STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Dr. Mohammad Khalid, a Todt Hill resident, is defending his work with the Civilian Complaint Review Board after resigning from his post as interim chairman on Friday.<\/p>\n
The 15-member panel is responsible for reviewing investigations of police officers accused of misconduct and voting on whether it recommends discipline for those actions.<\/p>\n
To defend his work with the panel, Khalid pointed to a statement issued by the board in the wake of his resignation.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis tenure as interim chair of the CCRB saw great steps forward for the agency,\u201d the statement read. \u201cHe advocated for an increased budget and headcount to help fulfill the work of civilian oversight of police. He led by example in letting the values of objectivity and impartiality guide his decision-making. He cared deeply about each case he reviewed, and he always sought to follow the law and the facts, no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n
Khalid, who cited his work in the community<\/a>, slammed what he called a \u201cdespicable smear campaign\u201d by Patrick Hendry, the president of the Police Benevolent Association.<\/p>\n \u201cAll Staten Island knows me, what kind of person I am and what I have done on Staten Island,\u201d said Khalid. \u201cBut this is a humiliation.\u201d<\/p>\n Hendry has spoken out against Khalid\u2019s voting record with the board in the past. In a report, The New York Times<\/a> cited a statement from Hendry claiming Khalid had voted to discipline officers 95% of the time.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re appointed as a city official, you\u2019re doing your job to the best of your ability and I still do not know what is the purpose of the CCRB if people do not have an approach for the misconduct of the police officer,\u201d said Khalid.<\/p>\n Khalid expressed that he felt he was being \u201csingled out\u201d by Hendry despite being part of a board with several members, some of whom Khalid claims have similar records or have recommended discipline more than he has.<\/p>\n The former chairman emphasized that he is not the only voice on the board and he is not responsible for making ultimate determinations.<\/p>\n \u201cI am one of the panel, but he portrayed me like I am the one who does everything, which is not the case,\u201d Khalid said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis kind of malicious activity by a PBA president, I don\u2019t know how the CCRB next year will do,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Final say in discipline?<\/p>\n Previously, Hendry has criticized Khalid for his belief that the board should be empowered and given the final say in officer discipline. As it stands, the police commissioner has the sole authority to enact any disciplinary action recommended by the board.<\/p>\n During a September meeting with members of the City Council Committee on Public Safety<\/a>, Khalid said the following:<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole discipline authority should be given to the CCRB for a proper disciplinary action instead of giving to the police commissioner.\u201d<\/p>\n While he stands by this position, Khalid noted that predecessors before him have held the same belief.<\/p>\n \u201cKhalid is not the first CCRB chair to abandon promises of \u2018fairness.\u2019 Rather, he is the latest in a string of anti-police activists trying to usurp the police commissioner\u2019s authority over not only discipline, but policing policy and strategy,\u201d Hendry previously wrote in an opinion piece for the Daily News<\/a>. \u201cIn other words, Khalid and his colleagues are simply advancing the \u2018Defund the Police\u2019 project in disguise.\u201d<\/p>\n Khalid claimed Hendry was \u201cequating\u201d him to Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who has expressed that he would support the board having the final say in serious disciplinary matters<\/a>.<\/p>\n The now-resigned chairman made a point to distinguish himself from Mamdani, stating that he has never met him or spoken to him.<\/p>\n \u201cI have served on Staten Island for many, many years,\u201d Khalid noted. \u201cAs a civic leader, I have tried not to do anything \u2014 as far as my knowledge \u2014 that tried to hurt no one. But this guy has really hurt me as a person who\u2019s serving the city government and criticizing me for something which I have not done. Is that the way the system works? That\u2019s why I figured I don\u2019t want to be part of it. Because you can\u2019t do your job, so just walk away from it, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n October letter<\/p>\n On Oct. 31, the Police Benevolent Association penned a letter to Mayor Eric Adams urging the mayor to remove Khalid from his role, noting Khalid also held a position on Staten Island Community Board 2. According to the New York City Charter<\/a>, no member of the board shall hold public office.<\/p>\n Khalid, who is a civic leader and president of the Iron Hills Civic Association, noted that he was a part of the community board since Michael Bloomberg was mayor.<\/p>\n \u201cHe (Hendry) made it like I\u2019m getting a salary there. It\u2019s just a pure volunteer thing that you go to Community Board 2,\u201d Khalid explained.<\/p>\n Khalid told the Advance\/SILive.com that he was unaware he could not be a part of the community board while being involved in the Civilian Complaint Review Board. He clarified that he is no longer a part of Community Board 2.<\/p>\n Khalid compared Hendry\u2019s efforts to \u201cbullying.\u201d<\/p>\n He explained that he did not initially want to assume the role of interim chair but was asked to join given his past experience with the board. In looking back, Khalid revealed he wishes he never took the role.<\/p>\n \u201cIt really has really hurt me; that you can not do your job as a city official, then what is the purpose of it?\u201d Khalid told the Advance\/SILive.com.<\/p>\n \u201cI was trying to do my job and if I am not allowed to do my job, then what is the purpose of me to staying there?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n At the news of Khalid\u2019s resignation, Hendry issued the following statement:<\/p>\n \u201cDr. Khalid\u2019s biased voting record, his disregard for CCRB\u2019s own rules and procedures, and his dangerous plan to strip away the police commissioner\u2019s authority made it clear that police officers were never going to get fair treatment from CCRB under his watch. His resignation is an important first step, but much more is required to make CCRB into the impartial agency mandated by the City Charter. Dr. Khalid must be replaced by a fair-minded chair, and every case that went against a police officer should be thrown out.\u201d<\/p>\n Khalid, an immigrant from Peshawar, Pakistan, came to New York City in 1972 at the age of 23 and five years later he moved to Staten Island and established a dental practice in Eltingville.<\/p>\n Khalid earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in dental surgery from Khyber Medical College, a doctor of dental surgery from New York University and a diploma in orthodontics from the State University of New York.<\/p>\n The board\u2019s previous interim chair, Arva Rice, resigned her post in August amid reports<\/a> that Adams asked her to step down over comments she made about the NYPD\u2019s handling of the 2019 shooting of a Bronx man.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Dr. Mohammad Khalid, a Todt Hill resident, is defending his work with the Civilian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37490,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-37489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}