John,

History is in the making. Today, more than 5 years after Eric Garner was stolen from his family at the hands of New York’s racist policing system, the NYS Assembly and Senate have finally repealed Section 50-a, a regulation used shamelessly to hide the records of abusive police from the public. Tomorrow the bill will land on Governor Cuomo’s desk, where he's expected to sign the legislation into law.

From Buffalo to Brooklyn, tens of thousands of New Yorkers have faced down ‘kettling’, tear gas, and ferocious beatings by the police to demand justice for Black communities and real changes in policing. The bravery of protesters and the decades of advocacy work by our partners in the criminal justice movement made the changes passed in Albany today possible. 

Together, we’ve made one small but significant step on the road to racial justice. But we’re nowhere near done. We will keep working in solidarity with Black New Yorkers, criminal justice partners, and allies in the movement to #defundNYPD to ensure that NYC prioritizes community over punishment by redirecting at least $1billion this year from the NYPD’s budget into human services and education. 

We have a real opportunity to radically transform the system—we must keep protesting, keep pressuring our elected officials, and keep fighting until we dismantle racist policing. 

Because when we fight, we win! 

#BlackLivesMatter 

In solidarity,


Steve Choi
Executive Director