Special prosecutor may be coming to Brooklyn
Governor Proposes ‘Independent Monitor’ For Police Misconduct Cases
In the State of the State address Wednesday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a number of proposed reforms to the criminal justice system in an effort to rebuild trust and confidence in a system that has been under scrutiny following the deaths of unarmed black men in Staten Island and Brooklyn. The multi-tiered reform overhaul encompasses improvements to the grand jury system including the appointment of an independent monitor for local police brutality cases.
“The promise of equal justice is a New York promise, and it is an American promise,” Cuomo said in his address at the state capital. “We are currently in the midst of a national problem where people are questioning our justice system.”
Cuomo’s seven-point “fairness for all” program will assign an independent monitor to review cases where a local county grand jury declines an indictment against police officers accused of misconduct or excessive force. This effort is in direct response to the Staten Island grand jury that returned no true bill on an indictment against NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo for the chokehold death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man suspected of selling illegal, loose cigarettes.
In Brooklyn, a grand jury is pending for NYPD Officer Peter Liang who shot and killed Akai Gurley, an unarmed bystander, during a patrol of the stairwells of the Louis Pink housing complex in East New York. Liang, a probationary officer, asserts that the shooting was an accident and that the stairwell was darkened due to a broken lightbulb.