CITYWIDE – A GROUP OF 29 City Councilmembers on Thursday signed on to a letter to the mayor, the police commissioner and several figures in the court system, demanding an investigation into the circumstances leading up to an incident last month in which a pregnant woman gave birth inside a Brooklyn courtroom, City and State reports.
The councilmembers, led by the Progressive and Women’s caucuses, expressed outrage that the mother, Samantha Randazzo, 33, was held in custody for more than a day over a “low-level offense” despite being nine months pregnant, and demanded additional actions, including medical staffing in courthouses, automatic investigations of in-custody deaths, a reduction in quality-of-life policing and arrests, and that district attorneys decline to prosecute some offenses.
Brooklyn signees include councilmembers Sandy Nurse, Tiffany Cabán, Rita Joseph, Alexa Avilés, Kayla Santosuosso, Lincoln Restler, Jennifer Gutiérrez, Crystal Hudson, Chi Ossé, Shahana Hanif, Farah Louis and Mercedes Narcisse.
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