NYC NOW - April 18, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: April 18, 2024

New Jersey’s controversial “county line” ballot design will remain off the ballot in the upcoming Democratic Primary. Plus, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine is pushing to make public restrooms easier to find in the subway system. Also, CUNY’s law school has finally booked a venue for its graduation ceremony after struggling to find a place to host the event. And finally, WNYC’s Michael Hill and Matt Katz discuss a pitched plan by Nassau County to deputize private citizens in emergency situations.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jinné Pierre. We begin in New Jersey, where the controversial county line ballot system will remain off the ballot in the upcoming Democratic primary. The county line groups together the candidates who were endorsed by political parties. Researchers say the system gives endorsed candidates a big advantage. Political bosses have used it to sway elections for more than. than a century. The appeals court described the county line system as discriminatory and said doing away with it will help avoid voter confusion. Now to New York City. Finding a public restroom in the

subway system can be hard, but Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine is pushing to make them easier to find. He wrote a letter to transit president Richard Davy recommending changes, including simply putting up signs to direct riders to the restrooms. The MTA has reopened bathrooms at 63 stations since last year, after closing all of them during the pandemic. But Levine says not enough people know they exist. I think the public might be pleasantly surprised at how well-maintained they are. They all got some renovation work done before they reopen. They're in better shape that people might remember, and they're a great resource.

Now we just need the public to know about them. Levine also suggested the MTA let customers know when a station has a bathroom through automated train announcements and create a map for bathrooms throughout the system. The MTA has yet to respond to the letter. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakman is making headlines again. This time, residents are calling out the Republican for his plan to deputize private citizens. More on that after the break. Concerns are mounting about an armed supplemental police force being convened in Nassau County.

Residents are demanding a public hearing and answers from Republican County Executive Bruce Blakman on what they're decrying as Blakeman's militia. For more, my colleague Michael Hill talked with WNYC's Matt Katz about the disputes and the context behind auxiliary police officers. What is Bruce Blakeman doing here? What does he call this new police force? Has a bit of an unwieldy name. He put the call out quietly last month for provisional emergency

special deputy sheriffs. Wow. And there to be in charge of helping, at least, protect, quote, human life and property, and this would be during unspecified emergencies. Now, many police departments do have volunteer officers who help out during parades, like particularly, you know, small rural police departments. Even New York City has a volunteer auxiliary police program. The reserves for Washington, D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department, I learned, are even armed.

But I spoke to experts on this sort of policing, and they told me that what's unusual here is that These are not volunteers. They're going to be paid $150 a day for every day that they're deployed in any such emergency that could be activated. And although they will be armed according to the public notice that Blakeman posted, they will not get full police training, it appears. So, Matt, what kind of training will these officers get? And who is Blakeman looking to recruit? According to the public notice, they will just be trained in use of force and state penal. code and not apparently, you know, use of weapons, they will be part of the sheriff's department

in Nassau County. And Blakman is recruiting adults up to the age of 72 with a special focus on former law enforcement officers and military veterans. Most controversially, one of the requirements is that these provisional emergency special deputy sheriffs be pistol license holders. And that's what's really created this outcry that this idea, this allegation, that Blakeman is trying to assemble a militia, like his own militia. I mean, this is the criticism. Blakeman denies this. He says it's just a database of names that could be called upon to help the cops,

maybe during a natural disaster, maybe during a riot. And he refuted one suggestion that this group is like the Nazi brown shirt, saying that he's Jewish. He called that suggestion an insult to humanity. But residents, and particularly the black and Hispanic residents that I spoke to, they say they're scared about this. They said it reminds them of the possees in the South that would take the law into their own hands at the behest or maybe the Winkin a nod from the local sheriff. And they just don't understand why this is happening and why it's happening now. Matt, I'm curious about something. You covered the county's legislature meeting on Monday. What was said there? What happened there? Of all the many residents who went up to the microphone who spoke, not one said they were in support of this force.

And resident after resident was against it. I made a little compilation of what I heard. We're going to hear now from Sabrina Margolis, Ronald Brim, Jeremy Joseph, Lynn Krug, and Jody Kass Finkel. Deputizing gun owning private citizens for undefined situations, Blakeman deems as emergencies, could result in vigilantism, friendly fire police deaths from untrained, uncoordinated squads, and pits neighbor against neighbor. People are afraid. People are scared.

People don't know where this is coming from. They don't know where it's going. They do know that there's a nasty political edge. Well, we see some manufactured crisis come November during election time. We want guarantees that deputy sheriffs will not be posted at pulling places on election dates. Could it be that this is just another shot fired in the culture war that Mr. Blakman seemed so comfortable fighting? You are not powerless in Blakeman's overreach. We need you to hold a hearing. We deserve answers. Several issues raised there, have any hearings been actually scheduled?

No hearings are scheduled. That was just a public comment at the regular county meeting. And at that meeting, none of the legislators from the county said anything about the plan. And Blakeman didn't agree to an interview with us. So I didn't get to ask him about some of those other concerns that the residents brought up. like whether these forces would be deployed to polling sites and what exactly constitutes an

emergency. There's obviously still a lot of outstanding questions here about the details. Blakeman has cited a state statute that gives him the authority to do this. And there are certainly rural counties like I mentioned that have auxiliary forces. I spoke to experts on voluntary auxiliary police forces. They say they can be good. They can help augment regular departments, especially there's a shortage of officers right now, nationwide, recruitment shortage. So they say they can be helpful. But what's unusual here is that these are paid, they're armed, but they're not trained like cops. And according to Newsday, Blakeman did say the officers would not go out on patrol and mostly they'd be guarding hospitals, sewage treatment plans, houses of worship during emergencies so that the regular police officers, if you will, Nassau County has 2,500 cops, I should note, so that they could do other work.

but it's unclear what these supplemental forces would be doing. And another question is whether they'd be using their own weapons. Has Blakeman provided any information about what kind of vetting applicants for these positions will get? No. And that's a huge concern. There was a 74-year-old reserve deputy sheriff in Oklahoma with political ties to the sheriff who was charged with manslaughter several years ago after he mistook his gun for a taser and shot and killed a suspect during a police raid. So that's a big concern. Matt, real quick, is this a done deal? Barring a lawsuit, and I have no whiff that any lawsuits are being prepared,

it appears that, yes, it's happening. And Blakeman says that they'll be ready to be deployed by late next month. That's WNYC's Matt Katz talking with my colleague Michael Hill. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day. I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.