Two Democrats battling each other to become city comptroller agreed on one thing Saturday: to push legislation that would bar the NYPD from hiring officers who were drummed out of another police department.
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and state Sen. Brian Benjamin heaped praise on each other during a joint visit to Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, where they announced parallel bills that Benjamin will introduce in Albany and Johnson will support at City Hall.
“We have a police culture that is rooted in white supremacy and oppression,” Benjamin said. “And if we don’t use the law to root it out and force accountability, it will never change.”
The bills would create databases to track police officers who have been fired, forced to resign, or faced serious discipline in other jurisdictions, Johnson said — and would prevent any such “wandering officers” from being hired by any police force in New York State.
“These wandering officers, statistically, are twice as likely to commit physical or sexual misconduct,” Johnson said.
Benjamin put the blame on the “blue wall” — the traditional code of silence among law enforcement officers.
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson claims “wandering officers, statistically, are twice as likely to commit physical or sexual misconduct.” Sipa via AP Images“We need to get rid of all the bad cops,” Benjamin said. “We cannot do that with … the blue wall protecting them for generation after generation.”
Johnson is the front-runner in the comptroller’s race, according to an April 18 poll — but with just 14 percent support, and fully 50 percent of voters undecided. Benjamin was the choice of 6 percent of those surveyed by NY1/Ipsos. There are five other candidates.
State Sen. Brian Benjamin says “we need to get rid of all the bad cops,” in the NYPD. Getty Images for Food Bank For New York City