NEW YORK (PIX11) — In the wake of George Floyd’s death, the United Nations is investigating police abuse in six cities across the country, including New York.
The United Nations last month set up a team called Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement (EMLER) to probe excessive force used against Black people since Floyd’s death in police custody in Minnesota in 2020, according to organizers.
The panel will be holding a public hearing Wednesday in New York City at the Malcolm X Shabazz Center at 3940 Broadway.
The EMLR team will listen to testimony from victims’ family members and other topics, including stop and frisk, racial profiling, and the conditions at Rikers, organizers said. Law enforcement personnel, government officials, lawyers, and civil groups will also speak at the hearings.
It was unclear which families would be represented, but there have been several high-profile deaths in police custody in New York City, including Eric Garner, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, and Abner Louima.
Garner’s chokehold death occurred during an arrest on Staten Island nearly 9 years ago. Former NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo was fired in 2019 after a department trial found he used excessive force to restrain Garner, 43.
Bell, 23, died in a hail of 50 bullets fired by undercover NYPD officers as he left his bachelor party at a Queens nightclub in 2006. The officers in Bell’s case were found to have violated NYPD protocols, but they received little to no punishment.
The three-member panel includes experts from the U.S., South Africa, and Argentina and will hold similar hearings in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Chicago, and Minnesota, organizers said.
