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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by David Siffert, Board Member of Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club on NYPD Criminal Group Database
4:07:50
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David Siffert, representing the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club, testifies in support of Intro 798 to abolish the NYPD's criminal group database. He highlights the disproportionate impact of law enforcement on the LGBTQIA+ community and argues that the database could exacerbate existing issues of surveillance and discrimination.
- Presents statistics showing higher rates of arrest and incarceration for LGBTQIA+ individuals compared to their cisgender, heterosexual counterparts
- Outlines a history of NYPD harassment and surveillance of the LGBTQIA+ community, from the Stonewall era to recent years
- Emphasizes the compounded risks for queer people of color and the importance of New York being a safe harbor for transgender individuals in the current political climate
David Siffert
4:07:50
Good morning, good afternoon Chair Salaam.
4:07:53
And thank you to you and to the rest of the committee and to your staff for putting this hearing together.
4:07:59
My name's David Sifford.
4:08:00
I'm a member of the board of the Jim OWLs Liberal Democratic Club.
4:08:03
Jim OWLs Liberal Democratic Club formed to provide the New York LGBT community with a progressive citywide Democratic Club or mandate is to see to it that the rights of LGBTQIA plus community are protected and advanced.
4:08:16
We support Intro July to abolish the NYPD criminal group database, also known as the gang database.
4:08:22
Nationwide, LGBT individuals are more likely to be arrested and incarcerated than our straight cisgender peers.
4:08:28
This begins with youth, where queer youth are over twice as likely to be involved in the juvenile justice system.
4:08:34
And adults are twice as likely to be arrested and three times as likely to be incarcerated.
4:08:39
In New York specifically, there's a long history of police abuse of the LGBT population from regular raids on gay establishments in the '60s culminating in the Stonewall Riots in 1969.
4:08:50
NYPD treated the queer community with unwarranted suspicion and targeted queer New Yorkers with violence on the basis of their sexual orientation and identities.
4:08:57
Throughout the sixties and seventies, NYPD engaged in this program to surveil the queer community.
4:09:02
Surveillance and harassment continues to this day.
4:09:04
In 2013, The New York Times wrote a piece about NYPD harassment of LGBT New Yorkers and queens.
4:09:09
In 2017, a transgender woman was arrested for giving false identity to law enforcement when she gave both her current and previous legal names.
4:09:20
In 2020, NYPD attacked New York City's Queer Liberation March, beating marchers with batons.
4:09:28
And it wasn't until 2021 that New York repealed its walking while trans law, the crime of loitering for the purposes of prostitution, which was used by NYPD to round up transgender women indiscriminately.
4:09:39
In short, LGBT New Yorkers have been at increased risk of law enforcement surveillance, stop and frisk arrest and incarceration for decades.
4:09:47
Unsurprisingly, these risks are compounded for queer, black and brown New Yorkers.
4:09:53
Just very quickly I want to say at this time when the federal government and other states are cracking down so hard, especially on transgender Americans and transgender New Yorkers, it's really important that New York is a safe harbor for these communities.
4:10:07
And when we have a database like this that gives the police authority effectively arbitrarily to increase surveillance, increase police interaction, increase likelihood of stop and frisk and arrest of communities, it's extremely likely that the LGBT community will be on the wrong end of it.
4:10:22
And we urge you to erase the database.