Latest news with #HowManyStopsAct
New York Post
3 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Yusuf Salaam owes six figures in taxes, despite speaking fees
City Councilman Yusef Salaam — one of the exonerated Central Park Five — owes hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid federal taxes, despite making big money from speaking fees, The Post has learned. The anti-cop councilman owes between $100,000 and $250,000 to the IRS, his 2024 annual financial disclosure to the city Conflicts of Interest Board shows. Salaam, 51, insisted in the forms he is 'in the process of repaying all taxes' for the past two years. 5 Salaam owes big money to the IRS, financial disclosures reveal. Gregory P. Mango The Harlem pol won his seat in 2023, then took office at the start of 2024 — so it's not clear when the taxes owed date back to. His office declined to comment, and the IRS is barred from disclosing tax return information. Salaam maintains his mountain of debt despite making a killing in speaking fees since his surprise victory in 2023. He charges around $31,000 a pop for a virtual event — and closer to $40,000 to come talk about criminal justice in person. He's had at least 36 speaking engagements since announcing his run in 2023. 5 Salaam was 16 when the court proceedings took place in 1990. ASSOCIATED PRESS Since taking office last year, he raked in up to $250,000 in fees alone, records show — on top of the $148,500 salary he gets for his Council gig. The father of 10 also declared getting '$500,000 or more' annually from a trust, estate or other beneficial interest, likely the terms of his 2014 settlement with the city. NYC ended up paying $40.75 million to the members of the Central Park Five to settle a civil rights suit. Salaam's share was $7.125 million. 5 Salaam was arrested along with four other Black and Latino teenagers in the Central Park case in 1989. Andrew Savulich 5 Salaam served nearly seven years in prison on the since overturned conviction. NY Post File Photo This isn't the first controversy for the councilman, who's also chairman of the Public Safety Committee overseeing the NYPD. Last year he was caught motoring around the Big Apple with out-of-state license plates and alleged illegally tinted windows. He was living in Georgia for six years before running for office in the Big Apple and still had his Peach State plates. 5 Salaam says he's been in the process of repaying all taxes for the past two years. Ron Sachs – CNP for NY Post Salaam has been a vocal critic of the NYPD since being elected and among the lawmakers who pushed the controversial 'How Many Stops Act' that buries cops in paperwork. He was one of five Black and Latino teenagers wrongly accused, convicted and imprisoned for the assault and rape of a woman jogging in Central Park in 1989. After his arrest at age 15, Salaam served nearly seven years behind bars, before a re-examination of the case led to his conviction being tossed in 2002 — after career criminal Matias Reyes confessed to the attack and DNA evidence confirmed Reyes' involvement. Reyes had confessed during interrogation to being at the Central Park crime scene, but the admission was later determined to be coerced.
New York Times
15-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Adrienne Adams Wants to Bolster the N.Y.P.D. and Her Odds of Being Mayor
In the wake of the protests over the murder of George Floyd, some New York City Council members called for cutting $1 billion from the Police Department's budget. Adrienne Adams, then a city councilwoman representing Southeast Queens, did not join with them. A few years later, after rising to become Council speaker, Ms. Adams led a rare override of a mayoral veto and pushed through the How Many Stops Act, a police accountability bill that requires police to record the race, age and gender of most people they stop. Those decisions, Ms. Adams said, reflected a common-sense approach to policing that she believes distinguishes her from her opponents in the June 24 Democratic primary for mayor. Ms. Adams hopes to build on that image on Thursday when she releases a detailed plan to address public safety, vowing to fill the more than 2,400 vacancies in the Police Department in her first eight months in office. She said she would offer housing and tuition support to attract new officers and modernize CompStat, the Police Department's crime data system, to track officer recruitment, retention and trust levels between the police and community. She said she would also move to increase police presence in the subway and have those officers focus on crime prevention while having mental health professionals and social workers deal more with homeless and mentally ill people. Ms. Adams was the last major candidate to enter the mayor's race and has significant ground to make up. She trails badly in fund-raising efforts and has yet to qualify for the city's generous matching-funds program. But backed by major unions like District Council 37 and the state attorney general, Letitia James, Ms. Adams is seeking to present herself as a seasoned, drama-free leader who might appeal to voters seeking a moderate Democrat other than the current front-runner, the former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. A Marist poll released on Wednesday found her rising to third place with 11 percent, still far behind Mr. Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani, a progressive state lawmaker. 