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Gov. Cuomo appointed Attorney General Letitia James Saturday to carry out an independent investigation into the NYPD response of protests in Brooklyn over the police killing of George Floyd.
Even as he invoked the spirit of unity, the governor said James would probe the violent scenes that unfolded hours earlier as thousands of angry protesters battled with police outside the Barclays Center.
“People deserve answers and they deserve accountability,” Cuomo said.
“We beat this damn virus and if we’re smart we can beat the virus of racism,” he added.
Cuomo said James would investigate if police acted improperly especially in a confrontation caught on camera in which police flung a woman to the ground outside the arena.
The attorney general will produce a report within a month. But Cuomo suggested things should change immediately if more protests erupt.
“I have no doubt the mayor and the police are going to have serious conversations about what happened last night,” he said.
Ticking off a list of victims of police brutality, Cuomo called the killing of Floyd a casualty of a centuries-long legacy of racism in America.
He named Eric Garner, the unarmed Staten Island man who died after a police chokehold, along with Amadou Diallo, who was killed in a hail of police bullets in the Bronx.
“How many times have we seen the situation? The names change but the color doesn’t,” Cuomo said. “It’s this nation’s history of discrimination and racism. I also feel the outrage.”
While critical of police tactics, Cuomo lauded the spirit of frontline workers who helped the city get through the worse of the coronavirus pandemic. He denounced attacks against police and called for calm.
“Yes, outrage. Yes, anger. Yes, frustration,” he said. “But not violence.”
He reminded New Yorkers that frontline workers of all races put their lives on the line to help fight the pandemic.
Cuomo signed a bill that extends line-of-duty death benefits to frontline state and local governemnt workers who die of coronavirus.
“It is the least we can do to say thank you, and we honor you, and we remember you,” Cuomo said.
The governor sought to blame racism for both the scourge of police misconduct and COVID-19, which has disproportionately affected communities of color.
As New York City pushes toward a scheduled June 8 start of reopening, the governor showed a list of the 10 worst-affected zip codes for coronavirus infection rates, all of which are predominantly black or Latino neighborhoods.
About 50% of those tested in two Bronx neighborhoods have antibodies for coronavirus, meaning they were infected at some point, more than 2-1/2 times the citywide average.
He announced more testing sites aimed at those zip codes, including several in Brooklyn and Queens, along with other measures designed to address broader health inequities.
“The way we beat this virus, we can beat the virus of racism,” he said. “We can beat the virus of discrimination. We can beat the virus of inequality.”
Cuomo announced that 67 people died of coronavirus Friday, a number that has continued to drop in recent weeks, along with hospitalizations and positive cases.
He reminded police and protesters alike to wear masks and avoid defying social distancing rules, a warning that seemed almost quaint in view of the violence raging in New York and cities across the nation.
“Not to wear a mask, I think you’re disrespectful. I think you’re putting other people’s lives at risk, needlessly,” he said. “And those are facts, right? So demonstrate. Wear a mask.”
Latest coronavirus updates: Click here for our roundup of the most important developments from NYC and around the world.