New York, New York: A Different Tune

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Abstract: In the days leading up to Passover and Easter in 2021, New York was the scene for two key news items. Neither story evoked the glamour of the classic Frank Sinatra rendition of “New York, New York.” Both items provided an opportunity to further explore the “importance of us” in policing.

The first news item, dealt with how the City of Ithaca and Tompkins County, New York gathered community input for their joint police reform plan. In June 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order requiring each local government in the state with a police agency to prepare a plan to improve policing in their jurisdiction. The order mandated each plan was to include community input. On March 29, 2021, the New York Post reported that in preparing their plan, officials for Ithaca and Tompkins County sought out Richard Rivera to serve on their “Communications/Community Working Group.” At issue, in 1981, Rivera murdered execution style, New York City Police Officer Robert Walsh.

The second news item, covered the brutal attack of an elderly woman as she was walking to church on March 29, 2021, the Monday of Holy Week – in broad daylight – in Manhattan. Surveillance video showed a large man walk toward the 65-year-old woman less than half of his physical size. Without any provocation, the man kicked her in the chest, and continued to kick and stomp her as she lay defenseless on the sidewalk, breaking her pelvis. Adding to the outrage over the crime – video showing the attack in view of other citizens, who did not intervene. Her attacker was subsequently identified as Brandon Elliot, a man convicted of stabbing his own mother to death in 2002. Elliot had been released from prison in November 2019 with a lifetime parole status.

The way forward must be one with broad outreach across community partners. As a community, we need our elected and civic leaders to foster unifying approaches that advance constitutional policing, reduce violence, address chronic crime conditions, improve public safety, protect victims, foster wellness, and enhance community support for the police. Published in the May 2021 issue of the FOP Journal by the National Fraternal Order of Police, pages 24-29. 

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