Soon, when residents of New York City call 9-1-1, there’s a great possibility they may be told my dispatchers, “we send our thoughts and prayers” . . all thanks to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.
Under pressure to reduce spending in the budget by this afternoon, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council struck a tentative deal to eliminate $1 billion from the NYPD’s budget, according to the Gotham Gazette.
The city-wide push to “Defund the NYPD” has emerged as the hot topic of debate in this year’s budget negotiations. The radical cry is being led by activists and rioters protesting both police brutality after the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd last month and the NYPD’s crackdown against protestors in the wake of Floyd’s death.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says a $1 billion cut from the NYPD budget is not enough.
First she cost NYC 25,000 jobs.
Now @AOC will cost NYC innocent lives.
— Andrew Pollack (@AndrewPollackFL) June 30, 2020
On Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez slammed the tentative deal in a highly critical statement saying, “Defunding the police means defunding the police. It does not mean budget tricks or funny math. It does not mean moving school police officers from the NYPD budget to the Department of Education budget so that the exact same police remain in schools.” AOC claims the cut to the NYPD isn’t enough. Doesn’t she understand the safety of her constituents will be compromised?
The New York Democrat added: “It does not mean counting overtime cuts as cuts, even as NYPD ignores every attempt by City Council to curb overtime spending and overspends on overtime anyways. It does not mean hiring more police officers while cutting more than $800M from NYC schools. If these reports are accurate, then these proposed ‘cuts’ to NYPD’s budget are a disingenuous illusion. This is not a victory. The fight to defund policies continues.”
Plans to “defund the police” and cut funding followed a New York Post report that New York City shootings spiked following the NYPD’s decision to end its plainclothes anti-crime unit. Anthonine Pierre, a press representative for Communities United for Police Reform, criticized De Blasio’s plan to cut funding for the NYPD saying, “Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Johnson are using funny math and budget tricks to try to mislead New Yorkers into thinking that they plan to meet the movement’s demands for at least $1B in direct cuts.”
The agreement would reduce the NYPD’s uniformed headcount by canceling an incoming class of 1,163 cadets. It also includes about $350 million in cuts to overtime spending and various other cuts to traffic enforcement, vehicle purchases, contracts, and more. All those cuts total about $512 million.
De Blasio’s confirmed plans to slash police funding are a slap in the face to the men and women in blue. On Monday, he told reporters, “I am excited to say that we have a plan that can achieve real reform.” Just months away from the November election, Democrats de Blasio and Ocasio-Cortez continue to pander to the emotions of their crumbling city in a political decision, ultimately compromising the safety of their constituents.
