NYC NOW - Midday News: Dozens Arrested at NYC Immigration Protest, NJ Governor’s Race Set, and Police Radio Access Bill Heads to Gov. Hochul

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

Eighty-six people were arrested during a protest outside federal immigration headquarters in Lower Manhattan, where demonstrators rallied against the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts. Meanwhile, in New Jersey, Congressmember Mikie Sherrill and former state lawmaker Jack Ciattarelli have won their respective primaries and will face off in the November gubernatorial election. Plus, state lawmakers in Albany have passed a bill to protect public access to police radio transmissions, now awaiting action from Governor Kathy Hochul.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Wednesday, June 11th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Police say they arrested 86 people last night as protesters in New York City continue to oppose the Trump administration's mass immigration raids. Crowds gathered yesterday afternoon outside federal immigration headquarters in Lower Manhattan. They're chanting, we're here and we're not leaving. and if they kick us out, we'll return. Protesters also criticized President Trump's decision

to call in the National Guard in response to the demonstrators in Los Angeles. Police last night say they issued 52 criminal court summonsors and charged another 34 with crimes. New Jersey voters have spoken and selected their Democratic and Republican nominees for governor. Congress member Mikey Sherer won the Democratic primary and former state lawmaker Jack Chirrelli

won the Republican primary. Futter James Cox of Jersey City said he was looking for a candidate who's a vocal critic of President Trump. I'm dissatisfied with the Trump administration, so anybody who's willing to oppose his administration, I'm four. In her victory speech last night, Congressmember Cheryl says she will stand up to MAGA Republicans if she is chosen to become the next governor of New Jersey. Trump endorsed Chittarelli in the final months of the primary.

the general election is November 4th. 80 and sunny right now on our way to a very warm day, sunny and 83 for a high with a calm wind. Watch out for that widespread haze late this afternoon and into the evening. And then tomorrow's sunny and even warmer, the upper 80s for high temperatures. Stick around. There's more to come. New York lawmakers are moving to protect public access to police radio dispatches.

The state senate and assembly bill passed the Keep Police Radio Public Act last week. And that goes to the governor's desk. The bill comes in response to the New York City Police Department's move to shield law enforcement radio frequencies from the public, including from journalists. New York State Senate deputy majority leader Michael Janaris of Queens sponsored the bill and helped pass it in the Senate. He joins us now. For those who don't know, what kind of information do police share over these radio dispatches? Well, typically it involves incidents that are taking place in real time, and they are communicating with each other about where this is, how many cars or officers to send to a particular location.

And historically, it has been public. Anybody can, if they have the right radio, sit there and listen in on what's happening. What's happened more recently is that the police have started encrypting that so that nobody else other than they can hear it. And that presents a very dangerous precedent in terms of the accountability and transparency we would need for law enforcement activities. So we passed this bill, both houses last week, that would say at least for purposes of the credentialed press, they should be able to continue to monitor this so they can get on site when activity is taking place and not have to rely only on police accounts after the fact, because the dangers of that are obvious to everybody.

It's been a bit of a battle to get this bill to the finish line. Tell me a little bit about what made it successful this time around. Well, I think it just was a matter of educating our colleagues and the prevalence of the encryption. It started with the NYPD, Nassau, now also does it, and other counties throughout the state have been increasingly using this. I don't think it's lost on anyone that the types of law enforcement that the federal government is engaging in. are increasingly scary and dangerous to our democracy. And so the idea that law enforcement can operate in secret, even though this would apply to local law enforcement,

but to the extent they're being cooperative with federal agency, allowing them to operate in secret presents an ever-increasing danger to the public. And the fact that they are trying hard to keep the public and the press away from learning this information in real time is a scary thing. The NYPD told us in a statement, encrypting police radio communications is necessary for both the safety of law enforcement and protecting the privacy interests of victims and witnesses. Is that concern addressed by the final legislation you and your colleagues have passed? Well, first of all, that's nonsense because police radios have been publicly accessible for decades without incident. And so all of a sudden there is this hypothetical concern they have. I think more likely they're just trying to keep their activities in secret.

But to answer your question, initially the bill provided full public access the way it has always been. We ended up limiting it to credentialed press and emergency response vehicles to try and address this notion that anybody anywhere can listen in. I personally think there's nothing wrong with that either, but at least to address those concerns, we've kept it for now to members of the credentialed press and emergency response vehicles. So I have to push back a little bit. You don't think some well-organized criminal or criminal enterprise out there is also listening to police communications on some of these publicly accessible airwaves and deciding, making some decisions about what they're going to do and how to respond? Well, what I would say to you is why hasn't that ever happened? This is a classic case of if it ain't broke, let's break it. There's nothing wrong with the way that the police were communicating with each other.

There's nothing wrong with the public access to that communication. This had never been a problem in the many decades that police radios have been publicly accessible. So now there's this hypothetical concern not based on evidence, not based on any incidents. And so we had a system that was working and everyone was happy with and wasn't creating any problems. And yet the police have now decided they want to operate away from that and in a way that nobody but them can know what's actually happening. Does Governor Hokel support this? Is she going to sign this into law? Do you have any insight into where she stands on this?

Yeah, we pass hundreds of bills per day because we're wrapping up our legislative session. So I'm sure she will do her due diligence and speak to all of us and interested parties and make her own decision. But I'm hopeful she'll be supportive. Senator, thank you so much for your time. All right. Thanks so much, Michael. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Check us out for updates every weekday, three times a date for the latest newshead.

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