Miscellaneous
After a long conversation about systemic racism, police brutality, the effects of COVID-19 in her district, and a failure of leadership in this time of crisis, NY State Sen. Alessandra Biaggi retracted her prior endorsement of incumbent Rep. Eliot Engel. While she had previously publicly declared that, "2020 was not the time to primary incumbent Democrats", the events of the last few months have changed her perspective. The senator spoke passionately about the lack of leadership from many officials for the underprivileged and hard-hit communities that they are elected to serve, and critiqued misleading statements and half-hearted support from those same electeds throughout COVID, and now into the protests against police brutality. "We have an obligation to fight like hell to ensure our communities are represented by someone who wants to be there. We need someone who is focused on the future. So, my opinion is that my full support behind [Rep. Eliot] Engel just is not there right now. I am still making a decision about what to do formally, but I cannot stand behind somebody who refuses to stand for a district that is in great need during this transformational moment of change." Senator Biaggi didn't just take shots at other elected officials, though. She came prepared with ample policy proposals on how to best reform the NYPD, mitigate systemic racism, and eliminate police brutality. Biaggi spoke in-depth on reforms like reducing the budget of the NYPD, repealing "50-a" to increase transparency around police personnel records, mandating racial bias training for public officials and including age appropriate unconscious bias classes in both public and private schools for children.