Tandy Lau is a New York City-based journalist currently covering public safety for Harlem's New York Amsterdam News. 

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New York Amsterdam News •

Lt. Governor Antonio Delgado chats about why he’s running against Hochul

“Where’s the syrup?” asks Lt. Governor Antonio Delgado over lunch at Amy Ruth’s in Harlem this past Friday, June 6. He kicked off his campaign to primary Gov. Kathy Hochul in next year’s gubernatorial election just four days prior, all the while retaining his responsibilities as the state’s second highest official. But chicken-and-waffles (all dark meat) makes up everything on his plate for the afternoon.

Delgado officially announced his candidacy on June 2 in a rare move for a sitting Lieuten...
New York Amsterdam News •

Now Hiring: The receivership search begins after federal judge greenlights takeover

Interested in running the city’s jail system? Do you have excellent communication and demonstrative collaborative skills — along with substantial correctional and leadership experience outside of the New York Department of Corrections (DOC)? If so, you can apply for the Nunez Remediation Manager role by sending a cover letter, resume, and three references to nunezremediationmanagerapps@nysd.uscourts.gov.

The fancy title ostensibly refers to the independent receiver assigned to oversee Rikers Is...
New York Amsterdam News •

Movement prods New York’s dormant multi-billion-dollar sales tax on Wall Street

Ray Rogers reached folk hero status in the American labor movement half a century ago after scoring resounding victories against seemingly unstoppable corporations like textiles giant J. P. Stevens & Company. He later took on Coca-Cola in the 2000s, leading college campuses to ban products from the soft drinks titan across the country.

Today, Rogers thinks his recent efforts to repeal the Stock Transfer Tax rebate, which he operates out of his humble East Harlem apartment, could dwarf his past...
New York Amsterdam News •

What exactly would Zohran Mamdani’s Department of Community Safety do?

Can a new dog learn old tricks? Surging mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani hoped so when he announced his ambitious public safety plan last Tuesday, April 1. His vision centers around establishing a new branch of New York City government called the Department of Community Safety, which would enlist civilian social services to handle certain responsibilities — like responding to mental health calls — currently tasked to the NYPD.
On the surface, Mamdani’s game plan seems rooted in the idealism, nov...
New York Amsterdam News •

The inspiration for the film ‘Sing Sing’ fights his wrongful conviction

Lawyer Jeffrey Deskovic innocently asks if playing John “Divine G” Whitfield in A24’s “Sing Sing” is actor Colman Domingo’s biggest role. Next to him sits the real John Whitfield, who thinks deeply and factors performances in films like “Rustin” and “The Color Purple.” 

There’s certainly a possibility, he concludes. Domingo scored an Oscar nomination for Best Actor this year for playing Whitfield. He joins Denzel Washington as the only Black actors nominated for the category in back-to-back yea...
New York Amsterdam News •

Will Chinatown’s borough-based jail save lives or destroy them?

Black lives and White Street fuel two separate conversations about the same issue: This month’s end marks exactly three years before the city’s mandate to close Rikers Island comes into effect.A citywide effort to hold the Adams administration to the shutdown’s 2027 deadline as Black New Yorkers continue to die in or after custody. But the solution plops a replacement “ethical”  jail in Chinatown, a neighborhood of color often left to fend for itself as the city’s “dumping ground.” “It’s just a...
New York Amsterdam News •

The fight for liberation: Modern abolitionists seek to end police and prisons

Just as the fight for freedom for Black Americans did not end with the Emancipation Proclamation or passage of the Civil Rights Act, the fight for abolition continues to the present day—but in a different form.

According to Dominique Jean-Louis, chief historian at the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), the original abolitionists were people who were against chattel slavery of African people and their descendants in the U.S. Inherent to abolition, she said, is a wish to the end of an oppressive syst
New York Amsterdam News •

How social media divides Asian and Black communities

There’s no “All Lives Matter” counterpart to the Stop Asian Hate movement, but right-wing talking heads like Tucker Carlson and Andrew Sullivan are part of a larger movement that is fomenting a blame-game against Black Americans for the uptick of racist harassment and violence against Asian Americans after the first confirmed COVID-19 infection in Wuhan, China about three years ago.

