Police secrecy law prevents public from knowing about wrongdoing

May 19, 2019, 07:29 UTC

By Erin E. Evans

Eric Garner's mother was in front of the headquarters of the New York Police Department in the rain on Monday to remind her supporters that the fight for justice after her son's death was not over.

"Eric is crying from the sky because he sees his mother and his family here still struggling to get justice for him," Gwen Carr told several people in the rain carrying placards saying #FireNYPD Daniel Pantaleo, the police officer who shot his son.

"It's been five years – five years that we are on the front line trying to get justice, and they are still trying to hide it," she said.

The NYPD largely overshadowed the family because of a law on police secrecy that obscured the transparency of the case.

Access to Pantaleo's disciplinary archives had initially been denied to them and they could not see the evidence of the grand jury investigation into the case, due to a law of the same day. 39: State Civil Rights – Section 50-a – which prohibits access to personal records of police officers.

According to several organizations that are fighting for its repeal, Article 50-a is seen as a detrimental obstacle to the search for trust and maintenance of security between the police and its communities.

Adopted in 1976 as part of New York's freedom of information laws, this law was intended to "protect police officers from cross-examination by defense counsel in the course of prosecutions. criminal cases based on unproven or unstated elements in their personal files ".

However, recent jurisdictions have used broader interpretations of the law, thereby eliminating access to these files unless dictated by a court order. In 2018, BuzzFeed News released secret internal files of more than 300 active New York City police officers who committed offenses that deserve to be fired.

According to a report from the Open Government Committee of the State of New York, the law makes the unlawful actions of the police in New York State more secret than in any other state in the country.

It took five years and many investigations to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Pantaleo, who had been in administrative service since Garner's death on July 17, 2014.

Pantaleo has been indicted by the Civilian Review Commission or CCRB, an independent police oversight group, for reckless use of a strangulation and voluntary restriction of breathing. The hearing will determine whether Pantaleo will be fired or otherwise disciplined.

But because of section 50-a, if he is not fired, it will take a court order from the Garner family to find out if he will be disciplined.

The Pantaleo disciplinary trial is expected to last two weeks, according to the New York Times.

Garner was killed during a meeting with the police in Staten Island about the alleged sale of untaxed bulk cigarettes.

Video of Pantaleo wrapping his arm around Garner's neck while other police tried to place him under arrest, spread over the Internet. His last words, "I can not breathe," became a rallying cry during protests against police brutality across the United States.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill have promised to seek amendments to the law. When contacted, the NYPD referred NBC News to a February editorial published by the O'Neill newspaper in the New York Daily News, where it stated that the department "does not fear in-depth reviews," adding that transparency has improved.

"In the vast majority of disciplinary cases, a 50-a reform would allow disciplinary cases to be disclosed after they have been tried, which would provide the public with greater transparency than before," O'Neill said.

Patrick Lynch, president of the city's Police Benevolent Association, said in December 2018 that "lawyers are deliberately cheating lawmakers on the nature of civil rights law 50-a".

"Far from being the most" regressive "law of its kind in the country, it is on par with 23 states plus the District of Columbia that protect these documents from public disclosure in most circumstances," he added. .

Authorities have constantly flawed the process for the Garner family.

"How many times have you heard of Garner's family attempting – unsuccessfully – to access the documents relating to this incident?" That makes no sense, "said Robert J. Freeman, director Executive Committee of the Open Committee of the State of New York. Government, which oversees and advises the state's Freedom of Information Act.

"Strangely and ironically, the officials who have the most power over people's lives are the least responsible because of the confidentiality and limits imposed by section 50-a, human rights law."

The Garner family's fight for information is just one example of the lack of transparency and accountability in police deaths involving police in New York.

The family of Deborah Danner, a Bronx woman with a mental illness shot dead in October 2016, may never know if the sergeant. Hugh Barry will be disciplined for the shot. Barry was acquitted criminally for the shooting in February 2018 and remains on duty until the end of the disciplinary hearing.

