Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo Lays Out 'Say Their Name' Reform Agenda Priorities Following Killing of George Floyd

Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced the "Say Their Name" reform agenda following the murder of George Floyd and an ongoing pattern of police brutality against minority communities across the nation. The Governor said he will work with the State Legislature to get these policies done next week.

The list of policy priorities builds on earlier proposals he called for in the immediate aftermath of the killing of George Floyd and prior executive actions he has taken including appointing the Attorney General as a special prosecutor in matters relating to the deaths of unarmed civilians caused by law enforcement.

The 'Say Their Name' Reform agenda includes:

• Allow for transparency of prior disciplinary records of law enforcement officers by reforming 50-a of the civil rights law;
• Banning chokeholds by law enforcement officers;
• Prohibiting false race-based 911 reports and making them a crime; and
• Designating the Attorney General as an independent prosecutor for matters relating to the deaths of unarmed civilians caused by law enforcement.

VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of today's remarks is available here.

PHOTOS are available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good morning. Thank you for being here. To my right, is Major West, New York State Police. To my left, Melissa DeRosa, secretary to the governor. to her left, Robert Mujica, budget director. It was another long and ugly night in the United states of America. Last night, as it was in New York State. Day 97 of the coronavirus crisis, day 12 of the civil unrest dealing with the aftermath of Mr. Floyd's murder. And this, my friends, is a dangerous combination, colliding crises compounding each other. But, our job is to address what is presented, and this is the reality that is presented, and this is what we will deal with.

On the coronavirus situation, there's a lot to learn from what we just went through, and I believe it's a transformative situation for society and something we can really learn from going forward. Coronavirus was a medical issue, was a public health issue, was an economic issue, but more than anything it was a social issue. It was about how people behave, right. And to address coronavirus what we really had to do was change society. It was not a government operation. It was not something I could do governmentally. People had to do it. Government could provide leadership, and we had an operational component, but it was about people making the changes that had to be made. They had to accept it, they had to understand it, they had to change their behavior. That is a monumental undertaking, always.

Social change? When does social change happen? Social change happens when people are presented with the facts, they understand the facts, they believe the facts, there's a plan forward based on the facts, and people care enough to make a difference. With coronavirus, I sat up here every day and I said, here are the facts, here are the number of deaths, here are the hospitalizations, this is what we're looking for, here's a plan that I think can take us forward. Based on those facts, people were motivated because it was about life and death, and about their life and death, and about their family's life and a death, and we went forward. Compare the coronavirus situation to the situation we're in with the social unrest we see, people have seen Mr. Floyd's murder. They're watching what's going on, on the streets, every day, and they're saying enough is enough. And it's what they are seeing and what they know that is disturbing. We are going to show you again, for those of you who haven't seen, a scene from Buffalo and a scene from New York City because this is a story all across the state.

[Shows videos]

This is Buffalo, New York yesterday. I just spoke with Mr. Gugino on the phone who is that gentleman, who - thankfully - is alive. You see that video and it disturbs your basic sense of decency and humanity. Why? Why? Why was that necessary? Where is the threat? Older gentleman and where was the threat? Then you just walk by the person while you see blood coming from his head. Police officers walked by. It's just fundamentally offensive and frightening. It's just frightening. You say, "Who are we? How did we get to this place?"

Incidents of pushing the press. You have incidents of police getting hit with bricks in the head. You say where are we? Who are we? These are undeniable situations. Buffalo situation, I want to applaud Mayor Byron Brown, Mayor of Buffalo. He suspended the police officers yesterday, immediately and I believe the District Attorney is looking into it from a possible criminal liability point of view. I applaud the District Attorney for moving quickly. People see this, they see the facts. Now, when you have all this emotion you have to focus on the facts and the intelligence of the matter. It can't be about emotion. Of course, police must protect the public safety and police must protect themselves. That's a fact.

