One decade ago this summer, a federal court found the New York City Police Department’s abusive stop-and-frisk practices unconstitutional. Three mayors and six police commissioners later, the department is still unlawfully stopping, questioning, searching and intimidating people, according to the latest report from the court-appointed monitor charged with ensuring the NYPD starts following the law. Not surprisingly, officers disproportionately target Black and Latino men like us and our loved ones who were killed by the NYPD.
As the father of Antonio Williams and brother of Allan Feliz, both of whom were killed by the NYPD in 2019, we know firsthand that policing does not mean safety for our communities.
We know it from the holes in our lives and families where Antonio and Allen used to be. We know it from every young person we’ve seen stopped by police for not swiping their MetroCard, every homeless New Yorker who’s been harassed and had their only property demolished and every protestor maced or brutalized by cops.
We know it from the pain we share with the families of Delrawn Small, Kawaski Trawick, Ronald Anthony Smith, Eric Garner and many others who, like us, are still fighting for the NYPD officers who killed their loved ones to be held accountable and fired from the NYPD.
