Johnson Criticizes DOJ For Not Charging Officer Pantaleo
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen) released a statement yesterday reprimanding the Department of Justice (DOJ) for deciding not to bring charges against Officer Daniel Pantaleo, the officer responsible for the death of Eric Garner.
In 2014, Pantaleo confronted Garner over his sale of untaxed, loose cigarettes. The confrontation, which was caught on camera, ended with Pantaleo putting Garner in a lethal chokehold. After five years of investigation, the DOJ announced that they will not bring any criminal or civil charges against Pantaleo, due to insufficient evidence.
“The decision to not charge Officer Daniel Pantaleo is inexplicable and wrong,” said Johnson. “It took the Department of Justice five years to deny justice to Gwen Carr, when it takes five seconds to see that Eric Garner was choked to death for no reason. While I am not surprised by the Trump ‘Justice Department’s’ ill-advised and wrong-headed decision to give Officer Pantaleo a pass, I’m nonetheless outraged. Pantaleo does not deserve a pass, he needs to be fired and so do the other officers involved in this case.”
Chin, Koo, Johnson Secure $2.1 Million for Senior Clubs
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson (D-Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen) and City Council Members Margaret Chin (D-Battery Park City, Chinatown) and Peter Koo (D-Downtown Flushing, Murray Hill) announced last Friday that they had restored $2.1 million in funding for 10 senior clubs across the City.
In the April Executive Budget, the Mayor’s Office proposed closing the 12 NYCHA-managed senior clubs, on the grounds that they were meagerly attended and inaccessible. However, after three months of continued protest from City Council members and advocates, the Council was able to secure the funds necessary to fix them – and thus, save them from closure.
“While I hope to join my Council colleagues and advocates to identify additional opportunities to preserve the remaining spaces, I am glad that we are sending the message that our communities are stronger when our seniors get the help they need,” Chin told QNS. “I thank Council Speaker Corey Johnson for his unwavering support, and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and my Council colleagues for standing with older New Yorkers throughout the budget process.”
Maloney Writes Letter to MTA About Sudden L-Train Closure
Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens) penned a letter to the MTA expressing concern over their recent decision to close the L line.
The MTA announced yesterday that they would be shutting down the L line in Brooklyn for nine weekends and several weeknights, effective immediately. According to the agency, the shutdown will give construction workers the opportunity to make accessibility and power upgrades uninterrupted. However, they had provided little advance notice to the public, outside of a passing reference in the L Project newsletter.
“For regular L Train riders, the closures will be a major inconvenience and yet, there is very little information available to the public,” wrote Maloney. “I know that the MTA put a notice in the L Train newsletter and sent email to staff at elected officials’ offices, but this is not enough to put the commuting public on notice that there will be no service to ten stations late nights and weekends. The notice in the L Project newsletter was buried, coming after a lengthy description of the history of the L Train. Readers may never have scrolled all the way down to the significant news of service changes coming. Furthermore, riders who do not subscribe to the newsletter would have no way of knowing about the coming changes.”
