An important message from the Greater New York City Black Nurses Association
June 10, 2020
We call for an immediate amendment and upgrade from the charge of 3rd-degree murder to 2nd-degree murder for former officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd.
We need an end to the minimizing of charges filed against police officers for committing crimes against Black people. In 2014, Akai Gurley was shot and killed in the Pink Houses projects in East New York, Brooklyn by former NYPD officer Peter Liang. Liang was charged with manslaughter and convicted. At his sentencing, Brooklyn District, Attorney Kenneth Thompson, asked the judge for “No jail time”. The charges were downgraded to criminal negligence and he received a reduced penalty of five years of probation. The price of this Black man’s life was 5 years of probation. The injustice in the criminal court system is clear. Black men in New York have been sentenced to harsher penalties for carrying marijuana. About eighty-four percent of the more than 2,000 marijuana offenders who were federally sentenced in 2018 were people of color, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
Furthermore, we call for the immediate training in first aid and CPR of all police officers. On multiple occasions, George Floyd, Akai Gurley, Eric Garner, and many others, officers sat by idly and watched while people died. Their constant defense of this inaction is that they were not properly trained. This means that the organizations currently training officers to provide first aid and CPR are not doing an adequate job. New contracts and organizations should replace the current organizations. Standards should be clearly established for these training courses and the trainings should be conducted by independent organizations. Officers can then be held accountable when they refuse to render aid. We also call for officers to go through these trainings twice a year.
In correspondence, we call for an immediate end to the retaliation against police officers who speak up against injustices within their police department from fellow officers or superiors. If these officers are not protected against penalties, the risk of being outcast, assigned undesirable assignments, and denied promotions, they will not feel compelled to speak out. This is a major step in reforming policing and advocating for justice within the Black community.
We call for immediate reform of policing in our neighborhoods, commencing with community policing initiatives in collaboration with active members within these communities. We call for:
Members of communities understand the dynamics of their neighborhood far better than officers who only work there. Community members want safety and protection and have a right to know how they are being policed. In turn, we need to establish an agreed-upon system of communication and transparency between members of the community and the local police departments.
An immediate end to the practice of officers kneeling on the necks of people they are arresting. On May 25th, we watched officer Chauvin put his knee into the neck of George Floyd until he became lifeless. On May 2nd we watched NYPD officer Francisco Garcia put his knee into the neck and proceed to sit on the torso of a member of the Manhattan community, Donni Wright. While kneeling on the neck of Donni Wright, Officer Francisco Garcia continued to threaten other bystanders. Instead of Commissioner Dermot Shea immediately firing Francisco Garcia for punching a subdued man in the face and kneeling on his neck, he decided to give the case to the Dept of Internal Affairs. This move by Commissioner Shea shows a lack of leadership and allows officers to hide behind an institution instead of being fairly treated for their misconduct. In contrast, the Minneapolis police chief, Medaria Arradondo, fired all officers involved in George Floyd’s death within 4 days. We are still waiting on the investigation results of Officer Francisco Garcia’s actions more than a month later. Superiors within police departments must take swift action in the cases of injustices committed by police officers or risk losing their own jobs.
An immediate end of placing new rookie officers in high crime neighborhoods. Police officers placed in these neighborhoods lack the experience needed to deescalate situations and their fear of these neighborhoods are antithetical to their mission in serving the community. A clear example of this was the shooting of Akai Gurley by former NYPD Officer Peter Liang in the Pink Houses development in Brooklyn, NY.
We call for the involvement of community-based organizations in helping to resolve community infractions committed by police officers. These organizations should also be responsible to participate in the hiring practices of police officers, evaluating complaints made by community members, and ensure diversity in the selection of psychologists/psychiatrists who perform psychological evaluations of police cadets, as part of the hiring process. These organizations should also ensure that police officers undergo culturally competent training.
We call for substantial and sustainable investments in diverse Black businesses geared towards serving Black communities. These investments at the local, state, and federal levels can be delivered through grants, business development loans, and payroll loans. These communities need to be supported by Black businesses that will reinvest back into these communities. Businesses like Black-owned banks that invest in the community and Black-owned health care clinics with various specialists will serve the complex needs of the community. Black communities also need clothing stores, diverse restaurants, grocery stores with healthy & affordable food options, daycare centers, community centers, financial literacy programs, and after school programs.
We call for education equity throughout our Black communities. Reinvestment in education will attract the best educators and programs to support Black children. By giving Black children a better education from pre-kindergarten through college, we will increase opportunities and success rates for Black children.