Last week, SURJ NYC members attended a press conference hosted by our longtime accountability partner, Justice Committee, and Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM) calling for justice for Win Rozario. Win was murdered by the NYPD in his own home, in front of his mother and brother, only three minutes after the NYPD responded to a mental health crisis call. When on the campaign trail, now-Mayor Mamdani met with Win Rozario’s family, and promised to seek justice, including by firing the cops who murdered Win.
Instead, Mayor Mamdani has retained Jessica Tisch as Police Commissioner – the same police commissioner as Eric Adams. Tisch has continued and actively maintained the NYPD’s culture of impunity for violence against New Yorkers, shielding officers from any semblance of accountability. Last week, it was revealed that the NYPD allowed Officer Salvatore Alongi, who killed 19-year-old Win Rozario in March 2024, to retire with a disability pension while awaiting a departmental trial, without proper notification to the Civilian Complaint Review Board and without reporting for state decertification. The other police officer, Officer Cianfrocco, has not gone to trial, and the administration also has not responded to the demands of Win Rozario’s family for transparency about what happened.
Rather than truly pursuing accountability, instead, Mayor Mamdani on October 12th announced a slate of inadequate police reforms, which are based on the false premise that the NYPD is interested in and capable of reforming itself. As expressed by Loyda Colón, the Executive Director of Justice Committee:
“While we appreciate Mayor Mamdani’s intent behind these reforms, they fall far short of what New Yorkers, including Win Rozario’s family, need and deserve. The problem is not that the NYPD needs more training or to revise its policies, but that the Department consistently evades oversight, transparency and meaningful change, violates the law and its own rules to do so, and shields officers who harm and kill New Yorkers from facing discipline.”
Justice Committee’s press release lists other immediate steps the administration could take instead, including ensuring compliance with the STAT Act’s requirements and appointing an Inspector General who is not afraid of holding the NYPD accountable.
These issues are deeply connected to the broader struggle for racial justice in our city. Last week, SURJ NYC members also attended a Commission on Racial Equity (CORE) press conference which demanded the firing of Tisch. It also called on the mayor to stop appealing the legally-required Racial Equity Plan, of which the administration was found to be out of compliance.
That evening, plainclothes ICE officers with large guns shot a man in front of his five-year-old child. Rather than standing with New Yorkers against these horrors, the NYPD escorted ICE to be able to kidnap this man.
Our chapter worked tirelessly to elect Mayor Mamdani because we wanted a better and more just future for the city we call home. The mayor has delivered in so many ways: a rent freeze, childcare, and expanding bus lanes. He has made efforts to tax the rich. He has come out strong condemning the abuses of ICE and calling for it to be abolished. But when the NYPD continues to murder our neighbors and allow them to be kidnapped, Mayor Mamdani has continued to look away.
If you would like to be part of pressuring this administration to truly deliver on its promises of a better New York, come to our monthly Beyond Policing Working Group October meeting this Wednesday, October 14 at 7pm on zoom, or the Immigration Justice Working Group meeting on October 27 in person. Mobilize along with us to fire Jessica Tisch, seek some justice for Win Rozario and other New Yorkers who have been murdered by the NYPD.
In solidarity,
SURJ NYC