Of course, there are also cases of police abuse and the abuse of power. That's a fact. You can have two coincident facts. Mr. Floyd's murder was the breaking point of a long list of deaths that were unnecessary and which were abusive. That is a fact and people are saying, enough is enough. That is a fact. What people are saying is, we must change and we must stop the abuse - and that is a fact. And New York should be at the forefront of that. That has always been New York's legacy as the progressive capital. We are the ones who hold the standard of what is the right progressive reform and New York should pass next week what we call the "Say Their Name" Reform Agenda. Say Their Name Reform Agenda comes from the long list of names of people who we have seen who have been abused by police officers, by the criminal justice system, and Mr. Floyd is just the last name on a very long list. Fine. Enough is enough. Change the law, take the moment, reform.

There are four cornerstones for our "Say Their Name" Reform Agenda. One, transparency of prior disciplinary records of a police officer. If they're being charged and investigated for abuse their prior disciplinary record is relevant. And by the way, it's relevant one way or the other. If there were no other disciplinary proceedings, that can exonerate the person who is charged. If there are prior disciplinary proceedings for this type of behavior, then yes, it is evidentiary. But people should know. Chokeholds, we went through this with Eric Garner. Again, you saw with it Mr. Floyd's death. But we learned it first with Eric Garner and many, many other cases, by the way. Why? We've seen 911 calls which are race-based false calls. A false 911 call based on race should be classified as a hate crime in the State of New York. We know that it's wrong for the local district attorney to investigate the police force from that county. By executive order, I did the attorney general as an independent prosecutor. That should be codified in law. I did it five years ago. But these are the cornerstones of a real reform agenda that can address what is going on on the street.

Reform works for everyone's interests here. Stopping police abuse vindicates the overwhelming majority, 99.9 percent of police who are there to do the right thing and do the right thing every day. It restores the confidence, the respect, and the trust that you need to make this relationship work. You have to heal the police-community relationship. That has to happen for the sake of the police and for the sake of the community. You look at this looting that's been going on in New York City. This hurts poor communities and distressed communities. You saw many businesses destroyed that are relied upon by that community. You can't have the relationship that works one way or the other. And even in this politically partisan racially charged environment, there is still a truth, and there is still facts, and that's what we have to focus on. That was the truth with the coronavirus. Even though it was all political and everything was partisan, and Democrat, Republican, and red and blue, it was never -- they offer us false choices.

COVID, coronavirus, well, do you want to save people's lives or reopen the economy? And you should reopen the economy and forget public health. Or you should take care of people's health, but not reopen the economy. It was never either or. It can't be either or. I know from a hyperbolic rhetorical partisan, it's one or the other, liberate New York, worry about health, close New York. It was never one or the other. That was unintelligent. It was always both.

It's the same situation here. It's not a question of public safety or civil rights. Whose side are you on, public safety or civil rights? It can't be either or. It can't be police safety or prosecutor safety. Pick a side, which are you on? Red or blue? Democrat or Republican? Who are you with? You have to be with both. Yes, you need public safety, and yes, you need civil rights. Yes, you need police to be safe. And yes, you need the protesters to be safe. These are false choices. We need both. Even in this hysterical moment, you need to be able to hold two truths in your hands at the same time. How do we change society to make these reforms happen? How do you have a new societal awareness? Can you do that? Can you change behavior to respect one another?

You're darn right you can. We know we can because we just did it through this coronavirus in a very fundamental way. You changed people's fundamental behavior, whether or not they leave the house, whether or not they go to school, whether or not they go to work, they changed themselves, remarkably fast and remarkably effective.

We have the lowest number of deaths from coronavirus that we have had since this started. 42 deaths, the lowest number since we started. Eight weeks ago, we had 800. Eight weeks. 800 people die to 42 people die in eight weeks. Amazing. How did you do that? I did nothing. The people of the state radically changed how they behaved. Look at that progress. Lowest number of hospitalizations to date, in a matter of weeks. So we know we can change, and we know we can change dramatically. People are focused, we have a plan, and that's when social reform happens, when people are motivated and people are focused. That was the Civil Rights Act nationally, that was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, which changed labor rights in this nation, that was the environmental movement after Storm King, that's was the revolution of LGBTQ rights after Stonewall, that's what we just saw in coronavirus, which will go down in history as one of the great transformational moments of society, and this is a moment to lead in terms of social change. And we will do it because we are New York tough, smart, united, disciplined, loving, and that is what the moment requires. Thank you.