Nantasha M. Williams is a Democratic member of the New York City Council who has held the District 27 seat in Southeast Queens since January 2022 and became the Council's Deputy Speaker in January 2026. The district includes Jamaica, St. Albans, Hollis, Queens Village, Cambria Heights and Springfield Gardens, and she chairs the Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Relations. She founded the NYC Black Women's Political Club and holds a PhD in social welfare and a master's degree in public administration. She helped lead the Women's March on Washington and is president emeritus of the NYC Black Women's Political Club.
Case
Six people died after medical emergencies in NYPD custody in 2026. Public defenders blame systemic neglect; the NYPD says it investigates every death and most detainees were seen by doctors first.
Role at the time: New York City Council member for District 27 and sponsor of Int. 98-2024, at a Committee on Criminal Justice hearing
Statement summary
Council Member Nantasha Williams said deaths in custody follow a pattern, because each hand-off between precincts, jails, courts and hospitals makes the responsibility to provide care harder to track, harder to verify and easier to ignore.
“These may feel like isolated cases, but the patterns behind them are not. In New York City, our criminal legal system moves people consistently between precincts, jails, courts, and hospitals, and with each hand-off, the basic responsibility to provide care becomes harder to track, harder to verify and too easy to ignore.”
The reference point is whether the NYPD and the city are failing people who fall ill in police custody. Williams says each hand-off between precincts, jails, courts and hospitals makes the responsibility to provide care "harder to track, harder to verify and too easy to ignore." That faults how the system cares for people in custody, so we labeled it Condemned. The closest competing label is Mixed or conditional, which would fit support for a narrow fix alone; she describes a pattern of failure.
Statement dates: July 28, 2025
Statement dates: July 28, 2025
Statement dates: July 28, 2025
Statement dates: July 28, 2025
