Dear friends,
The Expanded Child Tax Credit of 2021 sharply decreased child poverty to a record low of 5.2 percent. When it was not renewed, the results were predictable. Now, a bipartisan effort, which is less robust AND so much better than nothing, would assist 16 million families in its first year alone.
The proposal would benefit children of all races and ethnicities. Overall, more than 1 in 5 children under 17 would benefit in the first year. The expansion would particularly help Black, Latino, and American Indian and Alaska Native children, whose parents are overrepresented in low-paid work due to historical and ongoing discrimination and other structural barriers to opportunity.
Let’s risk giving the Republicans in Congress something to show their constituents. ;)
Tell your Congressional representative to support the Bipartisan Child Tax Credit Expansion. This quick action is from the National Women’s Law Center.
Last week, Mayor Adams vetoed the How Many Stops Act, legislation designed to increase accountability by requiring officers to “report all investigatory stops and provide demographic data.” The vote to override the Mayor’s veto is scheduled for tomorrow.
Dr. Tracie Keesee, a former deputy commissioner at the NYPD and a co-founder of the Center for Policing Equity, is a signatory on a letter to the City Council in support of the law.
The coordinated efforts by Adams and officials of the NYPD to discredit the legislation have included disingenuous statements.
One NYPD assistant commissioner tweeted from a crime scene to say:
HAPPENING NOW: We are in South Jamaica, Queens at the scene of a shooting investigation. Our police officers and detectives have already interacted with dozens of potential witnesses, which would require dozens of new reports under the How Many Stops Act, significantly slowing down our ability to conduct our investigation.
The language of the law indicates that such witness interviews would only require that those questioned are included in the total number of “Level I encounters” and that officers document the “apparent race/ethnicity, gender, and age” of each witness. This is not an onerous reporting responsibility. It would literally require a ticking of boxes.
Tell your councilmember to vote to override the How Many Stops Act. This quick action is from Communities United for Police Reform.
with love,
L