My prayers go out for Sean Bell’s fiancé and his family as they continue to suffer the results of this shocking verdict. While we are forced to face another experience of grave injustice, I join with our religious leaders who call for calm in our City.

The court's rationale for exonerating these defendants was to give them the benefit of perceived threats that made their overreaction "justifiable".

As a community, we cannot permit police officers to be granted immunity from responsibility for killing members of our community. Nevertheless, as a community, we must not give into the temptation to overreact, but instead to give voice to our anger by peacefully demanding reforms and reviews that will prevent this tragedy from ever happening again.

Senate Bill 6045, introduced by NYS Senator Andrea Stewart Cousins (D-Westchester) and better known as the Reproductive Health and Privacy Protection Act, is one of the most dangerous and radical pieces of proposed legislation in New York State that I have ever seen. It contains extraordinarily broad language that will promote abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy and open the door to extreme measures for women and health care providers. I urge all New Yorkers to become better informed about it, to contact their State legislators, and to work diligently to oppose this bill to ensure its defeat.

The December 12th headlines of El Diario la Prensa reported results from a poll, showing that 84% of Hispanics support immigration and 35% of Hispanics support legalized abortion. Your presentation of these statistics twisted the good news of your findings regarding abortion. It appears from the reported poll findings that the majority – all 65% of Hispanics actually oppose abortion.

By refusing to report something positive about Hispanics and our respect for the unborn, your journalistic integrity is clearly in question as you seem determined to shape the news. Your paper’s refusal to report something positive – the pro-life findings of your poll results – implies that that you are playing with the intelligence of your readership in the Hispanic community.

As the representative of the 32nd Senatorial District in Bronx County, I welcome Governor Eliot Spitzer’s plan to visit JHS 123 located at 1025 Morrison Avenue on Monday November 26, 2007 at 9:30 AM. The purpose of his visit is to announce the “New Contract for Excellent Initiatives” created by Governor Eliot Spitzer.

I congratulate Governor Spitzer as the architect of this school reform, and I hope that Mayor Bloomberg and New York School Chancellor Klein will apply this New Contract for Excellence exactly as Governor Spitzer and the New York State Legislature have deemed it to be. After so many years of dysfunction and broken promises, it seems as if we will finally see $258 million directed specifically to school districts based on student needs and not based on political bureaucracy.

Senator Reverend Diaz, Assemblyman Ruben Diaz, Jr. and the New York State Hispanic Clergy Organization Respon with Emergency Relief for Santo Domingo

New York State Senator Reverend Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx), New York State Assemblyman Ruben Diaz, Jr., (D-Bronx) and the New York State Hispanic Clergy Organization expect to pack at least three containers in an emergency effort to collect goods to send to Santo Domingo on Wednesday, November 14, 2007. The effort, in response to Hurricane Noel, will take place throughout the day at 1840 Washington Avenue, located between 175^th and 176^th Streets in The Bronx.

Editorial from El Diario La Prensa

Each hurricane season, we brace ourselves. We hope that our loved ones will remain safe in the cities and countrysides we still identify as home.

But the Caribbean and states of Mexico were not spared by Noel. With at least 75-mile hour winds and a relentless downpour, the tropical hurricane pounded on small towns. Thousands of homes have been destroyed while swelling rivers have literally left the capital of Tabasco under water.

The resulting evacuation and displacement are massive. Hundreds of thousands of people have had to flee to safety from Tabasco alone.

Topic: Department of Homeless Services: New Policy for Family Intake and Overnight Placements

On Friday, October 12, 2007, I held a press conference outside of the PATH emergency family shelter located at 346 Powers Avenue in The Bronx. We were there to bear witness to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s new policy for the City’s homeless services. My Chief of Staff, Ms. Camella Pinkney-Price, joined us at the PATH Shelter on Friday, October 12, 2007 and returned several nights after to personally witness the treatment of Bronx families who attempted to seek emergency shelter.

October 12, 2007 - PATH Family Homeless Shelter [Bronx, NY] I am here today to send a message to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Administration that we will not stand for any policy that denies shelter to any family or person seeking assistance.

A few months ago, I sent a letter to Mayor Bloomberg, expressing my concern regarding the New York City educational system. In such letter, I wrote to him that as a result of his failing educational policies; instead of him being the Education Mayor as he promised, his legacy will be the "The Education Mess, Confusion and Chaos Mayor."

On Thursday, September 27, 2007 from 9:30am – 11:00am New York State Senator Reverend Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) will join the members of the New York Hispanic Clergy Organization and Mr. Chris Slattery, organizer of Expectant Mother Care in a demonstration against abortion.  The demonstration, part of 40 Days for Life, will take place in front of Dr. Emily’s Clinic – A Bronx Women’s Medical Pavilion located at 560 Southern Boulevard, on the corner of East 149th Street in The Bronx.   

The First-Ever Spanish Language Presidential Debate left me in a sense of dissolution and disappointment after hearing the positions expressed by all of the Democratic Candidates in support for the construction of a wall on the Mexican border and not on the Canadian border.

If we are going to build a wall, it should be a wall for everyone or for no one.

If we are serious enough to protect this nation and use National Security as an issue to build a wall on the Mexican border, then I believe that the Presidential candidates should be in favor of building one on the Canadian frontier as well. Otherwise, this could be interpreted as racist and against Hispanics and it may be seen as an excuse for discrimination against Hispanics.

On Thursday, August 9, 2007 at 12:00 noon, on the steps of City Hall, New York State Senator Reverend Ruben Diaz will join with the New York Hispanic Clergy Organization to offer support for legislation calling for the creation and issuance of identification cards for all New York City residents, including illegal immigrants.

Senator Rev. Diaz stated, “Government-issued photo identification cards will help New Yorkers who cannot get driver's licenses to enhance employment opportunities, enhance their banking opportunities, ensure that all residents will have access to necessary municipal city services, as well as help solve and prevent future crimes.”

As a State Legislator who is faced with deciding whether or not to approve the Congestion Pricing Plans proposed by the Mayor of the City of New York, I must ask: who is really going to benefit from these plans, and who is going to suffer from their impact?

Although some media organizations, advocacy groups, and distinguished experts have come out in favor of these plans, as a representative of a core part of the South Bronx, which has been identified as the area with the highest asthma rates in the nation - I have some questions to ask.

June 11, 2007

Dear Mayor Bloomberg: I write this letter to express my strong opposition to the New York City Department of Education’s plans to shut down the Martha Neilson School which is part of the New York City’s LYFE/Living for the Young Family through Education Program for Pregnant and Parenting Students. I remained deeply committed to my support for New York City’s high schools for pregnant girls, alternative high school programs, and GED programs which have saved many Bronx students from becoming drop-outs.

Upon learning about the New York City Department of Educations’ plans to close these programs, I remain appalled that New York City would consider removing a pregnant teenager’s choice of obtaining a high school diploma by shutting down successful programs that help them to succeed. It is our responsibility to build upon these alternative education programs and GED programs which offer hope to our youth instead of ending them and offering our youth no way forward.

New York State Senator Rev. Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) opposes New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer’s bill to legitimize gay marriage in New York State, something the Governor considers to be a “simple moral imperative”.

“This is a slap in the face to the millions of New Yorkers who support the moral, legal and traditional definition of marriage as between man and woman,” Senator Diaz stated. “In the minds of millions of New Yorkers, legalizing gay marriage is against our religious beliefs.”

Senator Rev. Diaz is calling for his colleagues in Albany, his fellow ministers, Edward Cardinal Egan, religious leaders, and all New Yorkers who defend the constitutionality of New York’s marriage laws to join him in opposition to this proposed legislation.