'We have to remember that traditionally in New York, mayoral races tend to break very late,' Ms. Adams said, citing the trajectory of the former sanitation commissioner Kathyrn Garcia, who placed second in the 2021 primary. 'I am still very excited about this race, and I intend to win it.' Other candidates have also released their public safety plans. Mr. Cuomo has said he would hire 5,000 more police officers. Mr. Mamdani said he would launch a Department of Community Safety to deal with issues such as mental illness and homelessness to free up officers. Brad Lander, the city comptroller, said he would retain Jessica Tisch as police commissioner and focus on ending street homelessness. Leaning on her background as a corporate trainer and her collaborative management style, Ms. Adams said she wants to focus more on helping crime victims, strengthen efforts to prevent crime through community-based violence interruption programs and address issues that lead to crime by investing in parks, after school programs and employment opportunities for young people. She said she will combat retail theft by treating it as organized crime, focusing on the ringleaders while providing services for those who commit the thefts if they are mentally ill or addicted to drugs. 'New York can't truly be safe until every neighborhood feels safe day or night,' Ms. Adams said in an interview. 'That kind of safety depends on a strong Police Department that our communities can trust and that our communities can count on, but we know that's not what we have right now.' Ms. Adams, who previously served as chair of the public safety committee, has faced criticism from the Police Benevolent Association and a few Council members for supporting the How Many Stops Act. Robert Holden, a conservative Democrat, opposed the legislation as 'unnecessary' and voted against overriding the mayor's veto. 'You'd rather have cops making reports than out on patrol?' he said. Ms. Adams, he said, has been a sponsor on legislation that he believes has caused many officers to flee the department, such as the ban on chokeholds. Ms. Adams has sided with the 'far left' members of the City Council on policing too often, he added. Ms. Adams said her plan calls for her to act as an advocate for police officers because they share the goal of protecting the public. The How Many Stops bill was about helping to restore public trust in the department, which would be one of her main goals as mayor, she said. 'There is still a fear of the N.Y.P.D.,' said Ms. Adams, the city's first Black Council speaker. 'There is still that talk that I had to have with my children and that my children have had to have with their children.' Aqeela Sherrills, the co-founder and leader of the Community-Based Public Safety Collective, has worked with Ms. Adams and was impressed by her plan's focus on viewing public safety as a public health issue. 'Community violence intervention is a complementary strategy to policing,' Mr. Sherrills said.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NYC mayoral wannabe Jim Walden vows referendum to stop City Council handcuffing NYPD
Big Apple mayoral candidate Jim Walden, a former federal prosecutor and prominent lawyer, has vowed to fight the New York City Council from handcuffing the NYPD if he is elected. 'Politicians should generally stay out of the business of policing. The New York City Charter does not give the Council the power to micromanage police operations,' Walden, who is running as an independent, told The Post. 'As mayor, I will call a voter referendum to limit the City Council's power to micromanage NYPD operations. Public safety should be managed by capable experts, not by political winds.' However, to get the initiative on the ballot, Walden and supporters would have to collect roughly 50,000 voter signatures, which is only doable with vast resources. The voter referendum envisioned by Walen would: Extend the time of mayoral review for any proposed legislation related to police operations Require the City Council to hold public hearings with policing experts, including those called by the mayor, to fairly evaluate the legislation and its specific effects on policing Give the mayor the option to declare the bill damaging to policing and require a two-thirds majority for passage Require a supermajority of three-fourths to override any mayoral veto Over the years, the Council has passed bills over the mayor's objections dictating operations at the NYPD — most recently the How Many Stops Act, which requires officers to file reports on even minor interactions with members of the public. 'I am in favor of smart policing. I am in favor of clamping down on discriminatory practices by NYPD officers or other public servants. But I am against politicians—pandering to special interests—using limited examples of alleged police misconduct to increase bureaucracy on cops, taking them away from the critical mission of policing,' Walden said. 'Or, worse, telling them how to police.' Cosmetics billionaire Ronald Lauder successfully bankrolled a campaign in the 1990s to get voters to support a two-term limit for citywide officeholders and the Council. Walden would have to collect two or three times the required number of voter signatures for a ballot initiative to survive a legal challenge. 'It would be a herculean task. You would need a lot of resources,' said an election lawyer who requested anonymity. Meanwhile, Mayor Eric Adams recently announced that he will not run in a Democratic primary — and like Walden, will seek re-election in a long-shot bid under his own independent ballot line.
