Use of force

We dug into the details of this story on the show on Friday and Monday, and what it says more broadly about how ICE is operating in New York City.

And as you might expect, a lot of people, including Mayor Mamdani and Governor Hochul, and many council members, are condemning the agency for their use of force.

As I said before the break, that's gonna be our issue in our 30 issue series tomorrow with respect to the governor's race.

But there's another parallel conversation going on that we touched on on Monday that I really wanna spend some time with today, and that is how Mamdani is managing the role of the New York City Police Department in all of this, that's obviously not ICE, and specifically how he's managing his relationship with Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

During Mamdani's campaign, he made a number of promises to reform the NYPD, but so far he ended up keeping the Adams appointee in the role, even though she's supportive of many of the policies the mayor had vowed to do away with, and many of those policies remain in place.

So far, Mamdani has said he has no plans to remove Tisch from the position, but the conversation around their relationship is definitely getting more intense.

And in this context, coincidence or not, the mayor has now announced a sweeping review of NYPD use of force policies and practices.

Let's see what's happening.

jesus christ this this just gets worse

today a package reforms aimed at strengthening police oversight and accountability the mayor also directing the nypd to conduct a full review of its use of force policies for really the first time in about 10 years now these reforms come just days after news broke that an officer involved in a fatal shooting was allowed to retire before facing a disciplinary trial In March 2024, NYPD officers Salvatore Longhi and Matthew Cianfroco first tased and then shot and killed 19-year-old Wynne Rosario after he wouldn't stop lunging at them with scissors.

The state attorney general's office...

This whole body cam video, if you want to, you can go watch it on YouTube.

Good morning.

Now, listen, yesterday, Mayor Mamdani announced that he was calling for the NYPD to conduct a comprehensive review of use of force policies and practices.

The first of its kind in over a decade.

Along with this announcement, Mamdani also introduced a number of reforms aimed at improving accountability for officers accused of serious misconduct.

Omar and President Trump have often verbally sparred.

New York City's Mayor Zohran Mamdani says he is ordering a comprehensive review of the city police department's use of force practices.

NPR's Michelle Aslam reports on the first such review in a decade.

The review of the NYPD's use of force practices comes after complaints that an officer involved in a fatal shooting in twenty twenty-four was able to retire before he faced disciplinary proceedings.

In a statement, the mayor said the review is about making sure New Yorkers and their families can trust their city will treat them with, quote, "care and dignity." The Mamdani administration also announced it will increase funding for the Office of the Inspector General in order to strengthen independent oversight.

The union representing many of NYPD's officers released a statement pushing back on the mayor's efforts and said they, quote, "won't make New Yorkers any safer." Michelle Aslam, NPR News.

Now New York's number one news, Channel 7 Eyewitness News.

Mayor Mamdani orders a review of use of force by the NYPD.

This as the mayor faces criticism from his own base over his reforms within the NYPD.

But first, actress Selma Blair facing a string of criminal charges tonight for allegedly attacking two flight attendants on a plane that landed at Kennedy Airport.

All right, Jeff.

Thank you.

Well, tonight, Mayor Mamdani is calling for a review of the use of force by the NYPD after facing a wave of criticism.

It comes days after an NYPD officer who was facing excessive force charges was allowed to retire.

Uh, because remember, we don't have a national standard in policing.

Um, the use of force is something, you know, when we look at Graham versus Connor, um, it speaks to objectively reasonable.

Um, and that should be the force that an officer uses.

Now, there's no clear-cut definition of objectively reasonable.

Um, and something that we've all heard of is something referred to as a zone of safety, and that's generally 20 feet or the range of a weapon.

But the challenge with that, when you have a knife, a person can cover a lot of space in a short period of time, which can really create a very uncomfortable or dangerous situation for you as a police officer.

So oftentimes we sit back and we second-guess a police officer's use of force.

However, the Supreme Court hit it sound when they spoke to the objective reasonableness, because it must be through the eyes of that police officer that's on the scene as the, what they observed and what they thought was appropriate.

It's not just the FRSC, even the police too.

Whenever they want to stop a vehicle, you know, they move, and there's always this sharp use of force when moving the vehicles to cross you and stop you from moving.

Do you know how many accidents those collisions have led to? How many death, fatally injured citizens those collisions have caused? We have to do better.

Our officers have to do better.

40 of them is a serving.

Is that one for, I think, Mr. Billfold says, I think it's a stretch to think that a man who can fight under the unified rules of MMA, which are super in-depth, will be incapable of understanding the use of force policy.

Okay.

I agree with

Like if, you know, with the double leg takedown, like once you become more efficient in that in that martial art, then, you know, other ways of taking somebody to the ground because a double leg out on the street, like a single shot, like a single leg, any kind of shot you're going to take is not going to be effective because you're going to blow your freaking knee out the second your knee hits the ground on concrete gravel.

And think about that when you have somebody that's in this, even if they're learning a double leg takedown and we start talking about all the failures with it, like head position, the way someone crossfaces, the way somebody throws their hip at you, the way somebody finds an underhook or an overhook, you now have branched off and learned all these little solutions to those different dilemmas.

So, again, do we want to have a guy that's more well-trained, that has better options when it comes to use of force, or do we want to stick with the whole, let's just give them a couple of these tools, and that's all they get to use, and nothing bad is going to happen.

Yeah, and give them a false sense of confidence that they know how to do it correctly.

As always, my name is James Gearing, and this week it is my absolute honor to welcome on the show Sergeant Major Sebastian Lavoie.

Now, aside from being one of the highest ranks in the Royal Mounted Police in Canada on the Western Province, Sebastian is also a use of force subject matter expert and a high-level tactical athlete himself.

So as you will hear, we unpack so many topics that appear to be plaguing us at the moment, whether it's use of force, whether it's physical standard, annual testing, mental health, jiu-jitsu, and so many other areas.

Before we get to that conversation, as I say every week, please just take a moment, go to whichever app you listen to this on, subscribe to the show, leave feedback, and leave a rating.

Every single five-star rating truly does elevate this podcast and make it more visible for people that need to find it.

And even though you see this amazing wizardry in the sport BJJ world, the reality is in the MMA world, which is still not obviously the bouncer world by any means, but there seems to be a reliance on simple and effective techniques.

Yeah.

And, you know, now looking back now and understanding the physiological and psychological implications of the use of force and the high stress situation, I understand, you know, when it goes from the frontal cortex to the monkey brain, so to speak, complex techniques are kind of going out the windows.

You know, Anderson, difficult to tell.

I'd like to know, first of all, who was the individual they were targeting, right? Who was the guy they mistook here? Is this someone with a violent criminal history? What, why did we have such an aggressive response from the officers? But, you know, and Anderson, while it's difficult to know with just the partial views that we have of this particular incident, it again is another troubling circumstance where there's real questions about the use of force, right? And this is part of what we've seen across the board, where we've seen this erosion of accountability, uh, where there's a rush to defend these agents.

And, and again, case after case after case where we've seen a very aggressive p- tone taken by the officers, uh, what doesn't always appear justified.

A- and again, uh, not sure, you know, why we're seeing this erosion or, I'd say, let me back up.