The president of the NAACP is portraying the New York City Council’s vote to step up oversight of police as an important chapter in the organization’s 104-year-long campaign for civil rights.

Benjamin Jealous spoke at a City Hall rally Thursday afternoon. He’d been in the council chambers for the early morning vote to create a police inspector general and make it easier to bring racial profiling lawsuits against the force.

Jealous says the developments in the United States’ largest city move the country “closer to being one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.”

Mayor Michael Bloomberg vehemently opposes the measures. He and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly say the changes will impede policing.

The measures passed with enough votes to override Bloomberg’s expected veto.

(AP)