Before New York's Police Commissioner Bill Bratton was to give testimony at a City Council hearing about his review of police training and recommendations on reform, a group of New Yorkers held a rally to argue that it wasn't the training that needed reform but police conduct. 

The hearings, plans for police reform, marches and protests follow the death of Eric Garner, the Staten Island father of six who died on July 17 after being placed in a chokehold used by a police officer trying to arrest him for selling untaxed cigarettes. 

Chokeholds are banned in the NYPD patrolman handbook, though they are legal under state law.

On the steps of City Hall before the hearing, members of the grassroots group New Yorkers Against Bratton spoke to reporters about why reviewing training programs, which has been discussed for decades, wasn't what was needed at the New York Police Department.

"Training and retraining really have a very small effect on the culture of brutality in the NYPD. And we're here to say it's the policy. As Bill Clinton once said about the economy, it's the policy, stupid!" said Josmar Trujillo, a member of New Yorkers Against Bratton.

"The Broken Windows policy that creates needless interactions with thousands and thousands of New Yorkers for the lowest levels of crimes like riding a bike on the sidewalks, performing in the subway, things that in the theory of George Kelling's -- the crackdowns are supposed to somehow stop larger crimes. The policy needs to be overhauled. The focus of it needs to be ended," Trujillo said.

"We also are here to bring attention to the lack of accountability, not just of the individual officer but with their supervisors and ultimately with the commissioner himself. Accountability doesn't seem to be working when we have these trials -- we don't seem to get to the core of the problems." 

New Yorkers Against Bratton protested on the steps of City Hall in December 2013, when Mayor de Blasio announced he had appointed Bratton to lead the police department. They knew the history of Bratton, who served during the administration of Giuliani, and they remembered the effects of his policy on communities of color.

"What do I want? I want an uncorrupted City Council that will stand up to police brutality," a member of New Yorkers against Bratton said.

"I want no more Mr. Garners. Mrs. Ortiz is in jail in Staten Island, but we cannot seem to indict a policeman who killed Mr. Garner with his bare hands. You want to know what I want? What I want is to be able to walk into my community without a cop stopping me and asking me where I am going.  I want my children to be able to travel, to have the right of public ability without being stopped on these very subways. I don't want police in my school taking children out and handcuffing in the precinct for hours. Do you understand what I want?" he said.

During the hearing, Bratton said police officers will get annual training, beginning with a pilot program starting this year.

The program to begin in November will be in three precincts in North Brooklyn, eventually expanding to include 20,000 patrol officers and will include how to talk to the public, de-escalate tense situations and how to use force if necessary.

Bratton had promised a top-to-bottom review of police training procedures following the death of Eric Garner when police tried to arrest him on Staten Island on July 17.

During the hearing, New Yorkers Against Bratton members held up their arms where they had written "Hands Up, Don't Shoot!" on their skin, in reference to the shooting death by police of Fergsuon, Missouri teenager, Michael Brown.

Since Garner's death, some council members have criticized the 'broken windows' theory.

After Monday's hearing, council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito told reporters that the policing strategy "would be something that we would want to cover possibly in a subsequent hearing."