A bipartisan group of City Council members is demanding a federal judge reject a controversial settlement agreement requiring the NYPD to scale back enforcement during street protests — warning it will handcuff cops from preventing riots and make the city a more “dangerous place.”
In a letter Wednesday to Manhattan federal Judge Colleen McMahon, the Council’s nine-member Common Sense Caucus said it backs a motion by the Police Benevolent Association to kill the agreement.
“It would make our police officers reactive rather than proactive, hesitant when they should be assertive … These new procedures would … make our city a more dangerous, and frankly, undesirable place,” wrote Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli (R-SI) in a letter signed by five other Republicans and three Democrats on the caucus.
McMahon is scheduled Monday to hold a 2 p.m. hearing on the proposal to nix the agreement.
As part of a settlement agreement announced in September resolving lawsuits claiming officers used excessive force during the 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstrations, the NYPD and other parties agreed to a series of reforms for handling demonstrations that the judge still must sign off on.
Cops would be required to follow a time-consuming, “four-tiered” response system where off-site commanders must be contacted to greenlight arrests. “Kettling” — the crowd-control tactic of herding and confining protesters to a small area before making arrests – would also be banned under the settlement.
Although the letter doesn’t mention “kettling,” Borelli said he believes cops should be allowed to use it during certain circumstances.
“Restricting use of a controversial tactic isn’t the same as banning it altogether,” he said.
Shortly after the settlement was ironed out, the city began being rocked by fiery pro-Palestine demonstrations in the wake of Hamas’ sadistic sneak Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Some protests have shut down bridges and sought to interrupt major events like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The letter notes that the city is already “grappling with the damaging consequences” of daily protests, which “pose a substantial safety risk” to cops and the public and “have deleterious effects on our economy and the overall quality of life in our city.”
Nearly 400 cops were injured during the summer 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in NYC, according to the PBA’s lawyers.
City officials in late December estimated cops had to handle 483 protests in the Big Apple since the Oct. 7 attack — or about six per day.
The PBA urged McMahon to consider comments Mayor Adams made on Dec. 26 expressing regrets the administration agreed to the settlement but was following advice at the time of city lawyers.
“Anyone who polices this city should be concerned about what’s in the settlement,” the mayor said.
The city’s Law Department and the Mayor’s Office did not return messages.
