Opinion | 27 Black Leaders Condemn Dousing of Police

To the Editor:

As African-American leaders who are proud to call New York City home and/or where we work, we were appalled at the recent verbal attacks on and water dousing of police officers in Harlem and Brooklyn who appeared to be lawfully executing their responsibilities to keep our communities safe and orderly.

This behavior is not at all representative of the millions of law-abiding citizens in our diverse communities. Nonetheless, it would be irresponsible for us not to call out this unacceptable behavior.

The New York Police Department is to be commended for its recent and sustained progress in making the city the safest big city in America. Violent crime and homicides have declined significantly. Practices historically deemed unacceptable by the African-American community, like “stop and frisk” and racial profiling, have also been meaningfully reduced.

And police engagement, through neighborhood policing and other methods, is on a very positive trajectory, but there is certainly more work to be done.

The death of Eric Garner remains a deep and lingering wound in our communities. But we are at a point in time when all of our diverse communities can and should acknowledge the hard work and good-faith efforts of the men and women in our police department to keep us safe while treating us with respect and fairness.

We ask police officers to put their lives on the line for our communities every day. We demand that they serve and protect us all. In exchange, we should show the N.Y.P.D. respect when its officers are lawfully doing exactly what we have asked them to do.

Eric Adams
Brooklyn Borough President

Ronald E. Blaylock
Founder and Managing Partner
GenNx360 Capital Partners

Ursula Burns
Chairwoman and C.E.O., Veon Ltd.

Kenneth I. Chenault
Chairman and Managing Director
General Catalyst

Edith Cooper
Senior Director
Goldman Sachs

W. Don Cornwell
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Granite Broadcasting Corporation

Vicki Fuller
Former Chief Investment Officer
New York State Common Retirement Fund

Charles J. Hamilton Jr.
Senior Counsel
Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, L.L.P.

Melissa James
Vice Chairwoman
Morgan Stanley

David R. Jones
Co-Founder and C.E.O.
Castle Oak Securities, L.P.

Vernon E. Jordan Jr.
Senior Managing Director, Lazard
and Senior Counsel
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld L.L.P.

Debra L. Lee
Chairwoman and C.E.O. Emeritus
BET Networks

Edward Lewis
Founder and C.E.O. Emeritus
Essence Magazine

William M. Lewis Jr.
Co-chairman, Investment Banking, Lazard

Tracy V. Maitland
President, Advent Capital Management, L.L.C.

Raymond J. McGuire
Vice Chairman, Citigroup

Scott Mills
President, BET Networks

Rusty O’Kelley
Managing Director
Russell Reynolds Associates

Adebayo Ogunlesi
Chairman and Managing Partner
Global Infrastructure Partners

Clarence Otis Jr.
Former C.E.O.
Darden Restaurants

Richard Parsons
Chairman of the Board
Rockefeller Foundation

Charles Phillips
C.E.O., Infor

Jonelle Procope
President and C.E.O.
Apollo Theater

Frederick O. Terrell
Former Executive Vice Chairman, Investment Banking/Capital Markets
Credit Suisse

Dennis M. Walcott
President/C.E.O., Queens Public Library
Former New York City Schools Chancellor

Darren Walker
President, Ford Foundation

Christopher J. Williams
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
The Williams Capital Group, L.P.