Manor Republican saddened mayor refuses to comply with Cuomo order on review of racism in local police
To the editor:
My name is Stephen Tahbaz, and I am a Pelham Memorial High School graduate from the class of 2020. I write today as a resident of Pelham Manor with great concern for how my elected officials are currently governing our town. I would first like to disclose that I am a proud registered Republican, the former vice president of the PMHS Young Republicans Club and have always been an ardent supporter of the Republican candidates that have run for office in Pelham. The last time I wrote to this publication was to endorse the Honorable John DeChiaro in his bid for reelection. I say this not as some sort of disclaimer about bias or opinion, but rather to underscore the apolitical nature of this issue, and to give crucial context for my view. Here are the facts.
On June 12, Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued Executive Order 203, “New York State Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative.” I’ve linked it so it can be read verbatim. The general goal of the order is to face head-on the longstanding issues between police and Black, indigenous and people of color in New York, recognizing the fundamental flaws that were illuminated across the nation in the wake of George Floyd’s killing. There are some key specifics outlined in the order that, as citizens of a small town, are essential to note. Cuomo rules that each local government that maintains a police agency must review their policing practices and develop new strategies to foster trust and fairness and to address any problems with racial bias. The order also rules that the chief executive of each town—in the case of Pelham Manor, the mayor—must form a committee that engages both the police chief and members of the community to formulate this plan. At its core, the order is aiming to foster community policing, or as safe towns in America without historical problems with racist criminal justice refer to it, policing.
I would now like to clarify one fact, and remind Pelham Manor residents of another. Fact One: I am specifically writing this letter as a resident of Pelham Manor because this isn’t relevant to the Village of Pelham. Mayor Chance Mullen, who I helped campaign against in his bid for office, has complied with the executive order, and has started to take active steps to better police and community relations in the village. Fact Two: Pelham Manor has not always been immune from problems with racist policing. I have in the past been an ardent supporter of our cops, have fostered great relationships with many of them and am generally very grateful for the experiences I’ve had with the Pelham Manor Police Department. Yet, time and time again, I find myself hearing disgraceful stories from BIPOC residents of both the Manor and the Village concerning negative interactions with the PMPD. If you don’t believe me, simply Google “Pelham Manor Police Racist.” You can text me at (914) 282-9840 when you spot the problem.
It is foolish to not see the issue. As a resident of Pelham Manor, I am saddened to see our elected officials actively defy New York State law. By not complying with Executive Order 203, as required by the governor, our village government is working directly against the interests of the state. The letter I am writing to the editor has essentially already been written, with my family as signatories. I’ve linked it here, so it can be read verbatim as well. The letter was sent to the mayor of Pelham Manor, requesting compliance with state law, as the Village of Pelham did weeks ago. Pelham Manor Mayor Jennifer Monachino Lapey responded by acknowledging the letter and restating her commitment to strong police practices, and sharing that the PMPD has been participating in a countywide initiative to change for the better. And that’s it.
There has still been no action by the Manor to form the committee as directed by the state. I truly believe in our government officials and in our police. It seems so simple to both comply with the law and better our town in a productive way, yet no action has been taken. So, I do not write today to Lapey or the trustees of Pelham Manor. I write to you, the reader. I ask this: Do you want to live in a town where our elected officials defy a mandated order? If our neighbors have already complied, why can’t the Manor do the same? What is so wrong with finally coming to terms with our deep-seated racial issues and facing them, not as requested but as demanded? Why is this the law that our officials have chosen to ignore? I will say it loud and clear: Our elected officials, people I believed in, are choosing to neglect state law in order to avoid confronting a longstanding issue of racism to maintain the status quo. It is said that actions speak louder than words. I now know that inaction certainly speaks louder than action.
Stephen Tahbaz
414 Monterey Avenue
David Smith • Sep 20, 2020 at 4:55 pm
Damn. I’m here because I’m a bit tipsy, and reading nonsense. I am Pelham. I grew up there. It was super racist in the 80s and 90s , and i have no reason to believe that it’s got any better I’m my absence.
Racist police emails, racist bridge crossings? I’m sorry, but seriously, the NAACP marched in the streets in 75 because of a racist police shooting, and I’m pretty sure nothing has changed
Harry Lewis • Aug 20, 2020 at 3:58 pm
As a 35 year resident of the Town of Pelham now offices in New Rochelle, a registered Republican, an attorney, and a supporter of Mayor Lapey and the Pelham Manor Police, I respond as follows:
1. Thank you for being civically engaged, and for challenge authority. Unfortunately, you’re challenging the wrong authority. It’s Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order 203 that is deeply flawed for the following specific reasons:
A. The death of George Floyd, or any person, while in police custody, is a tragedy. It is a logical error to conclude from that, however, that the specific officers handling Floyd’s detention and arrest acted wrongfully in doing so. It is a far worse error to assume that every cop in America, including the Pelham Manor Police Force, is racist and bad because the the Floyd tragedy. That is precisely what Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order 203, by assuming and assigning collective guilt to all NY cops, is doing. Collective guilt is a hallmark of Nazi and Communist ideologies. Is the governor a Nazi or communist? I don’t know, but he appear to be ignorant enough to adopt one or both of those ideologies unwittingly. As an attorney, I tell people that I wait for the jury verdict before assuming the guilt of any person or group of persons. Based upon the body camera footage released two weeks ago of the police officers involved in the death of George Floyd while in custody, deliberately suppressed by the Attorney General of Minnesota by his own admission to make prosecution of the cops easier, it now appears that the cops followed their training and proper police procedure in handling George Floyd. Mr. Floyd was gasping, “I can’t breathe” before the cops laid a hand on him, suggesting respiratory distress caused by a drug overdose. And the “foot on the neck” restraint tactic so widely publicized was a standard restraint technique for which the cops were trained. In other words, that footage appears to give them, at a minimum, a valid defense, and perhaps ensures their acquittal at trial. The national propaganda campaign smearing their reputations before trial based upon false and deliberately omitted information is itself calumny and a miscarriage of justice. Governor Cuomo is interested in none of this. And his Executive Order demonstrates one of the worst traits of an unjust public official: arrogance, vindictiveness, and petty spitefulness towards New York cops for something that happened in Minnesota.