Dr. Janelle Wong, a co-director of the nonprofit AAPI Data and Asian American studies professor at the University
Character Media - Asian Americans in Entertainment •

Jacob Batalon Is Going From Ned to Undead

Three days before his 26th birthday, Jacob Batalon plans to celebrate by traveling to Serbia for work. The Filipino American actor quickly finds the silver lining in any situation, and Batalon’s face lights up as he talks about the surprise gifts he might receive from his girlfriend.

It’s not hard to see why he’s one of Hollywood’s top choices for playing characters with a sunny outlook. Batalon is best known for playing Peter Parker’s earnest buddy Ned Leeds in the trio of “Spider-Man” blockbu
New York Amsterdam News •

Two people died within two hours on Rikers Island

Two people died on Rikers Island in the same afternoon following medical emergencies last Friday, June 20. They mark the sixth and seventh people to die in or immediately after New York Department of Corrections (DOC) custody this year.
Jail staff noticed Benjamin Kelly in medical distress during a routine walkthrough around 3 p.m. The 37-year-old Black New Yorker was pronounced dead half an hour later. Meanwhile, James Maldonado’s medical emergency occurred during transport to Rikers Island aro...
New York Amsterdam News •

New York observes Elder Abuse Awareness Day

June 15 marks Elder Abuse Awareness Day (EAAD). The occasion felt especially pressing this past Sunday as New York City’s older population continues growing larger than ever.

The NYC Department for the Aging held its first ever EAAD event last week at Gracie Mansion where several survivors and community partners including the NYPD were honored.
“We really wanted to provide an opportunity to honor the courage of older adults who come forward and seek services through our Elder Justice providers...
New York Amsterdam News •

Allan Feliz remembered on Father’s Day as his family awaits justice

“He showed me what love looks like, what safety feels like, and how a girl should be treated,” wrote Kilsi Polanco about her stepfather Allan Feliz. She penned her letter this past Father’s Day to NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch, who gets the final say on firing the cop who killed him.
“I’m proud of her for sharing her story,” said Julie Aquino, Polanco’s mother and Feliz’s partner. “But it makes me sad that she has to. She should be focused on her studies, her friends, the things that other 20...
New York Amsterdam News •

Messiah Nantwi’s estate sues alleged killer prison guards over deadly beating

Lawyers representing Messiah Nantwi’s estate filed a federal lawsuit on June 17 against correctional officers implicated for the young Harlemite’s death at Mid-State Correctional Facility. The lawsuit also named Department of Corrections and Community Supervision commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello III. as a defendant.

Nantwi died from head trauma this March at age 22 after the guards allegedly stormed into his cell, handcuffed him and “viciously punched, kicked and stomped” him repeatedly in a...
New York Amsterdam News •

Stop + frisk monitor: Secretive NYPD unit overwhelmingly stops Black and Brown people

The Community Response Team (CRT) announced itself to the world in 2022 — not by press conference or an official launch — but through a now-unlisted YouTube short titled “True Blue: NYPD’s Finest.”

“Viewer discretion is advised” warns a gravely male narrator before the video breaks into dramatic action sequences captured on body-camera footage. CRT rushes onto the scene. An officer drags a suspect off an ATV. Another tends to a bloodied individual sitting in a car’s front seat. Think “Cops” wit...
New York Amsterdam News •

Trash Talk: New sealed garbage containers hit uptown streets

Manhattan Board Community 9 is the first North American neighborhood with fully containerized trash, thanks to the rollout of roughly 1,100 “Empire Bins” for high-density residential buildings last week. Mayor Eric Adams did not waste his opportunity to make a Star Wars pun.
“Our Empire Bins are striking back at rats and garbage in West Harlem,” said Mayor Eric Adams. “When I said four years ago that we were going to have cleaner streets and fewer vermins, the cynics rolled their eyes. They said...
New York Amsterdam News •

Lt. Governor Antonio Delgado chats about why he’s running against Hochul

“Where’s the syrup?” asks Lt. Governor Antonio Delgado over lunch at Amy Ruth’s in Harlem this past Friday, June 6. He kicked off his campaign to primary Gov. Kathy Hochul in next year’s gubernatorial election just four days prior, all the while retaining his responsibilities as the state’s second highest official. But chicken-and-waffles (all dark meat) makes up everything on his plate for the afternoon.

