Blaz to Andy: We are too reforming NYPD
Mayor de Blasio was on the defensive Friday, accusing Gov. Cuomo of “personal attacks” and claiming he doesn’t “have his facts straight” when it comes to crime and police reforms in the Big Apple.
Hizzoner took umbrage with the governor calling out city lawmakers a day earlier and accusing them of not actiing fast enough when it comes tto combating crime or pproposing overhauls at the NNYPD.
“It’s just quite clear. And llook, if he wants to make perssonal attacks, he can do that, but he does not have his facts straight,” de Blasio said during aan interview on WNYC. “Seven years of non-stop reform, and it’s time we had an honest onversation about this and ststop these games.”
Cuomo teed off on the city Thursday, saying it was “wholly unacceptable” that officials in the five boroughs have yet to begin laying out a framework for reforms.
The governor signed an executive order earlier this year requiring all police departments in the state to “reinvent and modernize” enforcement strategies, including use of force guidelines, by April 2021 or face cuts in state funding.
Roughly 150 of the state’s 500 police agencies have already begun the process, he said.
Cuomo called on de Blasio to “step up and lead” as tensions again boiled over between protesters and police in recent days following the decision in Kentucky to not press charges against cops involved in the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, a 26-yearold Black woman.
The governor also said it is a “fact” the city has a problem with crime, noting shootings are up 103% and drew a parallel between rising crime and the tensions between communities and police.
“If you don’t do it, everybody gets hurt,” he said.
De Blasio touted changes that have been made in recent years, arguing that his administration has decreased arrests, lowered the jail population and recently reassigned roughly 600 anti-crime unit plainclothes officers into new roles.
The NYPD also rolled out a new “discipline penalty matrix” meant to standardize punishments for officer misconduct and make the process more transparent.
“All of these changes are real. Again, no police force in New York State comes close to having achieved these may reforms,” the mayor said. “They do matter, and there’s more coming.”
He also claimed he was a backer of repealing 50-a, a longstanding secrecy law that shielded cops’ disciplinary records — even though his administration was responsible for an expansion of the sweeping statute.
Cuomo senior adviser Rich Azzopardi said the governor’s executive order mandates engagement between community members, elected officials and the police in order to “reimagine public safety in a way that works for all.”
“Past actions have not addressed the fundamental relationship issue,” he said. “One hundred forty-six communities have already started this process and no other place needs it more than New York City— get everyone at the table and get to work.”