New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Wednesday that the state will stop challenging the anti-racial profiling law, which allows a flurry of lawsuits to be slapped against the New York Police Department over the heavy-handed practices of its officers. The abandonment of the lawsuit focuses on de Blasio's goal to change the tone of policymaking in the largest city in the US.
De Blasio's recent move, said The Associated Press, helped him ticked off a campaign goal, which was on the improvement of the relations between state police and New York residents, who had long been complaining about the abuse of the stop and frisk tactic and other police measures that seemed to have been frequently applied towards minorities like African Americans and Muslims.
In a statement, de Blasio said, "There is absolutely no contradiction in protecting the public safety of New Yorkers and respecting their civil liberties. In fact, those two priorities must go hand-in-hand."
Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg had championed such tactics, said AP, and reasoned that such measures were legal, effective and of a necessity to keep New York safe. However, AP noted that such tactics had resulted to police second-guessing, and eventually lawsuits from the people they have applied the measures to. The news wire agency said Bloomberg, along with police unions had sued the City Council over the revision of the said public safety measures.
The decision to drop the suit against the anti-racial profiling law, which effectively reintroduces police protocols, which when implemented do not violate civil rights, were applauded by City Council members and other civil rights supporters like Rev. Al Sharpton. Although the state government of New York still faces lawsuits regarding police mistreatment of students in schools and Muslims, executive director Donna Lieberman of the New York Civil Liberties Union said the latest development was still a huge progress.
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