FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 29, 2024
Contact: Sophie Ellman-Golan | sophie@jfrej.org

NEW YORK -- Following the NYPD's fatal shooting of a Win Rozario in Queens, Jews For Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ) released the following statement:

Eleanor Bumpurs. Deborah Danner. Saheed Vassell. Kawaski Trawick. And now Win Rozario. Earlier this week, nineteen-year-old Win Rozario was at home when he called 911 for help, and he and his family should have been able to trust those tasked to respond to this call. Instead, the police showed up, needlessly and violently escalated the encounter, and killed Win in his own home in front of his mother.

Year after year, the NYPD responds to New Yorkers in crisis or who they perceive to be in crisis — especially if those New Yorkers are Black and Brown — with guns drawn, bullets fired, and fatal shots. Year after year, there is no accountability.

Almost exactly five years ago, Kawaski Trawick was also murdered by NYPD officers in his own home after being perceived as in the midst of a mental health crisis. The officers who killed Kawaski still have not been fired, and the NYPD and Mayor Adams have not even revealed the names of the officers who killed Win. We cannot bring Win, Kawaski, Saheed, Deborah, or Eleanor back to their families, but we can and must demand accountability for the officers who killed them and the system responsible for their deaths.

Accountability also means systemic change to better support New Yorkers struggling with mental illness. Every loss of precious life like Win’s underscores that the NYPD should never be part of mental health responses, period. By the most conservative estimates, at least one in four fatal law enforcement encounters involves an individual with serious mental illness. Yet instead of decreasing NYPD’s involvement in such interactions, Mayor Adams just announced the expansion of Subway Co-Response Outreach Teams (SCOUT), which expands the police response to mental health crises.

Accountability means meaningfully investing in our safety and our communities: in mental health infrastructure, affordable housing, and other social services that actually keep New Yorkers mentally and physically well, NOT in more police. The evidence is all around us: In recent weeks, despite the deployment of national guard and increased police presence in our communities, New Yorkers have been killed and assaulted on the subways and in the streets. These community safety issues are all connected. New York City has the resources it needs to keep everybody safe, well, and housed, but Mayor Adams chooses — time and time again — to protect the NYPD over New Yorkers.

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Jews For Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ) is a 6,000-member grassroots organization and the home of New York’s Jewish Left. For over 30 years, JFREJ members have organized alongside our neighbors to transform New York from a playground for the wealthy few into a real democracy, free from all forms of racist violence.