Delgado officially announced his candidacy on June 2 in a rare move for a sitting Lieuten...
New York Amsterdam News •

The fight against solitary confinement continues a decade after Kalief Browder’s death

Calls for Local Law 42’s full implementation rang across the Civic Center as the city government’s court battle over Mayor Eric Adam’s attempt to block the solitary ban raged on this past Friday, June 6.

The date marks ten years since Kalief Browder took his life following two years in solitary confinement and a day before six years since Layleen Xtravaganza Cubilette-Polanco died in a Restrictive Housing Unit.
“I’m really tired of holding signs with people’s names who are no longer with us,”...
New York Amsterdam News •

Mayoral candidates share their plans to combat gun violence

The pandemic-era spike in gun violence pushed the issue front and center during New York City’s 2021 Democratic mayoral primary race. With rates of gun violence in the city declining in the last three years, issues like housing affordability and subway safety have commanded more attention this primary cycle. But the violence remains a key concern among residents of communities where it is concentrated, in under-resourced, largely Black and Brown neighborhoods that have faced decades of disinvest...
New York Amsterdam News •

Chinatown residents propose new location for Manhattan jail in Rikers’ closure plan

Manhattan Chinatown advocates seek a middle ground on 124-25 White Street before machinery breaks literal ground. Residents have long protested against the borough-based jail planned in the neighborhood but now propose moving construction to a nearby location and repurposing the two-acre plot for affordable housing and green space.

On Monday, June 2, the advocates revealed their proposal outside the 124-25 White Street construction site, which currently sits at ground zero next to the Manhattan...
New York Amsterdam News •

Program builds economic empowerment for domestic violence shelter residents

Can the country’s biggest domestic violence transitional housing provider, Urban Resource Institute (URI), create a shelter-to-workforce pipeline in New York City?
The organization rolled out an Economic Empowerment Program (EEP) in the Big Apple in 2018, which now serves 24 shelters. More than 90% of participants are Black and Brown women. Olga Loaiza, who directs career exploration in the program, says helping shelter residents find employment often starts at the ground level with addressing...
New York Amsterdam News •

Now Hiring: The receivership search begins after federal judge greenlights takeover

Interested in running the city’s jail system? Do you have excellent communication and demonstrative collaborative skills — along with substantial correctional and leadership experience outside of the New York Department of Corrections (DOC)? If so, you can apply for the Nunez Remediation Manager role by sending a cover letter, resume, and three references to nunezremediationmanagerapps@nysd.uscourts.gov.

The fancy title ostensibly refers to the independent receiver assigned to oversee Rikers Is...
New York Amsterdam News •

Movement prods New York’s dormant multi-billion-dollar sales tax on Wall Street

Ray Rogers reached folk hero status in the American labor movement half a century ago after scoring resounding victories against seemingly unstoppable corporations like textiles giant J. P. Stevens & Company. He later took on Coca-Cola in the 2000s, leading college campuses to ban products from the soft drinks titan across the country.

Today, Rogers thinks his recent efforts to repeal the Stock Transfer Tax rebate, which he operates out of his humble East Harlem apartment, could dwarf his past...
New York Amsterdam News •

What exactly would Zohran Mamdani’s Department of Community Safety do?

Can a new dog learn old tricks? Surging mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani hoped so when he announced his ambitious public safety plan last Tuesday, April 1. His vision centers around establishing a new branch of New York City government called the Department of Community Safety, which would enlist civilian social services to handle certain responsibilities — like responding to mental health calls — currently tasked to the NYPD.
On the surface, Mamdani’s game plan seems rooted in the idealism, nov...
New York Amsterdam News •

Justice delayed, but will justice be denied over Allan Feliz’s killing?

Police reform advocates are waiting restlessly as NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch mulls over her first big test on the issue of officer accountability.

In February, an NYPD disciplinary trial found Lt. Jonathan Rivera guilty of first-degree assault for the killing of Allan Feliz in 2019, an offense that should lead to termination based on the department’s rulebook. Like with all police misconduct cases, the final call goes to the NYPD commissioner.
While there is no official deadline for Tisch...
New York Amsterdam News •

The inspiration for the film ‘Sing Sing’ fights his wrongful conviction

Lawyer Jeffrey Deskovic innocently asks if playing John “Divine G” Whitfield in A24’s “Sing Sing” is actor Colman Domingo’s biggest role. Next to him sits the real John Whitfield, who thinks deeply and factors performances in films like “Rustin” and “The Color Purple.” 

