By: Jared Evan
A group of social justice anti-police activists compromised of allegedly city hall workers appeared on the Instagram social media platform and announced their intentions to rally against the mayor Monday morning.
Identifying themselves as the City Workers for Justice Group, they laid out their demands on Instagram. The activists wrote:
As current & former @nycgov employees, we are outraged by the escalation, violent misconduct & civil rights violations by the NYPD, and the Mayor’s failure to protect our communities.
We demand justice for NYC’s Black and Brown communities.
Police exacerbate systemic failures, they don’t resolve them. Our communities need investment & support, not overpolicing. #DefundNYPD & reallocate funds to housing support, rental relief, food assistance, education & healthcare.
We are outraged by the NYPD’s rampant violence against black & brown communities, protesters, bystanders, essential workers, medics & legal observers. These officers are a danger to the communities they claim to serve. Each of them must go.
For far too long, police have abused our communities and violated the rights of New Yorkers with near-impunity and little public accountability. This changes now. #Repeal50a and release all disciplinary records for public review.
From rank-and-file to leadership, recent events have shown NYPD misconduct is systemic at all levels. We demand answers. An independent commission of civil rights attorneys, journalists & activists must investigate the response to May & June 2020 protests.
The recent curfew gave NYPD free license to indiscriminately attack and arrest New Yorkers exercising their most fundamental rights. This is a dangerous precedent rife for abuse. We demand that any future curfew must be approved by a ⅔ City Council vote.
These are only the first steps. There must be real change to regain the trust of our communities & the legitimacy to serve them. These systemic failures will not be fixed with minor reforms or with new leadership, but with new structures & accountability.
This apparent rebellion occurred on the heels of de Blasio after resisting for a week of calls to slash police funds from City Council members, announcing that he has a plan to reform the NYPD, including diverting funding from the NYPD to social programs.
The far-left activist anti-police agenda has risen to prominent heights after the George Floyd murder and subsequent violent riots and peaceful disobedience. De Blasio is facing opposition from the uber progressive City Council & simultaneously facing heat from supporters of the NYPD and police brass.
Rumors have been flying on NYPD social media accounts and on local podcasts that the NYPD police commissioner is about to resign, and other top-ranking NYPD officials were resigning or being replaced. PIX11 reported: “This is not true,” tweeted Freddi Goldstein, press secretary to Mayor Bill de Blasio, said in response to the rumors
NYPD Deputy Commissioner Richard Esposito, over the phone to PIX11 also said the rumors wasn’t true.
