• Starting the process of proactively addressing crime prevention and reimagining public safety by working with community leaders and community organizations to develop and implement strategies for “community care governance” programs in district 9.
• Ending police intervention in mental health crisis, as well as any emergencies involving the homeless. Such calls should always be responded to by trained social workers, mental health care professionals and crisis workers.
• Disbanding the MTA Police Unit and instead re-allocate funds to social workers and health care experts who are trained to treat the conditions of the homeless in the subway.
• Ending the militarization of ICE control and surveillance over immigrants. Investigate complaints of abuse in (public and private-corporate) detention centers.
• Stopping our courts and the NYPD from working with ICE (end all inter-agency and immigration-police collaboration programs).
• Closing Rikers by 2027 without building any new jails.
• Investing in alternatives to incarceration i.e., mental health treatment, youth courts, drug courts, supervised release, intervention programs and restorative justice programs.
• Decriminalizing sex work.
• Legalizing marijuana if it is coupled with expungements for possession and sale of marijuana convictions, equity programs in place, such as 50% quota on how many licenses are available only to black businesses as well as lower fees charged specifically for black and brown businesses and no discrimination when it comes to marijuana jobs based on criminal convictions.
• Advocating for and advance gun control legislation, violence intervention programs and mental health services to enhance each Harlemite’s quality of life.
• Investing in community-led violence intervention initiatives that move beyond policing to ensure collective safety.
• Pushing for gun buyback programs that will remove weapons off Harlem streets.

Read more: The Path towards Abolition: Dismantling a Broken System and Rebuilding from the Ground Up