NYCLU Letter to Mayor and Commissioner Shea on Racial Disparities in COVID Enforcement

NEW YORK – Today the New York Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio and NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea to address the NYPD’s enforcement of social distancing measures and some of the alarming racial disparities in enforcement that have emerged as a result. Authored by Executive Director Donna Lieberman and Lead Policy Counsel Michael Sisitzky, the letter also addresses our concerns about police serving as frontline public health workers, the effect on community trust and relations from ongoing broken windows policing, and the NYPD’s enforcement of a ban against First Amendment protected activity.

You can find the text of the letter here: https://www.nyclu.org/en/publications/letter-de-blasio-and-shea-policing-during-covid-19