_Mayor Bill de Blasio holds a media availability at City Hall on Sunday, June 7, 2020. (Michael Appleton_Mayoral Photography Office)
June 8, 2020 By Michael Dorgan
Mayor Bill de Blasio has vowed to slash funding to the NYPD and implement a series of reforms within the department.
The killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis cop last month coupled with a series of recent NYPD beatings at protests has led to calls to defund the agency and make changes.
The mayor said at a press briefing Sunday that a portion of the NYPD budget would be diverted to youth and social services for communities of color. De Blasio, however, was short on specifics–such as the dollar amount that would be allocated.
“The details will be worked out in the budget process in the weeks ahead, but I want people to understand that we are committed to shifting resources to ensure that the focus is on our young people,” de Blasio said.
Queens council members Jimmy Van Bramer, Danny Dromm and Costa Constantinides are among those members who have called for the city to cut the NYPD’s budget.
Defund the police sign at a rally in Manhattan on Sunday, June 7 (Michael Dorgan, Queens Post)
Last week, Comptroller Scott Stringer penned a letter to de Blasio requesting he cut $1.1 billion from the NYPD budget over the next four years.
The mayor outlined a number of police reforms Sunday that he said would help create a fairer city.
He said that the NYPD would no longer oversee street vendors and that a civilian agency would instead be in charge of monitoring their licenses. Cops, he said, could then focus on more serious crime instead of administrative infractions.
The NYPD will also be hiring community ambassadors, who will be tasked with keeping residents up to date on disciplinary cases and changes in police tactics. The ambassadors would also work with the highest levels of NYPD in order to voice resident concerns.
The mayor said the ambassadors would help build a deeper relationship between police and the community.
Additionally, de Blasio announced his support for the 50-A reform bill introduced in Albany that would make police officer disciplinary records public.
Critics have argued that the current law lacks transparency by preventing the public from learning about police misconduct and disciplinary actions.
“The current 50-A law is broken and stands in the way of improving trust between police and community,” de Blasio said.
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18 Comments
very sad that the police were serving a warrant and her boyfriend opened fire on the police causing a gun battle in which she was accidentally killed…hopefully no radical socialists will politicize an accidental tragedy for promoting their own agenda….only dirt-bags would do such a despicable thing….
Why aren’t they out protesting for retired police captain, David Dorn, who was shot while trying to protect his friend’s store from looters?
Black Lives Matter? Really? Guess it doesn’t apply if you wear a uniform.
Let’s see if Al Sharpton shows up to his funeral.
I’m…not sure. Was he ever mentioned in this article? Was he the victim of police brutality? You don’t HAVE to copy and paste this every time.
You’re upset about Bryona Taylor, the black EMT just murdered by police (no criminal record at all)?
Or Jamel Floyd, the black asthmatic prisoner the police pepper sprayed, and then watched him die slowly, right?
Otherwise your hypocritical words and completely unrelated AND meaningless…
Thank you for your service to the community
The trashing of NYPD is cowardly and despicable
How quickly we forgot about 9/11…
The NYPD family never marches through the streets when a cop gets shot. We wouldn’t. We have class. We don’t wreck neighborhoods to get our point across. We were raised better than that.
We didn’t do it when Detective Luis Alvarez faced Congress to fight for 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund after his 69th round of chemo. Where were all these obnoxious protestors then? It’s amazing, they have so much to say now.
You don’t take from other people to speak your mind. You don’t take over streets when people are trying to get to/from work because you have something to say and you don’t ruin businesses that people worked hard to build because you feel like having a tantrum. Grow a pair.
Frankly, I don’t really care what you have to say.
What money? They’re cutting the budget because there is no money lol!!! The mayor is just trying to ease tensions in the city. People are so gullible.
That money should go to help the community and be used for more programs like Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH) funding.
thank you for supporting beautiful drag queens like myself! NYC celebrates diversity.
Defunding the biggest gang in American history, ?♂️ looks like there starting to reap what they had sewn. ? ? ✋
DEFUND the corrupt NYPD!
So because of a handful of bad cops, all good ones and those us who are law abiding should suffer because politicians want to cower?
“Defunding police” … again money. After all Americans still think money will solve social problems. Instead of human values, truth, personal accountability, transparency, equality, justice, consciousness, conscience, empathy , etc. they speak about money, budget, protocols, guidelines …
The mayor is right! We gotta do something different. We’re currently funding the largest criminal organizations in North America and it needs to stop.
Sweet. Hopefully this will lead to a nyc citizen tax refund since we don’t need as many police anymore. I guess I’ll spend mine on buying things to protect myself and my family!
I think the BLM protesters need a marketing professional. I couldn’t think of a worse phrase than “Defund the Police”. if I tried. (“Abolish ICE” comes in a close 2nd). All day long i read and hear “oh, what we/they really mean is…..”
Take away their unlimited paid sick days from those with more than one discipline inquiry on their records.
No surprise,
Since the Democrats are Criminal sympathizers. Makes
Sense though, Considering liberal Democrats commit the overwhelming amount of the crime in the U.S.
I’d say about 70% most likely even more.
Get rid of the Communist agenda and crime would drop Like 70%, then you actually could be able to defund the Dept. Some wanted Trump to send in the Military. Good thing he didn’t. Quite frankly, I say let NYC burn, let the Democrats get what they deserve. No sense for trump to use resources to help this city,
Instead those resources for cities that actually care about crime or quality of life issies and for cities that have citizens who respect the law.
I gotta get outta this damn city