The father of Saheed Vassell, a black man with bipolar disorder who was shot dead by police in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood in April 2018, has been demanding justice for a year.

The NYPD did not reveal the names of the four officers involved in the case, but their names were revealed to the press, according to the Daily News. In April, the Special Investigations and Prosecution Service of the Public Prosecutor's Office refused to lodge a criminal complaint.

"It's the NYPD's tactic of simply [let] Families have been suffering for years and years, "Eric Vassell told reporters at a press conference in October. "I saw them do that. They do all kinds of things to make us break down. It's a game they continue to play with us again and again, they want us to believe they will do good. "

It is unclear whether Pantaleo will be penalized, but history shows that the punishments inflicted on New York City police officers by New York City police officers are extremely rare.

A New York police officer has not been fired for a fatal murder since Francis Livoti, found guilty of violating the federal civil rights of Bronx man Anthony Baez in 1994, reported Associated Press agency.

From 2009 to 2014, the CBRC reviewed 1,022 strangulation complaints; According to data published just days after Garner's death, of the 462 cases that were the subject of a thorough investigation, only nine were confirmed by the committee. According to the New York Times, only one out of nine officers has been sanctioned.

The city of Garner received a settlement of US $ 5.9 million by the city in July 2015, after a grand jury of Staten Island refused to accuse Pantaleo of criminal charges in December 2014. Between -time, the Ministry of Justice has until July to decide if there is reason to bring federal charges against Pantaleo. .

The GM refused to comment on the status of the case.

For the Legal Aid Society of New York City, the non-indictment of Pantaleo in December 2014 served as a springboard for prosecutions and efforts to repeal the New York Police Secrecy Act.

Specifically, the organization, which represented Garner in criminal cases prior to his death, asked the state Supreme Court to disclose the misconduct of Pantaleo.

The Legal Aid Society is the largest public defense organization in the country. In April, the group and dozens of other organizations called on the New York government, Andrew Cuomo, to adopt the NY Safer Act, which includes the complete repeal of Article 50-a.

The legislative package is supported by other legal organizations and police reform groups, such as the New York City Civil Liberties Union, the Police Reform Community, and the project. anti-violence of New York City. Cuomo has already stated that it was incumbent on the city to decide whether to publish these records.

"The lack of transparency around these police killings really cancels out all the public's feelings of security, which are necessary for people to move in a healthy way in their daily lives," said Cynthia Conti-Cook, a lawyer with Bar Association of the Legal Aid Society of New York.

"So, when the community of Saheed Vassell or Eric Garner's can not be certain that the officer who killed someone on a prominent sidewalk will be held responsible, removed from the street, will have arms removed and will be subject to accountability processes – if this kind of insurance can not be given to the public – it results in a general feeling of public mistrust. "

Family members of loved ones killed by police including Valerie Bell, mother of Sean Bell, deceased in 2006, and Victor Dempsey, brother of Delrawn Small, deceased in 2016, demand that the police department be held responsible.

"My son, Sean Bell, was killed by the NYPD under a rain of 50 bullets on his wedding night, but none of the officers involved have ever been held responsible," said Valerie Bell, in a statement. statement of support for the NY Safer Act. "Families who have lost loved ones because of police violence deserve real transparency and accountability."

These long fights for the justice can make many victims. Garner's daughter, Erica, became one of the fiercest voices in police accountability after her father's death, often discussing with Blasio what she considered her attitude of laissez-faire in the treatment of the case.

But in December 2017, Erica Garner died of a heart attack without ever knowing if Pantaleo would be held responsible or not. Through her activism, she called for change so that communities could heal.

"I studied this snapshot in time and learned that my father will never be done justice," wrote Erica Garner for HuffPost in 2015. "I see only blood. If we want to move forward, we need transparency. The police and elected officials can not seriously hope to restore relations with the community without it.

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