Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh and his administration say they generally agree with most of the police reforms being demanded by a coalition of protest groups. The People's Agenda for Police Reform makes nine demands, seven of which the mayor's office either agrees with or agrees with clarifications.
Most have already been addressed in some way through the Mayor's June 19 executive order.
A demand enhancing the Citizen Review Board was deferred to the common council, and an item concerning school resource officers was deferred to the school district.
The co-founder of Rebirth SYR says they won’t be satisfied unless the city meets all nine of their demands. The group was among those who joined a rally Thursday on the steps of city hall ahead of the mayor's response. Co-founder Mered Billue says he’s pleased with how protests have gone. Now, they just want a genuine effort toward some answers.
"This is not the time to be coy. This is not the time to be shy with anything from the people. Especially the people affected everyday by these issues living in your community. So, the only thing that would tell me they're genuine would be to meet all the demands on the People's Agenda."
The groups want immediate action, but the scope and complexity of the changes might make that difficult. For example, the mayor's office indicates some or parts of demands can be accomplished by next month, while most others won't be completed until this fall or even into next year depending on council action.
Billue says if the demands aren’t met, that will galvanize the groups even more to apply more pressure through peaceful rallies, marches, and demonstrations. He’s calling for even more engagement from residents.
"We have to have our community showing up at occupy events. We have to have the community willing to do this scary work and this boring work because a lot of times, politics can be presented as scary or boring. But this is the necessary work that has to be done if you want change."
Rebirth SYR is a spinoff of Last Chance for Change, another group calling for police reform. Billue says they still support Last Chance, but they figured more organizations can only help further their cause.
The Mayor and his administration are expected to further discuss the reform agenda at Friday's weekly briefing.
