New York Daily News

Blaz delays signing of cop reforms

- BY SHANT SHAHRIGIAN

Originally planned for signature on Tuesday, Mayor de Blasio is reviewing a package of police reform bills including a chokehold ban, following angry backlash from NYPD brass who said the legislatio­n would weaken cops amid a major spike in crime.

At the end of a Tuesday public comment session on the police reform measures and three unrelated bills, de Blasio signed the latter but said he would approve the former “at a later date.”

While the mayor often signs legislatio­n immediatel­y after public comment sessions — and he said Tuesday that the police reforms mark “a watershed moment for our city” — he sometimes waits a few days to seal the deal.

This week’s delay comes after Police Commission­er Dermot Shea on Monday slammed the chokehold ban as “insane,” saying, “Police officers should not have to worry more about getting arrested than the person with the gun that they’re rolling around on the street with.”

NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan separately said police don’t object to being unable to use chokeholds, but to language that holds them culpable for “sitting, kneeling or standing on the chest or back in a manner that compresses the diaphragm.”

The comments came after 11 people were killed and 53 others were injured in a horrifying spate of shootings over the Fourth of July weekend. Another individual was stabbed to death.

Councilman Rory Lancman, who sponsored the chokehold ban, said he wasn’t aware of any problems that would hold up signage of the police reforms.

But the Queens Dem added: “Every day [de Blasio] doesn’t sign these bills, there’s a day they’re not in effect and that gives aid and comfort to those who oppose police reform and signals to cops that they’ve got maybe a few more days to do things they shouldn’t be doing.”

Albany passed bills similar to the chokehold ban and right-to-record legislatio­n last month.

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