Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Saturday told protesters demanding racial justice in the wake of George Floyd’s death that “you won,” and pressed the state’s police and local governments to formulate a plan for “systemic reform” by April 1, 2021 — or else.
“If you don’t do it, local government, you won’t get any state funding. Period,” Cuomo said at his daily briefing. “You have to pass a law with your redesigned police force.”
He said each community had to come up with its own reforms.
“I’m not going to tell New York City what kind of police force they should have,” Cuomo said.
The governor turned the heat up a day after he signed the New York State Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative, an executive order requiring agencies to come up with a plan “that reinvents and modernizes police strategies and programs in their community based on community input.”
The redesign then must be passed into law by the local government.
“Take this moment and make change,” Cuomo said.
Asked whether a municipality would lose all state money if it did not comply, the governor said it would “be a significant amount of funds.”
The NYPD alone gets $82 million, or 2 percent of its budget, from the state, according to the Citizens Budget Commission.
“We’re in discussions with the state on next steps,” a City Hall spokeswoman said.
Cuomo’s reform plans — including a package of measures signed into law on Friday that included repealing secrecy laws around police disciplinary records and banning chokeholds — were met with condemnation from the NYPD’s Police Benevolent Association, the city’s largest cop union.
“We will be permanently frozen, stripped of all resources and unable to do the job,” said union head Pat Lynch.
Meanwhile, Floyd’s family plans to sue Derek Chauvin, the fired Minnesota cop charged with killing him, to hold the ex-officer accountable “in every aspect, criminal and civil,” said their lawyer, Benjamin Crump.
The lawsuit announcement comes a day after a report said Chauvin, 44, who is facing second-degree murder charges, could still receive more than $1 million in pension benefits during his retirement years — even if he is convicted.
The family could seek to recoup the pension cash, according to The New York Times.
Meanwhile, protests stemming from Floyd’s death continued in major cities around the country and Europe on Saturday. Most were peaceful.
“No justice, no sleep!” chanted some weary marchers in Manhattan, their words reflecting the persistence with which many protesters have stuck with the cause since Floyd, 46, died on May 25 after Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes.
And in Brooklyn, state Attorney General Letitia James joined the Rev. Al Sharpton, filmmaker Spike Lee and others to paint a mural with the words “Black Lives Matter” in large yellow letters on Fulton Street.
“Proud to help Brooklyn say it loud: #BlackLivesMatter,” James tweeted, along with photos of them painting the letters in bright yellow.
The move came after Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser had the slogan painted on a street leading to the White House and renamed part of it “Black Lives Matter Plaza.”