The NYC Police Benevolent Association, a labor union representing officers of the New York Police Department, blasted Governor Andrew Cuomo on Saturday for signing the police reform bill, claiming that the law will make the job of police officers in the city more difficult.
"We will be permanently frozen, stripped of all resources and unable to do the job. We don’t want to see our communities suffer, but this is what Governor Cuomo and our elected leaders have chosen”, the union's President Patrick Lynch said in a statement.
On 12 June, Andrew Cuomo signed a law that bans the use of the chokehold technique during detentions and revokes the secrecy of police disciplinary procedures. It also makes complaints against police officers public. Police unions believe that the decision will mean that 'frivolous' complaints could be used against cops, Fox News reported.
“Governor Cuomo and our legislative leaders have no business celebrating today”, Patrick Lynch added. “New York state had been failing our communities for decades: failing to provide economic opportunity, failing to educate our youth, failing to care for the vulnerable and the mentally ill. Police officers spend our days addressing issues caused by these failures.”
#BREAKING NYC PBA STATEMENT ON SIGNING OF ANTI-POLICE MEASURES pic.twitter.com/F38Rg3ZQFk
— NYC PBA (@NYCPBA) June 12, 2020
Protests erupted across the United States after George Floyd, a Minnesota resident, died in police custody on 25 May after police officer Derek Chauvinin Minneapolis knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes, and video of the incident went viral. Chauvin was later charged with second-degree murder. According to the Minneapolis Police Department's release, four officers appeared at the scene after a call of a forgery in progress and found Floyd sitting on top of a car and appearing to be under the influence.
