de Blasio said in Long Island City.
Despite pushing New Yorkers to cut back on waste and be more environmentally conscious, de Blasio takes a 12-mile car ride from Gracie Mansion on the Upper East Side to the Park Slope YMCA to work out most mornings.
“This is just part of my life. I come from that neighborhood in Brooklyn. That’s my home, I go there on a regular basis to stay connected to where I come from and not be in the bubble that I think for a lot of politicians is a huge problem,” de Blasio said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday, touting city efforts to address climate change.
The mayor explained his NYPD security detail would follow him in cars no matter how he got to the gym. “Those cars and that security detail are part of the life of being mayor of New York City,” he said.
Asked later in Queens whether his Brooklyn gym habit should continue if he wants to lead by example as mayor, de Blasio refused to answer.
But he was confident other New Yorkers will be willing to make lifestyle changes to better the environment — like recycling organics.
“What you’ll find is more and more people are conscious of the need to change and they’re going to be willing to,” he said.
Hizzoner also stressed that buildings are the No. 1 cause of greenhouse-gas emissions in New York City — “not the cars.”
The city will effectively outlaw glass-heavy buildings as part of de Blasio’s Green New Deal — a name recycled from past proposals from freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Bronx, Queens).
City Council legislation in the works would ban construction of glass-walled buildings in the city’s Energy Conservation Code unless guidelines are reached to make them more efficient. Hot and cold air produced by buildings can easily escape through glass, requiring even more energy to regulate temperatures.
“If a company wants to build a big skyscraper, they can use a lot of glass if they do all the other things needed to reduce the emissions,” de Blasio said. “But putting up monuments to themselves that harm our Earth and threaten our future, that will no longer be allowed.”
De Blasio plans to sign legislation the Council passed last week that mandates most large buildings cut their emissions or face fines. The city also will convert government operations to 100% carbon-free electricity within five years by linking the city to zero-emission hydropower in Canada.
And the city plans to make composting mandatory citywide through Council legislation.
Gov. Cuomo celebrated Earth Day by signing legislation banning single-use plastic bags in the state starting next March. The head of the City Council Public Safety Committee told the Daily News on Monday that the NYPD has to tighten the reins on cops who lie on official documents.
A second councilman said the city’s five district attorneys need to be much more aggressive about charging police officers who fabricate testimony.
Committee Chairman Donovan Richards said cases like that of Darrell Williams (photo), which was detailed Monday in The News, help erode public trust in the police.
Williams, a financial planner who worked for the city, was arrested in 2016, accused of picking pockets on a train. Officer Xavier Gonzalez claimed in a criminal complaint that a rider told him Williams had stolen his phone. But the rider told The News that was false and that he had told cops and prosecutors it wasn’t true. The straphanger swore to that in an affidavit when Williams sued the city.
The charges against Williams were dismissed after two months. The city settled for $100,000.
Williams’ lawyer, Joel Berger, said he has written to the Manhattan district attorney’s office asking for an investigation of the case. Berger said Gonzalez fabricated allegations against Williams to earn overtime.
“If these allegations are true, it is critical that [Police] Commissioner [James] O’Neill and the Department Advocate’s Office hold this officer and others who falsify documents to violate the rights of innocent New Yorkers accountable to the fullest extent,” Richards said.
City Councilman Rory Lancmen (D-Queens) told The News that “testilying” is a persistent problem. “It will remain a problem until the DA’s offices start prosecuting cops who do it and the Police Department starts holding the officers accountable,” he said. “A thing gets a name when it happens often enough. That’s why the term ‘testilying’ exists.”
Both the NYPD and the DA’s office declined to comment over the weekend, and Gonzalez declined to comment.