Open Ltr to NYC City Council Re'The Eric Garner-No Chokehold Law'

An Open Letter to NYC Councilman Donovan Richards, et al

from The Malcolm X Commemoration Committee

Councilman Donovan Richards,

Public Safety Committee,

New York City Council

Leave the historic Eric Garner No Chokehold law alone!

‘NO’ to any amendments on the historic No Chokehold Bill!

The PBA and Police Brass have no moral authority whatsoever to dictate to you or to anyone else on how police reform should take place.

Their insistence that the recent spate of shootings in our streets is serving as evidence as to why the Ban On The Lethal maneuver should be reconsidered is like the difference between bad apples and a vat of poison.

There is none!

The incredible, nearly completely united, 47-3 vote did more to give civilians in this city, especially New York’s Black and Brown civilians, the civilians most likely to be killed by the lethal maneuver like Eric Garner was senselessly killed with its use, like Anthony Baez was senselessly killed with its use, like Arthur Miller was senselessly killed with its use, a sense of hope that some reform of the police was at last taking place.

That veto proof move, rightly pulled together given the wishy-washy character of this Mayor on this and other related issues, was brave, was sound, was historic, and was absolutely correct.

It is best for you, who were not put in office by the votes of the PBA, to listen to the real breathing voting and traumatized people who look like you and who entrusted you to honor this historical moment!

We appreciate the leadership and the enlightenment of Councilman Rory Lancman who first pushed for the bill in 2014 after Eric Garner’s spectacle chokehold killing...We appreciate the courage of everyone who voted for the Chokehold Ban...

It is simply outrageous and wrong that almost all of NYC’s Black and Brown communities live in abject fear and in contempt of the police! That’s half of the city. Process this! Half of the population on America’s leading city lives in abject fear of the police in the 21st Century! It is outrageous and wrong, but yet it is painfully real! The choked ghost of Eric Garner, killed in front of all of our eyes on videotape, sends a shiver down all of our personal and collective spines to this day!

The time has come for all of us who can have a hand in changing this degenerate dynamic of deadly abusive racist policing at its systematic core to dare to do so!

New York City Council,

Councilman Lancman,

You were right to give us that historic vote. May you keep your unity and not let anyone undermine, water down, compromise or betray what you so rightfully did!

Hold the line!

NO to any amendments to the No Chokehold Bill!

Zayid Muhammad,

Malcolm X Commemoration Committee

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