While the rhetoric and tension against efforts at police and jail reform by the police, conservative politicians, and pundits against the New York City government, communities of color and the poor in New York City might seem unique for this period, that is not the case. As historian Clarence Taylor notes in his book Fight The Power: African Americans and the Long History of Police Brutality in New York City, since the 1940s, the New York City police and their conservative allies have consistently used fear and race baiting to curtail any attempts to limit policing power in New York City. Taylor argues that it would not be until the 1960s, after the 1964 Harlem/Bedford-Stuyvesant uprising, sparked by the murder of a young African American teenager named James Powell by a white off-duty police officer, that a public official would attempt to limit the power police had over the city.
In 1965, newly elected liberal Republican mayor John V. Lindsay ran on a campaign centered around the need to create a public review board that was free from police influence. Lindsay argued that “it was time for a change,” that the relationship between the police and the average citizen needed to be repaired. He stated that it was “time for us to exchange respect rather than to exchange insults…. But this will not happen until all of the people of our city feel and believe that they are being treated fairly.” Lindsay was aware of the distrust and tension that existed between Black New Yorkers and the police. For years Black communities had been complaining about corruption and violence by the New York City Police Department and the Department had been reluctant to fully commit to policing Black communities the way they did white ones. The Harlem/Bed-Stuyvesant uprising of 1964 had brought these tensions to the forefront of New York politics. Lindsay argued it was time to create a system that would hold police accountable and regain the trust of Black New Yorkers.
The Patrolman’s Benevolent Association (PBA), the Police union in New York City, and other conservative supporters of the New York City Police Department were quick to repudiate Lindsay’s plan. The PBA spent over $1 million to defeat the Review Board plan when it went to the ballot in 1966. It also sued to stop the Board’s formation. Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association president John J. Casese argued that “any police review board that has civilians on it is detrimental to the operations of the Police Department.” Public review of complaints against police officers would undermine how effectively the police could operate and police morale would plummet.