NEW YORK (June 3, 2020) - “Today, we are calling on NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea to resign. We are outraged by the violent conduct of NYPD officers during the NYC protests over the state-sanctioned murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others who should still be alive today.
Our communities, using protest as a last recourse to demand justice for the Black lives that law enforcement deems as disposable, continue to endure unchecked police brutality. Over the past few days, the NYPD has demonstrated its trademark callousness and aggression, from a NYPD squad car ramming into a crowd of protesters to officers cheerfully flashing a white supremacy sign, macing protestors without provocation, throwing a woman to the ground, and pointing a loaded gun into a crowd of protestors.
For decades, the NYPD's bloated budget has come at the direct expense of funding housing, healthcare, youth programs and the essential social services that our communities desperately need. Instead of serving and protecting, the NYPD has instilled fear, instigated violence and deepened inequality.
Defunding the police and investing in our communities is the only way to ensure racial, social and economic justice for all New Yorkers. We need police accountability and change must start from the top. Commissioner Shea must step down. We demand that Mayor de Blasio work with members of the community to identify a new culturally competent Commissioner with a proven track-record of and commitment to building relationships and community policing.”
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