PROP's Policy Goals

YOUR TAX-EXEMPT GIFTS WILL HELP US CONTINUE OUR CRITICAL WORK AIMED AT EXPOSING AND ENDING RACIST NYPD TACTICS.

Dear Friends:

Since PROP’s founding in 2011, our thinking about the kinds of criminal justice reforms worth promoting has evolved. We used to view incremental changes positively, but what our eyes have told us over the years, and what our knowledge of relevant research has taught us, is that such tweaks or modifications of practice don’t lead to substantive changes on the ground.

We at PROP have become convinced that the NYPD’s unjust policies not only violate our country’s central founding principle of providing equal justice and opportunity for all its people, but also that the Department’s racist practices are so entrenched, and so long-standing, that only fundamental and far-reaching changes can end abusive and discriminatory policing in our great city. With this understanding, we are excited to announce & present:

PROP’S POLICY GOALS

Abolishing “broken windows” policing that was popularized by former New York City mayor and now indicted criminal Rudy Guiliani and that targets low-income communities of color for minor offenses that have been virtually decriminalized in white areas.
Ironic though it may be to call on a police department to follow the law, enforcing the New York State legislation enacted in 2010, nearly 15 years ago, that banned police quotas. Although illegal, the NYPD persists in employing quotas that pressure its officers to make a prescribed number of arrests in a given time period.
Dismissing all police officers who engage in reckless, racist, and brutal actions that harm and/or compromise the rights and welfare of New Yorkers.
Establishing an independent prosecutor’s office whose sole purpose would be to investigate & prosecute, when called for, all alleged acts of police brutality & excessive use of force, even in cases when the victim was armed & did not die.
Reallocating resources from the current bloated NYPD budget to government and neighborhood services that strengthen families and build communities. A specific example would include having mental health professionals, not police officers, be the first responders to NYers in psychiatric crisis.
Reducing the personnel and power of the NYPD, the guiding principle being in part the time-honored shibboleth that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” applied to the unchecked power of the NYPD.

America teaches her young people that she provides equal justice and opportunity for all people, not equal justice and opportunity for all except if you’re people of color, except if you’re poor. America teaches that under her legal system, you’re innocent until proven guilty, not that you’re innocent until proven guilty except if you’re poor, except if you’re an American of color. America teaches that her government is of, by, and for the people, not of, by, and for the people, except if you’re a non-white person, except if you’re a low-income person.

Our policy goals are grandiose and, admittedly, quixotic: to, starting with New York City, call America home, to create an America, starting with the Big Apple, that adheres to the founding principles of which she is so justifiably proud. And it’s only by agreeing to and instituting fundamental and far-reaching changes, starting with her policing and criminal justice systems, that America can fulfill its stated vision of a just, livable, and inclusive society for all its people.

For a more substantive & specific presentation of PROP’s Policy Goals, please check out our website.

Feel free to contact us if you have questions &/or comments about any part of our policy agenda. Also, we acknowledge & greatly appreciate the central role that Navarre Frede, PROP intern & research associate, played in preparing this updated rendering of our policy objectives.

As always, many thanks for your interest & support.

Best,

Bob & Michaela

Bob Gangi,

PROP Director

917-327-7648

rpagangi@gmail.com

Michaela Bapis,

PROP Project Coordinator

michaelabapis@gmail.com

The Police Reform Organizing Project

168 West 86th Street, 4B