New York is serious about police reform. Police chief Dermot Shea ordered yesterday: A special crime-fighting unit with 600 civilian officers will be disbanded.
At the same time, Donald Trump (74) announced in the White House: He will order by decree to reform the police across the country. According to this, the departments should be strengthened on the one hand, and abuse should be prevented in the future through better training on the other.
“This is a big step,” said Police Chief Dermot Shea of the closure of the New York special unit, which was considered one of the toughest in the Police Department (NYPD). For years she had been in the line of fire for excessive violence against minorities.
The decision is comparable to the abolition of the unprovoked search (“Stop and Frisk”), in which blacks were particularly often brutally interrogated without cause.
Shea said the move had nothing to do with the protests of hundreds of thousands of Americans that have swept across the United States since the death of African American George Floyd, 46, on May 25. Rather, it was already planned to abolish the unit from the era of hardliner mayor Rudy Giuliani (76).
“It’s time to move forward,” he said, “and change the way we police this town. We can do it with understanding, with wisdom, and not with brute force. “
Photo: Tobias Everke-“data-zoom-src =” https://bilder.bild.de/fotos/new-yorker-polizisten-hatten-in-der-vergangenen-woche-protest-in-manhattan-aufgeloest–201455155-71296462/Bild /1.bild.jpg “/>
New York police officers broke up protests in Manhattan last weekPhoto: Tobias Everke
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But there is little doubt in New York that this is a concession to Black Lives Matter activists. Human rights attorney Joel Berger, speaking to the New York Daily News, “This crime-fighting unit is a legacy of Giuliani’s days, under the slogan, ‘The night is ours.’ Only with a different name. “
The lawyer suspects that it is part of a systematic racism: “The unit was never really developed to reduce crime. Rather, it was a form of social control to show people in minority neighborhoods who was in control.“
The 600 undercover officers are to be transferred. Some would work as investigators other than regular patrolmen in the future.
Protesters and activists have been chanting the slogan “Defund The Police” all over the US for weeks. Which in German roughly means “withdraw the money from the police”.
Trump announces police decree
But US President Trump wants the opposite. He said at a meeting with religious leaders, small business owners and police officers in Dallas, Texas last week that the opposite was the solution. So more money and better education.
Yesterday he announced a corresponding decree in the White House.
Although he declined to go into details, he had stated in advance of the order: “It will encourage police forces across the country to promote the most up-to-date and professional tactics for the use of force and de-escalation. That means strength. But power with compassion. “
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