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In NY, a Special Prosecutor for Police Killings, For Now

Published

11 years ago

June 24, 2015

In this Sept. 14, 2014, file photo, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman speaks during the annual meeting of the Business Council of New York State at the Sagamore Resort in Bolton Landing, N.Y. Amid national debate over holding officers criminally accountable for killings by police, New York is giving such cases special consideration by appointing the attorney general to investigate them, for now. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)

JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Amid national debate over holding officers criminally accountable for killings by police, New York is giving such cases special consideration by appointing the attorney general to investigate them, for now.

The move comes after police officers weren’t criminally charged last year in deadly encounters with unarmed men in New York and elsewhere. Critics pressed to take such cases away from local district attorneys, arguing they didn’t have enough professional distance to investigate and prosecute police who help them build cases.

With lawmakers unable to agree on an approach as the legislative session ended, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Tuesday he’d use executive power to appoint Attorney General Eric Schneiderman for a year as special prosecutor for police killings.

“I don’t believe this is the perfect alternative, but I believe it is the best alternative at this time,” said Cuomo, adding that he’d keep working toward legislation next year.

Some advocates who called for reform are praising the move. But district attorneys say it usurps a role they believe they play fairly and honorably, and relatives of people killed in New York police encounters say the temporary measure doesn’t go far enough.

“We do not want to be exploited for the sake of politics and something that has little practical impact on ensuring justice for our communities,” said the families of nine slain people, including Eric Garner, whose chokehold death in New York City last year prompted widespread protests.

Around the country, special prosecutors sometimes handle police-misconduct probes. Maryland has a permanent special prosecutor for police wrongdoing and some other cases. New York state had a special office investigating New York City police corruption from 1972 to 1990.

But the idea gained new urgency after last year’s deaths of Garner and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Both were black, unarmed and killed in encounters with white officers whom grand juries declined to indict.

Critics questioned how local prosecutors had conducted the grand jury process, particularly after few details were made public about the Garner grand jury sessions. Extensive records were released about Brown’s case in Missouri, which has different public records laws. Nonetheless, Missouri lawmakers this year weighed — but ultimately didn’t pass — several proposals to appoint special prosecutors in police killings.

Following the Garner case, Schneiderman asked Cuomo to give him the authority to investigate deaths at the hands of police. New York City’s elected public advocate, Letitia James, and some state lawmakers pushed for appointing special prosecutors in such cases. Hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons personally pressed Cuomo on the issue, rapper-actor Common joined a New York City Hall rally calling for special prosecutors and other changes, and rap star Jay Z also met with Cuomo to talk reform.

James called the yearlong special prosecutor appointment “a major step forward.” Schneiderman said he was disappointed that the legislature had not acted but added that his office would “handle these cases with the highest level of care and independence.”

District attorneys say they do the same and the state has no business taking over a responsibility they were elected to shoulder.

“There’s this false narrative out there that prosecutors turn their heads when the accused is a police officer, and that’s just not true,” said Frank Sedita III, the president of the state district attorneys’ association. He’s the DA in Buffalo-area Erie County, where a police officer is currently on trial in a theft case.

The former Staten Island DA who handled the Garner case, now-Rep. Daniel Donovan, continues to believe DAs should handle such cases unless there’s a specific conflict of interest, his office said. Current acting Staten Island DA Daniel Master declined to comment.

Indeed, local prosecutors in Baltimore and North Charleston, South Carolina, brought cases that produced indictments of officers in two high-profile police killings this year.

___

Associated Press writer Michael Virtanen in Albany contributed to this report. Reach Jennifer Peltz on Twitter @ jennpeltz.

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

22 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

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2 days ago

March 1, 2026

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

4 days ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke