As the Binghamton City Council prepared to vote on their police reform plan, activists attempted to make their demands heard one last time before the rubber stamp.

On Monday evening, around 100 students, faculty and community members gathered in front of the Broome County Office Building on Hawley Street in Downtown Binghamton. The demonstrators aimed to voice their concerns about the city of Binghamton’s proposed police reform plan during a City Council meeting being held over Zoom, which began at 6 p.m.

The protest was the latest action by community groups, such as Citizen Action of New York, Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier (JUST) and Truth Pharm, to urge the city government to address concerns the community has raised about the Binghamton Police Department (BPD). The need to reform the police was necessitated by New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Executive Order No. 203, which mandated localities submit a police reform plan by April 1, 2021, to remain eligible for state funding. City Council will vote to approve Binghamton’s plan next Monday.

Mary Clark, federal issues coordinator and regional director of the Southern Tier for Citizen Action of New York, explained the purpose of having this demonstration ahead of next week’s vote.

“The purpose of today is for the community to talk about what they really want to see in police reform because what the proposal put forward changes nothing in how we police,” Clark said. “We want to still have the community involved — saying what they want to see, what they want to do — because they’re not gonna stop. Just because [the city government] made a sham out of this process doesn’t mean that it isn’t needed.”

In order for the crowd to participate in the City Council meeting, organizers joined the Zoom via a laptop connected to a television screen and public address (PA) system. Attendees could then go up and tell the members of the Council what they wanted to see changed in the BPD. Some who spoke shared testimonies from individuals with negative interactions with the BPD who could not be at the rally.

Jessica Woodburn, ’12, used the opportunity to address the Council and later described what she hopes results from these demonstrations.

“I want to see the money that is going to the police department currently be redistributed to public services and people who could actually help people,” Woodburn said.

Dylan Gambino, 19, of Binghamton, said the racial bias of police officers leads to the inaction in police reform and likened it to his experiences of being racially profiled growing up as a Black man in the Bronx.

“Even when we stand up for a better cause, the police are very, very intimidated because they know exactly what we’re talking about, they know what we’re speaking about and they know where we’re coming from — they know what they do is wrong,” Gambino said. “I’m not saying every cop is bad, but a majority of them are pretty bad.”

Binghamton’s proposed plan comes down to seven goals intended to improve BPD: improving transparency and accountability, diversifying the police force, investing in mental health, substance abuse and crime victim services, enhancing their training and cultural competency, expanding community policing strategies, improving their relationship with the youth and increasing community engagement. These were based on the John F. Finn Institute for Public Safety’s review of the BPD and a community survey the institute had made available. Clark criticized the plan for only dealing with “generalities” and not taking into account the demands of the community groups.

A flyer handed out at Monday’s event listed “The People’s Demands,” which include a citizen review board, non-police responses for victims of sexual assault and demilitarization of the police. The flier further stated that these are “all in service of the ultimate objectives — Abolish the police. Abolish jails. Provide reparations.”

As the night progressed, the crowed dwindled, but attendees continued to address the City Council. Throughout the entirety of the proceedings, some community members used expletives when voicing their frustrations with BPD and the city government. This was condemned by some members of the City Council. After another instance of a community member using an expletive, as the meeting neared the two-hour mark, City Council President Sophia Resciniti, ‘06, 2nd district, criticized the language as a way to dissuade other members of the community from being involved in this process.

“The fact that this is happening — this foul language thing — really is used to deter families with young people or older folks or whoever [from feeling] like they can tune in and engage like the rest,” Resciniti said. “And so, the goal here really is to allow for a space that makes our citizens comfortable to tune in with their children, with whoever they want to participate in this process that we have. We’ve now had a number of callers violating the rules, being disrespectful.”

She then instructed any further comments to be sent to bpdcollaborative@cityofbinghamton.com and ended the Zoom call as Aviva Friedman, ‘14, city councilwoman, 4th district, tried to interject.

The protesters then ran across Hawley Street to City Hall, where Resciniti had been Zooming from. They were met at the second-floor entrance by two police officers as Resciniti was escorted to her car by police.

Some of the remaining protesters then decided to travel from Downtown Binghamton to Resciniti’s residence on the West Side of Binghamton.

Binghamton Mayor Rich David released a statement Tuesday condemning this move by the protesters. In his statement, he said they wanted Resciniti to come out of her house as the crowd shouted insults and profanities. Police were called, and the crowd dispersed.

“We must recognize the wide diversity of opinions held by community members — including those opinions we disagree with — and respect their right to speak publicly,” David wrote in the statement. “However, the actions last night by a group of fringe anti-police activists to harass an elected official have no place in our community.”

Jared Kraham, executive assistant to the mayor and a mayoral candidate, released his own statement on the event.

“These actions are completely unacceptable and resulted in a truly scary situation,” Kraham said in the statement.

The incident at Resciniti’s house, as well as a social media post threatening City Council members, are currently being investigated.