Press Room

Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams today announced Esmeralda Simmons, Esq., former executive director of the Medgar Evers College Center for Law and Social Justice, as his appointment to the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), the nation's largest independent police oversight entity. This is the first appointment to the oversight body by a Public Advocate since the board's inception in 1993, following a 2019 City Charter revision which gave the Office of Public Advocate an appointment to the entity.

Under the charter amendment, which was overwhelmingly approved by voters in November 2019, the Public Advocate was authorized to designate an appointee to the fifteen member board. Public Advocate Williams, who has a long history of working for better policing and fighting to improve transparency and accountability, was strongly supportive of the amendment.

"Esmeralda Simmons has decades of experience in working for truth, no matter who tells it, justice, no matter who it is for or against, and I'm proud to name her as the first-ever appointee to the Civilian Complaint Review Board by the Office of Public Advocate," said Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams. "Like this office, the CCRB is a watchdog, holding people and systems to account, and Esmeralda Simmons knows the systemic injustices in our law enforcement, seen today in the disparity in COVID-19 enforcement and seen for decades in cases that have come before the CCRB. I know she will be a powerful, fair voice for oversight."

"By working to hold members of the New York City Police Department accountable, the Civilian Complaint Review Board plays an incomparable role in the relationship between the police and civilians," said Esmeralda Simmons. "I am honored to have been appointed to serve in this capacity and look forward to drawing on my skills and experiences to advance justice in the City of New York."

Esmeralda Simmons is an accomplished lawyer and public servant who has spent decades fighting for human and civil rights on the municipal, state, and federal levels. Simmons founded, and served as executive director of, the Medgar Evers College Center for Law and Social Justice, a community-based racial justice advocacy center that focuses on legal work and research. Through the Center, she provided community organizations with legal counsel and research assistance.

Before founding and directing the Center for Law and Social Justice, Simmons served as First Deputy Commissioner at the New York State Division of Human Rights, where she developed and led the implementation of policy in support of New Yorkers' human and civil rights, and as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of New York.

Simmons has served as counsel or co-counsel on numerous major federal Voting Rights Act cases and has secured victories before the United States Supreme Court. She is a member of the Metropolitan Black Bar and American Bar associations, Ile Ase, Inc., and the New York Voting Rights Consortium. Simmons is a graduate of Hunter College and Brooklyn Law School.

For more information on today's CCRB appointments, click here.

A ban on pre-employment testing for marijuana usage took effect in New York City beginning this week. This landmark marijuana justice measure sponsored by New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams is among the first of its kind, particularly in a state in which use of recreational marijuana has not been legalized.

The local law, which was voted on by the City Council last year, bans pre-employment testing for marijuana usage in the vast majority of cases. New York City employers will no longer be able to require a prospective employee to submit to testing for the presence of any tetrahydrocannabinols (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana, in such prospective employee's system as a condition of employment. Exceptions are provided for certain safety and security sensitive jobs, and those tied to a federal or state contract or grant.

"Marijuana testing isn't a deterrent to using the drug, it's an impediment to opportunity dating back to the Reagan area - one that disadvantages low-income workers, often workers of more color, many of whom we now call essential but treat as expendable." said Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams. "Particularly now, as we are grappling with how to recover from the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the worst levels of unemployment in a century, we need to be creating more access points for employment, not less- and if prospective employers aren't testing for past alcohol usage, marijuana should be no different. This is an economic recovery issue, a worker justice issue, and one that New York City must lead the way on."

More information for employers and prospective employees on the implementation of the law is available from the NYC Commission on Civil and Human Rights here.

Cannabis accounts for about half of all positive results on drug tests, and failed tests lead to an inability for many to advance in their careers. Vox reported in 2018 that as many as 70% of large employers utilize pre-employment drug screenings, encompassing as many as 40% of jobs. This legislation does not prevent employers from testing for usage while on the job or imposing penalties for that usage, rather it is aimed at removing an unnecessary barrier toward seeking employment.

New York State has not yet legalized recreational marijuana, although polling indicates that a majority of residents support legalization.

Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams released the following statement in response to Mayor Bill de Blasio's announcement of additional 'social distancing ambassadors' after NYPD data showed clear racial disparity in social distancing enforcement actions by police.

"As a citywide elected leader who comes from the communities that are being disproportionately targeted, who has seen the impact of over-policing for many years magnified in this pandemic, even I was shocked to see the egregious degree of disparity in social distancing enforcement in the limited data that this administration - which came in on a platform of reforming that over-policing - was finally pushed to release. It was what we had suspected, feared, and warned against, only worse. So I was glad to see the administration finally announce some changes we had called for  - to hand out more masks and less summonses, to engage civilian agencies as ambassadors, and to expand community outreach. It's not enough to correct the immediate disparities or the long term inequities - but some progress would still be welcome, if it weren't so overdue while time is not a luxury we have.

"Successful implementation of an approach that is not centered around law enforcement and penalization means working from the bottom up, not the top down. Through a dialogue, not just a decree. The administration needs to bring community stakeholders to the table following this announcement, to discuss the realities of enacting this policy. Beyond that, it needs to employ local leaders such as clergy, and credible messengers with deep ties to their neighborhoods, with a focus on engagement and education, but not enforcement. It needs to amplify that personal engagement by broadcasting key public health messages, while formalizing a more robust plan for utilizing specific city agencies. And it needs to act proactively, not reactively, to racial disparities amid the COVID-19 crisis by heeding the calls of all who have seen them long before this pandemic."

Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams released the following statement after newly reported data showed clear racial disparity in social distancing enforcement actions by the NYPD.

The Public Advocate first called for the release of this data last month, and reiterated his calls after several photos and videos showed disparate enforcement among communities and people of more color.

"The administration stalled to deliver this data, and now we know why. After weeks of pressure, this reveals what we suspected, feared, and warned against - 68% of arrests for social distancing violations were of Black New Yorkers, 24% Hispanic, and 7% white. This virus has disproportionately claimed thousands of black and brown bodies, and now, in response, it is black and brown bodies facing the kind of over-policing never seen in other communities.

"As we approach another warm weather weekend, we cannot allow the same inequities and injustices in social distancing enforcement that were clear throughout the city last week. The same standards and methods need to be applied in the West Village as in East New York, and those methods need to be redefined. Maintaining public health policies cannot be centered on a law enforcement response - it needs to be community-centered with the focus on promoting safe practices with a holistic response incorporating all holistic community response, not aggressively penalizing lapses. Distributing masks, not summonses. As we've long said, funding for outreach efforts need to go to community groups and leaders, clergy and cure violence organizations, while enlisting city agencies to raise awareness with New Yorkers so we can shift toward a community response, not a police response.

"Social distancing and mask mandates are about public health and public safety, but public safety does not equate to over-policing."

Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams released the following statement on the multiple arrests made and dozens of summonses issued by the NYPD over the weekend for violations of social distancing mandates.

He will further address the issue, and the need for the administration to release demographic data on enforcement, in a virtual media availability at 1:00 PM today.

"It has been two weeks since my office requested that the administration release demographic data on social distancing enforcement, and over a month since we cautioned against a response reliant on law enforcement rather than a more holistic community enforcement strategy. Now, we see both why they have been resistant to our calls and why it is even more critical and urgent they address this selective enforcement against people and communities of more color. 

"The incidents we saw this past weekend in our parks and on our streets and social media feeds have made it abundantly clear that the same historical disparities in police enforcement are reflected in and magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic response. This inequity is made clear when some violating social distancing receive a mask while others receive a summons, when some are warned and others violently arrested. 

"Social distancing and mask mandates are about public health and public safety - but public safety does not equate with over-policing."

Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams released the following statement in response to the overburdening of and inadequate responses to shortages at funeral homes and morgues amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The stories and images we have witnessed from funeral homes and morgues in recent days and weeks are deeply disturbing to behold and traumatizing for families already afflicted with grief.  An inability to responsibly and respectfully attend to the deceased and support their families only compounds that tragedy. Dignity does not end in death, and our responsibility to uphold that dignity does not diminish, even in a pandemic. 

"The inability to do so, particularly in low-income communities, often communities of more color, represents the reality that funeral homes and morgues cannot meet the burden of this crisis with the current policies and resources provided. As with other shortages, it's critical to move resources to the communities hardest hit and facing the greatest need - both as an immediate response and to proactively ease the mounting burden. We can't lose sight of the humanity of loss in this crisis. Nor can we fail to meet the needs of families struggling to bury their loved ones and manage their estates, restricted by the capacity of our systems and struggling with unimaginable grief. Fatalities aren't a number, they are our fellow New Yorkers, and we need the city and state to react with shared empathy and urgency to meet this overwhelming level of loss and pain."

Last week, Public Advocate Williams called on the state government to amend restrictions which make it difficult for grieving families to claim their deceased loved ones who have died in the COVID-19 pandemic. In a letter to New York State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker, the Public Advocate called for measures that would better equip hospitals, morgues and funeral homes with the resources they need to help meet the unique and challenging nature of this crisis in some of the city's hardest hit communities.

The full letter is below and can be found here.

Dear Commissioner Zucker:

New York City is in the midst of a public health crisis unseen in a century, placing stresses on our systems in ways we never considered. Specifically, I write in regard to the rapid influx of COVID-19 fatalities threatening to overwhelm the limited capacity of our hospitals and morgues. A contributing factor to this issue is that only licensed funeral directors are allowed to transport the deceased.

Considering the unique nature of this crisis, this regulation appears to do more harm than good by preventing our hospitals and morgues from releasing custody of the deceased in a timely manner. As you may be aware, an inability to perform this timely processing has led to troubling mass burials of "unclaimed" bodies on Hart Island.

I believe an appropriate solution to this problem would be to loosen current requirements for removal of remains that are currently dictated by Section 4144 of New York State Law. This law, which requires that all bodies be removed by a licensed funeral director, should be temporarily exempted or amended to allow any paid employee of a funeral home to perform body removal - vastly increasing funeral homes' capacity to empty our city's overcrowded hospitals and morgues. With this change in place, more families would be granted the dignity of giving their loved ones an individual burial, and strain upon our hospitals and morgues would be reduced.

I hope to see expeditious action taken to alleviate this growing problem across our state. For any questions or further discussion, please contact First Deputy Public Advocate for Policy Nick E. Smith, at nsmith@advocate.nyc.gov. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Jumaane D. Williams

Public Advocate for the City of New York