POUGHKEEPSIE – The Poughkeepsie Common Council Monday night unanimously voted in favor of changing a city law on the books since 1973. All eight members approved a change that eliminates the mandatory registration of bicycles operated in the city. The law, many claim, was part of systemic racism and it was passed shortly after the stringent Rockefeller drug laws. Violators of the pre-amended law were subject to arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment if convicted of not registering the bicycle.
Second Ward Councilman Evan Menist credited the Northern Dutchess NAACP with suggesting the change. “As written, it was a horrible law that targeted specific members of the community,” Menist said. The NAACP drafted the resolution and brought it to the attention of Council Chairwoman Natasha Brown who then shared it with the council. After review by the city attorney’s office, it made it to Monday’s agenda.
Several members of the community spoke in favor of the change that would make bicycle registration an option while removing the penalties written into the original law.
City resident Brian Robinson, the chairman of the Northern Dutchess NAACP Criminal Justice Committee, said he came across the law when he was researching State Executive Order 203 signed by disgraced former Governor Andrew Cuomo that called for police reform. Robinson has been a vocal critic of the Poughkeepsie police department, previously saying “The CPPD has engaged in a clear pattern of unconstitutional and hardcore discrimination against the black and African American population of Poughkeepsie.” Regarding the bicycles, Robinson says the city cops used it as a tool to stop subjects when it was written and it resulted in the incarceration of hundreds of people. “This is part of the system that needs to be dismantled,” he said.
After hearing from several people endorsing the amendment, Chairwoman Brown noted that the change might be the last legislation she handles…
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