NYC NOW - April 17, 2024: Morning Headlines

Episode Date: April 17, 2024

Get up and get informed! Here's all the local news you need to start your day: The lawyer for an NYPD officer accused of assaulting an Apple Store customer says his client hardly punched him. WNYC’s Samantha Max was in the courtroom for the start of the officer’s criminal trial on Tuesday. Also, tenant activists say a nearly two-month-long strike by staff at the nonprofit legal services group Mobilization For Justice is straining the city’s eviction defense program.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Wednesday, April 17th. Here's the morning headlines from Michael Hill. The lawyer from an NYPD officer accused of assaulting an Apple store customer says his client hardly punched him. WNMC Samantha Max was in the courtroom for the start of the officer's criminal trial yesterday. Officer Salvador Provenzano's lawyer says his client hit a man, who was being disorderly because he thought the man was going to hit him.

Prosecutors say the officer used excessive force against a man who was being obnoxious but not violent. Body camera footage shows Provenzano grabbing the man's wrist as a group of officers tries to walk him out of the store. When he turns towards the door, video shows the officer punching him in the side of the face. Don't swing him. Don't swing him. You're going to harassing. I know you're going to harassing. Provenzano has pleaded not guilty to one count of third-degree assault.

The NYPD says he's on modified duty. Tenant activists say a nearly two-month-long strike by staff at the nonprofit legal services group. Mobilization for justice is straining the city's eviction defense program. Katie LaSalle leads the right to counsel coalition. She says striking lawyers and support staff provide a vital service and should earn more money. We need them to be paid well. have good benefits. We need their caseloads to be manageable. This is what will support quality, full representation for tenants, and it's what's going to keep tenants in their home.

More than 100 housing attorneys, paralegals, and other employees from Mobilization for Justice went on strike in late February. The union is demanding higher pay, but the executive director of Mobilization for Justice says the group just can't afford large raises. 52 with clouds now. Mid-afternoon showers likely increasing clouds today. a high temperature in the low 60s with a slight wind. Stay close. There's more after the break. It's Pubituary Month, and we're playing your poems on the air. Our theme this year is local, the nearby places that matter to you and what's happening there.

James Nave sent us this poem about Vanderbilt Avenue called Brunch in Brooklyn. A cool breeze along Vanderbilt Avenue blew across a laughing couple, hungry for a late brunch at the milk bar, full of light and shadows, and our regular gathering of Saturday poets. In the middle of a conversation about why Ulysses was restless in his kingdom, I thought about how Lada's theme in Dr. Chabago had heightened my sense of romance when I was 15. We were all poetic friends laughing away the afternoon full of honey, wine, and smoky stories of Cuban music weeping from old radio,

falling out of a postcard sky after the neighborhood parties ended and nobody wanted to go home. We want to hear from you. Go to WNYC.org slash poetry to find out how to send us your poem. And this Friday come in and join all of us in the Green Space for Night of Live. Poetry. Tickets are pay as you wish. We hope to see you there. Reserve your tickets right now at WNYC.org slash the Green Space. Thanks for listening. This is NYC Now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day,

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