There’s certainly a possibility, he concludes. Domingo scored an Oscar nomination for Best Actor this year for playing Whitfield. He joins Denzel Washington as the only Black actors nominated for the category in back-to-back yea...
New York Amsterdam News •

DOJ inserts statement of interest in lawsuit over NYPD response to mental health responses

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a statement of interest toward Baerga v. City of New York, a lawsuit accusing the deployment of NYPD officers in mental health crises as discrimination against people with disabilities.“Congress enacted the ADA in 1990 ‘to provide a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities,’” the filing reads. “It found that ‘discrimination against individuals with disabilities continue[s] to be...
New York Amsterdam News •

Abe Stark Steel Pan Band competes in Department of Aging talent show

Every Tuesday and Friday, seniors from the Abe Stark Steel Pan Band gather to practice — a gathering for health, companionship and competition. Most recently, they performed in the NYC Department of Aging’s Talent is Timeless grand finale, a talent show for New Yorkers ages 65 and better at the United Palace Theater in Washington Heights last Thursday, Oct. 10.They ultimately did not take home the gold, but they still showcased their musical chops and represented their home borough of Brooklyn....
New York Amsterdam News •

Iyana Titus’s journey toward making NYC Parks more inclusive

The NYC Parks & Recreation assistant commissioner of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, arrived in the Big Apple with nothing but a thousand-dollar loan from her grandmother. An internship in Harlem introduced Iyana Titus, then a Detroit-born, Texas-reared law student, to New York City.“One of the pieces of advice that an attorney gave me was to take the bar [exam] in a place where you see yourself living, and I saw myself in New York City,” Titus recalled. “To be sort of like a Southe...
New York Amsterdam News •

Biden’s executive clemency record is ‘anemic’ in age of capital punishment

President Joe Biden could not spare Marcellus Williams from being executed by the state of Missouri last month despite potentially exonerating evidence. Nor can he halt the upcoming execution of Robert Roberson in Texas on Oct. 17, stemming from a now-debunked criminal science, because non-federal sentences like those of Williams and Roberson remain in the hands of governors.But Biden can grant clemency to the likes of Rejon Taylor, who is on federal death row in Terre Haute, Ind., for the 2003...
New York Amsterdam News •

Daniel Penny’s defense fails to block potentially unfavorable evidence in Jordan Neely killing trial

Footage of Daniel Penny’s statements to NYPD officers will remain as evidence in his upcoming manslaughter and negligent homicide trial over the alleged killing of unhoused Black New Yorker Jordan Neely on May 1, 2023, after Judge Maxwell Wiley denied Penny’s lawyers’ motion to suppress such information to a jury.Jury selection kicks off later this month for the high-profile incident where Neely, a prominent Michael Jackson impersonator who struggled with mental health and homelessness, entered...
New York Amsterdam News •

Criminal justice advocate Jon-Adrian Velazquez cleared of wrongful homicide conviction

Puerto Rican flags were in abundance as Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez emerged from the Manhattan courts this past Monday, Sept. 30, newly recognized by the law as an innocent man. In a packed hearing that lasted a New York minute, he was cleared of a 1998 murder conviction that landed him in prison for 23 years, seven months, and eight days.While Velazquez was released in 2021 through executive clemency granted by the departing ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, he remained on parole for almost three years in wh...
New York Amsterdam News •

Eric Adams pleads not guilty; prosecutors suggest more charges coming

Prosecutors suggested that they might add further charges to those currently facing the embattled mayor of New York City, who made his second court appearance Wednesday, Oct. 2, after pleading not guilty to a five-count felony indictment the previous week.Mayor Eric Adams became the first sitting NYC mayor to face a criminal trial when he was arraigned during a 20-minute appearance before a judge on the morning of September 27. Adams had arrived at the courthouse by 8:45 a.m in response to his s...
New York Amsterdam News •

Congress bill historically enshrining Rucker Park passes the House

Congress got the ball rolling on H.R.6852 — a bill to designate Harlem’s Holcombe Rucker Park as a national commemorative site — as the legislation passed through the House this past Tuesday, September 24. If made into law, the bill would federally enshrine what is arguably the world’s most famous public basketball court.“That legislation is more than just a symbolic gesture,” said sponsoring Rep. Adriano Espaillat over the phone. “It’s really a commitment to recognizing the historical and cultu...
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