City To Host Harlem Town Hall For Youth, NYPD Engagement: Mayor

HARLEM, NY — Young people in Harlem will get a chance to bring their complaints with the NYPD directly to police officers during a town hall meeting organized in the neighborhood by the city, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Thursday.

The town hall will take place "as soon as we can actually have in-person gatherings," de Blasio said Thursday, stressing a need to improve the relationship between young people in New York City and the police department.

"I think when you hear the true voices of our young people in a constructive, positive conversation – honest, but still forward-looking conversation – you're going to feel very good about the future of New York City, but it's also going to help us make the kinds of changes we need to make this city work in the future. And to really break the status quo that doesn't work in this city," de Blasio said during his daily press conference.

City officials will work with the neighborhood organization Street Corner Resources to facilitate the Harlem town hall. A date and location have not been set, as the event depends on the city's successful recovery from the coronavirus.

The city is also planning town halls in neighborhoods "that have dealt with some of the biggest challenges" between the NYPD and the community such as East New York and Brownsville, Jamaica and Far Rockaway, South Bronx, and the North Shore of Staten Island, de Blasio said Thursday.

Mayor de Blasio announced this week that his administration will work to shift resources from the NYPD to youth services during the final 18 months of his tenure. The mayor also outlines reforms to the NYPD such as the repeal of the 50-a law that shields police discipline records, removing the NYPD from vendor enforcement and greater community input at high levels of the NYPD. On Wednesday, de Blasio said he's against removing the NYPD from city schools.

Activists have taken to the streets in New York City for two straight weeks to protest police brutality and white supremacy in the wake of the killing of Minneapolis man George Floyd, who died in police custody when an officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes. Protesters in cities around the nation have called on government officials to "defund" police departments.

De Blasio was booed while speaking at a Brooklyn memorial for George Floyd. In the week leading up to the memorial, de Blasio vocally defended the conduct of the NYPD during protests, praising the department's "light touch" and strict enforcement of the mayor's 8 p.m. curfew. Hundreds of peaceful protesters were arrested — many violently with the use of police batons and pepper spray — by cops enforcing the curfew.