As for the governor’s misinformed and spiteful claim that NY cops, and the Pelham Manor Police Force in particular, demonstrate racial animus towards black people, the cold and bloodless statistics refute his baseless assertions. As Heather MacDonald, a policing expert with the Manhattan Institute has pointed out in her books “The War on Cops”, the NYPD is now majority minority, i.e, most NYPD cops are black, hispanic, Asian, or members of another ethnic minority group. Further,
1. Police violence in general, and against black people in particular, is at an all-time low. New technology, including police body cameras, is bearing this out.
2. Approximately 80% of violent crimes in America are black-on-black, i.e. black perpetrators attacking innocent black victims.
3. The innocent members of the black community want the cops there to protect them, not a withdrawal of cops from their neighborhoods, turning them over to the tender mercies of the drug gangs ands violent street criminals who foment most of the violence.
4. In general, cops are responsible, follow the rules, and do their jobs professionally, and with pride and compassion. The Pelham Manor Police Force, along with the vast majority of NY cops, falls into this category.
Finally, since you repeat the shibboleth of “systemic racism”, which is both false, and embraces the dual Nazi/communist ideologies of collective guilt, let me warn you now that in some quarters, this is taking on the vestiges of a fanatical religious cult in which no white person, no matter their personal virtue, can escape the collective guilt of “white privilege. In this racist religious cult, there is no redemption. The Nazis based their death camps on such characterizations of groups of people by race, starting with the Jews, but also including blacks and gypsies. Unless we collectively push back, the brownshirts will be coming for you no matter how loudly you protest your “innocence”, which you will find impossible to establish under their rules. George Orwell wrote about this extensively in his essays, and in his dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. It’s late in the summer, but not too late for you to learn the truth. John McWhorter, a black professor at Columbia University, also has written at length in The Atlantic about the toxicity of this ideology.
Sadly, Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order is not only wrongheaded, but foolish in seeking to punish NY cops for offenses of which they are not guilty. If the governor wants to find a guilty white person, he should begin by looking in the mirror. Your castigating Mayor Lapey for failing to slavishly follow the governor’s foolish order speak only to your youth and lack of life experience.
Best wishes,
Harry Lewis
Dana Thayer • Aug 20, 2020 at 2:45 pm
Thank you Stephen for your initial letter and for this update. I sincerely appreciate PM Police Chief Carpenter taking the initiative to reach out. “Sunlight is the best disinfectant” (Louis Brandeis) – we look forward to a public response from the Mayor and detailed next steps.
Stephen Tahbaz • Aug 20, 2020 at 10:05 am
I would like to share that I just had a productive phone call with PMPD Chief Carpenter, in which we discussed how he has worked to change the department since he became chief. These are the important discussions we need to be having. This is not to minimize or take away from the letter at all, I still fully expect Pelham Manor to comply with Governor Cuomo’ s executive order. I also applaud Chief Carpenter for taking the time out of his day to give me a call and open the dialogue on his efforts to improve our department. I have put Pelham United in touch with him, and hope they can further discuss issues of race that they have experienced and discussed.
Katharine Page • Aug 20, 2020 at 7:58 am
Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention and speaking up. I am hopeful more people will follow your lead and do the same.
~ Katharine
Chris D’Angelo • Aug 19, 2020 at 10:16 pm
Excellent letter Stephen. Thank you for taking the initiative to write it, and inform the community of our local government’s failure, thus far, to comply with Governor Cuomo’s Executive Order. If this continues, it demonstrates a shameful absence of leadership. If there is a plan, I would expect our elected officials to inform and enlist the assistance of its constituents, as the second letter suggests.
Toby Marxuach-Gusciora • Aug 19, 2020 at 7:58 pm
Stephen,
Thank you for writing a thoughtful accurate letter. I really appreciate your time and effort.
leslie howard • Aug 19, 2020 at 7:19 pm
Pelham Manor should be embarrassed by the fact that this had to be said. DO SOMETHINGPelham Manor residents.
And thank you Stephen, for bringing this out in the open. Great letter, and great thing that you did. Now lets see if the Manor will step up and do the right thing, or continue with the racist reputation it already has.
Jay Reynolds • Aug 19, 2020 at 7:07 pm
Well stated Stephen. Keep fighting the good fight!
Syd Thayer • Aug 19, 2020 at 6:19 pm
Great letter Stephen. Thank you for capturing the critical going-forward essence of issues of this sort. They should not be political party based, they should be based on what is right. I wish there were a “do the right thing” or “our better angels” party for every issue but sadly there isnt yet. Thank you for challenging us, regardless of party, to think about what is the right thing to do, especially as a small community.
Melissa Ronan • Aug 19, 2020 at 6:14 pm
This is a great letter Stephen. Thank you for taking the time to write it and to provide detailed information that educates all of us and highlights a significant issue in our village.
Justin O'Beirne • Aug 19, 2020 at 6:10 pm
Stephen, thank you so much for bringing Mayor Lapey’s refusal to acknowledge that our police department is not perfect and to comply with state mandates to our attention. I applaud your writing and feel encouraged to see young people so active in local politics and thank you again for writing about this issue.