Q&A
Abner Louima incident and task force on police-community relations
2:46:41
·
4 min
Council Member Hudson discusses the Abner Louima incident and the subsequent task force on police-community relations. She questions Mastro about his role in dismissing the task force's recommendations.
- Hudson details the brutal assault on Abner Louima by NYPD officers in 1997
- She describes the formation of a task force on police-community relations in response to public outcry
- Hudson criticizes Giuliani's dismissal of the task force's recommendations and Mastro's role in defending this decision
- Mastro responds that he supported the creation of the commission and wished the administration had done more to address community concerns
Crystal Hudson
2:46:41
There were many instances of police brutality during the Giuliani administration exploration, but I wanna talk to you in detail about one particular incident under your watches that be made for operations.
2:46:50
In the summer of 1997, police officers in Brooklyn detained Haitian Imagner Luima, an investigation of that arrest revealed that officers beat Mister Luima with nightsticks in the squad car on the way to the precinct.
2:47:02
And then when they arrived at the precinct, they continued to brutally beat him, knocked out his teeth, and sodomized him with a broom handle in the station house.
2:47:09
This horrendous event took place in the midst of the Giuliani reelection campaign, and in response to the public outcry, mayor Giuliani announced a new task force on police and community relations.
2:47:21
The task force was filled with prominent civic and community leaders, experts, and elected including a former police commissioner, the president of the New York Civil Liberties Union, and the executive directors of the Asian American Legal Defense Fund, Anti defamation League, and New York Urban League to name a few.
2:47:36
After almost 7 months of work, the task force generated 91 specific recommendations to the mayor and the NYPD to improve police community relations.
2:47:46
By the time the task force released its recommendations, mayor Giuliani had already been reelected, and he dismissed the task force and its work.
2:47:54
Mayor Giuliani's dismissal of a prominent task force that he himself commissioned was so shocking that he called on you to do damage control in the press.
2:48:02
Instead of standing up to champion deeply needed reforms, you instead told reporters that, quote, The mayor was underwhelmed by the task force report and rightly so, end quote.
2:48:12
Chair powers, I now enter into the record, the 1998 New York Times article that includes Mister Mastro's views on the task force in question.
2:48:21
You also complained that the task force did not follow its mandate.
2:48:24
This complaint was astounding coming from you because the task force was completely staffed by the mayor's office, and as the deputy mayor for operations, you would have been the one to steer them in the right direction and produce recommendations at have improved police community relations.
2:48:38
In the end, it was clear that Mister Giuliani's task force was a political ploy to win votes instead of a good faith effort to try to reform the police following the brutalization of Abner Luima.
2:48:48
This ploy left in place systemic policies and practices in a culture that would continue to allow New Yorkers to be harmed and unjustly killed by the police.
2:48:57
Mister Maestro, as the so called conscience of the Giuliani administration, How do you reconcile that you squandered this opportunity to improve the NYPD, advance justice, and keep New Yorkers safe?
Randy Mastro
2:49:12
First of all, that that horrific incident led to the creation of a special commission at the urging of a number of us in the administration, including myself, the mayor was not impressed with some of the ultimate recommendations, some of which included things like changing the name of a particular entity.
2:49:41
Or taking away the right of police officers earned through collective bargaining and legislation to live outside of the city, which was in the mayor's view unrealistic.
2:49:55
It was not uncommon for me as the deputy mayor to express, you know, the mayor's view publicly.
2:50:04
I Personally, wanted to see such a commission, and and always supported doing more in terms of reform in the police department.
2:50:19
I left the administration shortly thereafter, which your quoting, but I can only say that I wish we had done better as an administration to address community concerns, to have better understanding with communities, to have better police community relations, and some of the recommendations that task force were, in fact, ones that the police department internally, you know, continued to follow.
2:50:48
But I will just say this of all the the things that I look back on.
2:50:55
I wish we had developed better relationships with communities of color, and it's certainly something that in my own experience, I always had an open door and tried to encourage dialogue.
2:51:08
And I think that people from that period would tell you that, but you ask me the question.
2:51:13
I give you the answer.