Members of New York's fraternal law enforcement organizations are demanding Department of Corrections Commissioner Joseph Ponte resign.
Correction officers gathered outside of City Hall Saturday to ask for harsher penalties for inmates who assault correction officers.
This comes after an inmate sexually assaulted a female officer at Rikers Island last week.
The victim attended the gathering, but did not speak.
Members say Ponte is unqualified for the position and has mismanaged the department during his time as commissioner
"Literally we are standing here asking the mayor to intervene in this and replace this individual because he don't know what he’s doing. His insensitive remarks indicates that he doesn't know what he was doing. We're talking about a person who was almost raped how can anyone in their world say the person wasn't doing their job,” said Charles Billups, chair of the Grand Council of Guardians, Inc.
“New York City Corrections officers are the invisible law enforcement. It's like we are secret, we're tucked away. People don't understand that we are the people that’s holding the same criminals that were on the street that you didn't want there. We are holding them and watching them,” said Kasun Phillips of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement.
In addition to removing Ponte, members requested better equipment and improved security procedures.