Two hip-hop moguls, Jay Z and Russell Simmons, pressed for changes to New York State’s criminal justice system on Wednesday amid protests over the lack of indictments in recent deaths involving the police.
The men met with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, and Mr. Simmons said the governor pledged to order that special prosecutors handle cases of alleged police brutality.
But a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, Melissa DeRosa, characterized the men’s conversation as a discussion of special prosecutors among a “range of options that could be included” in criminal justice changes the governor will seek to get passed next year.
Protests have arisen in the past two weeks after grand juries did not indict officers in the death of Eric Garner, who was placed in a chokehold on Staten Island, and the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Missouri.
via NY Times