NY Governor Sets Police Reform Agenda in Wake of Protests

Governor of the U.S. state of New York, Andrew Cuomo, announced a reform agenda to address Police brutality, especially against minority communities, following the death of Minnesota man George Floyd.

The “Say Their Name” agenda will make prior disciplinary records of law enforcement officers transparent, ban chokeholds and make false race-based 911 reports a hate crime, said Mr Cuomo at his daily briefing.

Meanwhile, the state’s attorney general would work as an independent prosecutor for deaths of unarmed civilians caused by law enforcement, he said.

“Mr Floyd’s murder was the breaking point of a long list of deaths that were unnecessary and abusive, and people are saying ‘enough is enough,’” said Mr Cuomo.

The governor pointed out that stopping Police abuse vindicates the “99.9 per cent of Police who are there to do the right thing” and would also make the community-Police relationship work better, he added.

Mr Cuomo said New York should lead the charge and he would work with the state legislature to pass the agenda next week.

Confrontations -- some times violent -- between protesters and Police have erupted during demonstrations nationwide during the past week. The governor said last Thursday’s incident in Buffalo of upstate New York between two officers and a 75-yearold man was “wholly unjustified and utterly disgraceful”.

In a video circulating online, two heavily-armed officers pushed the man, who approached them alone during a protest over George Floyd’s death, while asking him to move back.