[City & State] Opinion: A new low for the NYPD

The cop who killed Delrawn Small now claims he wasn’t acting as a cop to avoid discipline.

By Jumaane Williams and Julia Salazar

When is a cop not a cop? Whenever it’s convenient, it turns out. 

We both vividly remember the sweltering day in July 2016 when an NYPD officer killed Delrawn Small, unarmed Black father. One of us was interning at a community organization; the other was already years into fighting the effects of abusive police violence on the streets as an activist and inside City Hall as a New York City Council member – but we both watched the same horrifying video of Officer Wayne Isaacs gunning down Delrawn Small within seconds, all while his baby, teenage stepdaughter and girlfriend looked on.

We couldn’t have known that nearly a decade later, we would still be fighting for a discipline trial to begin, while the NYPD tries to claim Officer Isaacs was not acting as a police officer when he took Delrawn’s life.

For me, Julia, standing with Delrawn’s family has meant witnessing a decade of their trauma, struggle and courage. I sat with the Small family through Isaacs’ entire murder trial in 2017. I watched Delrawn’s son and nephew grow up in the shadow of rallies, hearings and endless courtrooms. I’ve kept every notebook from those years, but I don’t need to reread a single page to recall how Isaacs’ defense argued he was acting in his capacity as an officer and using his training.

For me, Jumaane, Delrawn’s case was – and still is – a jarring confirmation of what I had long observed: how casually and callously the NYPD will distort, delay and deny the truth. A decade of delay before even getting to a discipline trial is beyond unacceptable – and now even that is in question. 

Also in question – at least according to the NYPD – is whether Isaacs was a police officer when he shot Delrawn. According to Isaacs and his attorneys, when he was defending himself against potential criminal charges, he was an officer. But now, when he faces consequences as an officer, Isaacs and his legal team are arguing he was merely a private citizen when he killed a man in the street.

When the NYPD finally scheduled Isaacs’ long-overdue discipline trial for this past November, we allowed ourselves a measure of cautious optimism. But at the eleventh hour, Isaacs and his lawyers filed a motion to dismiss the charges and derailed it.

The audacity of their argument cannot go unchallenged. For years, Isaacs and his attorneys insisted he was acting “under color of law” – meaning, as an officer –  to defend him in the criminal case and secure indemnification in the civil case, an argument that forced the city to pay out the settlement with taxpayer dollars. Now, in a ridiculous pivot, they claim Isaacs was not acting as an officer, in an attempt to shut down the discipline process.

Even more inexplicably, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado bought into this hypocrisy and recommended that Isaacs’ charges be dismissed – even though the NYPD clearly believed Isaacs was acting as an officer when it served the fireable misconduct charges to him over four years ago. But we, along with 31 of our fellow elected officials, know exactly what her recommendation represents: another clear example of how the NYPD’s discipline process fails New Yorkers and damages public safety. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch must end this pattern by upholding the charges and ensuring the discipline trial moves forward without further delay.

Delrawn’s life mattered. Over the near-decade without him, his family has been forced to relive their trauma through every legal maneuver and institutional failure. Delrawn’s son, who was only four months old when he witnessed his father’s murder, is now in 4th grade – and still, not even the bare minimum of accountability has been served. 

Delrawn deserved better. His family deserves better, and New Yorkers deserve better. Tisch now has the opportunity, and the obligation, to do better.

What happens in Delrawn Small’s case will reverberate beyond one officer or one family. For decades, we have watched a familiar and devastating pattern repeat itself: when an NYPD officer kills a New Yorker, the department delays, deflects and protects its own.

Every case without consequences makes another police shooting more likely. Every day that Officer Wayne Isaacs remains employed without facing discipline is proof that the NYPD operates above the law, accountable only to itself – not to the New Yorkers it allegedly “serves and protects.”

This is a defining moment for Delrawn Small’s case and a defining test for Tisch. At the start of a new mayoral administration and a new era for New York City, we are calling for change. 

Denying accountability in the face of clear wrongdoing undermines the ongoing work we should all be dedicated to: the co-production of public safety in and with communities. Tisch must stop denying grieving families justice to protect abusive cops. She must take this basic step towards accountability for Isaacs by upholding the charges and allowing the discipline trial to move forward.

Officer Isaacs was a cop the day that he shot Delrawn Small. But he shouldn’t continue to be one – and a trial will show it.

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