Sergeants’ Union Rallies in Harlem for “Fair Pay Now”

Hundreds of NYPD sergeants and their supporters braved the frigid cold and came to Harlem on Thursday Jan. 9, to protest in favor of a new contract with more equitable pay. The event was held at 11 a.m. on the south side of W. 125th Street, diagonally across from the Apollo Theatre, where Mayor Adams would later deliver his 2025 State of the City address.

Organized by the Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA), the rally reflected many of the contradictions and ironies of police service in today’s New York.

The block itself was festooned for the occasion with blue and white banners reading “State of the City NYC 2025–The Best Place to Raise a Family,” the latter phrase being the theme of Hizzoner’s address.

Standing beneath these flags were the cops holding signs that read “We Keep NYC Safe!”; “Enough is Enough–NYPD Sergeants Deserve Fair Pay Now”; “Mayor Adams: End the Pay Disparity”; and, addressing the head of the city’s Office of Labor Relations, which negotiates union contracts, “Commissioner Campion: Stop Shortchanging NYPD Sergeants!”

The roots of the present dispute date back to April 2023, when Mayor Adams announced a new eight-year contract with the Police Benevolent Association (PBA) retroactive to 2017. While there was some grousing about the deal— which was announced at a time when other city agencies were facing migrant cost-related budget cuts—there was another, less publicized problem: with these pay bumps, numerous cops would now earn salaries exceeding those of the sergeants who supervise them who still did not have a new contract.

Similarly, a newly promoted sergeant, thanks to the PBA pay raises, can now out earn some veteran sergeants who have served longer in the rank.

“These are the supervisors who hold this city together,” said SBA President Vincent Vallegong. “They are the ones that keep the people of this city safe day in and day out.” Though Vallegong declared his support for Mayor Adams, and Adams’ general support of NYPD, “at the end of the day, we need to be respected. This is falling on deaf ears, which is the reason we are here today”— a date, Vellegong noted, the calendar said was Law Enforcement Appreciation Day.

Speaking next was NYPD Sgt. Christopher Leap, who was shot in the line of duty following an August 1 armed robbery of a Chinatown mahjong parlor. “We risk our lives every day,” said Leap, “fair pay isn’t just what we deserve, it’s what we earned. I’m here today to demand that Mayor Adams fix this injustice and fix the pay disparity for NYPD sergeants.”

Sgt. Yahair Lopez-Gonzalez, a single mom with four kids noted, “It’s not fair that I supervise police officers and they get paid more than me.”

Other speakers reiterated these messages, including three of the eight members of the City Council’s “Common Sense Caucus,” Republican Minority Leader Joe Borelli of Staten Island, Democrat Bob Holden of Queens, and Republican Joann Ariola, also of Queens.

Though Mayor Adams did acknowledge the sergeants’ complaints during his State of the City address, saying, “We are going to settle a contract with the SBA,” Vallegong remains skeptical. “We’ve heard this pledge before,” the union leader responded.

That NYPD is scorned by some New Yorkers was demonstrated by two incidents occurring prior to the SBA rally.

First, at around 10:45 a.m., an eyeglasses-wearing woman, likely in her twenties, clad in green pants, a light-colored COVID-mask, a grey winter hat, and black hoodie under a long, dark insulated winter coat knelt on the sidewalk just past the sergeants to write in black chalk, NO COPS NO KKK.

The fact that the two uniformed cops closest to the sidewalk scribe—whose straight black hair and black eyebrows were visible beneath her disguise—were an African-American woman and an Indian-American man—is more than merely ironic.

Shortly after this, contained in an anti-Mayor Adams protest pen adjacent to the sergeants’ rally, a bearded white male likely in his twenties or thirties, roused himself by howling, repeatedly, “SERGEANTS MAKE ENOUGH MONEY!” While the cops who heard him mostly shook their heads and then ignored him, when the protestor—who wore no mask—changed his tune to bellow, “HOW MUCH DID THAT COAT COST?!” everyone who heard him laughed.

While it’s unclear which jacket the wailing malcontent was referring to, all the wool blend topcoats in sight, beige and navy alike, looked off the rack to this fashion reporter.

The morning’s strangest incident occurred shortly after this, when protestors from the pro-migrant group, Make The Road New York arrived. Though the target of their anti-deportation ire was Mayor Adams, realizing the press was already there for the SBA rally, they began waving signs, chanting and screaming in Spanish—confusing many who first thought they were assailing the cops themselves.