DIVEST FROM THE NYPD,
INVEST IN COMMUNITY SAFETY

Amadou Diallo. Sean Bell. Deborah Danner. Akai Gurley. Eric Garner. Saheed Vassell.

For decades, NYPD officers have brutalized and killed Black and Brown New Yorkers, with no accountability to families or the public. Over the last decade, the NYPD’s budget has skyrocketed: we must defund the NYPD’s budget by at least $3 billion dollars, and redirect those resources to housing, youth programming, and education.

Abolitionists like Mariame Kaba, Angela Davis, and Michelle Alexander have offered a clear vision for rupturing the prison industrial complex — not just to defund the police, but to also envision a world where safety is not defined by caging and disenfranchising people. The abolition of police and jails is not a call for anarchy in New York City, or a dangerous removal of safety and protection. Ruth Wilson Gilmore noted “abolition is about presence, not absence.” As Council Member, Shahana will fight to break the cycle of incarceration by defunding police and prisons, and investing in community-centered resources. This is an opportunity to re-write society and ask: how can we end the conditions that have destabilized communities such as lack of housing, food, and educational opportunities?

+ We defund the police and reduce our police force to zero.

  • Shahana will collaborate with her colleagues in the City Council and the Mayor’s office to abolish our city’s prison industrial complex:
    • Amend the City Charter to repeal the section governing the police department and its duties;
    • Reduce the size of the police force — by freezing all new hires of the city’s police force, strengthening the ability of the Civilian Complaint Review Board to dismiss officers with excessive disciplinary complaints (for instance, through amending NYC Administrative Code 14-115, and removing police officers from Department of Education (DOE), Department of Homeless Services (DHS), Administration for Children's Services (ACS), and other government agencies; and
    • Divest from NYPD’s surveillance technology, following the lead of cities such as Boston and Santa Cruz by banning the use of facial recognition software and predictive policing technologies that are rooted in racism and other algorithmic biases.
  • She will also work to break the police union’s power to prevent the public from meaningful police oversight and accountability. I will advocate for legislation that ensures that police union contracts do not include provisions that prevent police oversight and accountability. As Council Member, I will also consider how NYPD exists as part of the global prison industrial complex, and will work to end police training exchanges between NYPD and the Israeli military.

+ We disband the use of jails and prisons.

  • Incarceration does not make us safer, but instead results in physical and mental trauma, death, and disproportionately impacts Black and Brown communities. Prisons are a public health risk — the infection rate for COVID-19 on Rikers Island is seven times higher than the rest of NYC. As Council Member, Shahana will pressure the State to release individuals who are currently incarcerated by demanding the Governor grant clemency and increase the feasibility of early release.
  • Releasing prison populations safely is possible — through simplifying and expediting the release process, and expanding initiatives to help overcome barriers to release. We should also expand “compassionate early release” for folks who are terminally ill or elderly. The Council must repeal laws that criminalize poverty, sex work, drug use/drug trade, and further endanger survivors of gendered violence and those experiencing homelessness. As Council Member Shahana will also work with the District Attorney’s office to end all fines and fees associated with the criminal legal process, including ticketing, cash bail, court costs, and parole and probation fees.
  • Shahana will work with the appropriate State and Federal legislators to end the use of e-surveillance, such as GPS tracking, video surveillance, and social media monitoring in New York City. I will ensure that the Council refuses to fund organizations and groups that support the use of e-surveillance tactics.

+ We invest in resources that promote community safety.

  • How can we end the conditions that cause crime? What should we spend our money on instead of policing? Our community, not one elected official alone, should voice community needs and what safety means.
  • New York City Council’s Participatory Budgeting recognizes budgets as moral documents and allows for constituents to take an active role in how money within the district is spent. We must facilitate community control of budgets using participatory budgeting to sustain the resources our communities need. Reforming our neighborhoods is not easy work and is not intuitive. Accessible community town halls and workshops can be tools used to brainstorm local needs and solutions for removing police from neighborhoods.
  • Black and Latinx children with disabilities are at the highest risk of suspension due to forms of exclusionary discipline like school suspensions, law enforcement referrals, handcuffing, zero-tolerance policies, and metal detectors. The over-criminalization of young kids leads to a lifetime of trauma, adverse health effects, and PTSD. Instead of reinforcing the school-to-prison-pipeline, the Council should mandate positive behavioral support within public schools through trauma-informed approaches, restorative practices, collaborative problem solving, and crisis intervention. Teachers should receive training for de-escalation rather than calling cops and traumatizing students. Schools should have enough funding to hire racially conscious social workers, trained in restorative justice, as guidance counselors and to help de-escalate crises. Charter and private schools should be forbidden from exposing students to more stringent disciplinary policies. Council should work with CUNY schools to cut ties with the NYPD.
  • Police make religious institutions more vulnerable, not safer. The Council must collaborate with religious institutions like mosques, synagogues, temples, and gurdwaras to establish internal protocol for navigating hate crimes. This can include de-escalation and self-defense training, creating phone trees, and hosting intervention trainings.
  • Police are not mental health professionals but rather a threat to public health. For situations of domestic and interpersonal violence, the Council can support existing systems of transformative justice by funding non-profits and culturally sensitive affinity groups already doing the work. For her constituents, Shahana will hire a staffer directly trained in transformative justice, accessible to de-escalation situations in our district through a direct hotline. In lieu of criminalizing mental health and substance abuse, Shahana will also work with the Council to fund inpatient and community-based drug treatment services, educational training and opportunities, harm reduction and substance abuse reduction activities, and provide housing assistance.
  • In addition, the Council should work to ensure that formerly incarcerated folks are able to successfully transition into their communities, through working with the State to expand the current law on eliminating any criminal records and providing individuals with access to community resources, from permanent housing for all to job training.