Mayor Adams to Allow ICE to Operate Inside Rikers Island
Civil Liberties Union
"Of course the NYPD must conduct an internal investigation of these tragic events," said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman. "But that is not enough. We need an independent investigation into both what went wrong on Saturday and the NYPD policies implicated in it and other incidents like it."
Although Queens District Attorney Richard Brown is reviewing the shooting for presentation to a grand jury, that effort will focus on the potential criminal culpability of the officers involved rather than on broader policy issues, the NYCLU said. Given precedent – the Attorney General's Office undertook a sweeping and influential investigation following the shooting of Amadou Diallo, and it investigated reports of racial profiling and police abuse by the NYPD's Street Crimes Unit under the Giuliani Administration – the Attorney General's Office should initiate the investigation into this incident.
In its letter to Spitzer and Cuomo, the NYCLU identified three areas of inquiry upon which an investigation by the Attorney General's office must focus:
Click here to read the NYCLU's letter.