NYC mayor seeks $1 billion police cut amid City Hall protest (New York: violent crime, house)

[jonbenson]

https://apnews.com/f8c792e61075c663ad98d7c6b51af0a5

(excerpt)

(AP)

NYC mayor seeks $1 billion police cut amid City Hall protest
By JIM MUSTIAN and TOM HAYS



NEW YORK (AP) — A week after a “defund the police” protest became a full-blown occupation outside City Hall, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday he has a plan for the New York City police department budget to be slashed by $1 billion. ($5.7 total)

The mayor, a Democrat, declined to discuss the sources of what he called “savings” for the nation’s largest police department, saying at a news briefing that the cuts are still being negotiated with the City Council. But he said spending on capital projects would be reduced by $500 million and there could be changes to the department’s role in policing schools.

Money would be deferred to the city’s chronically underfunded public housing system and to youth programs, de Blasio said.

“The NYPD did a hell a good job in saying, ’Ok, here’s a bunch of things we could do while still keeping this city safe,” he said. “We need to redistribute revenue to communities that need it the most. We know our young people are hurting.”
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“We’ve done different levels of escalation to make sure we’re getting their attention,” said Jonathan Lykes, one of the movement’s organizers. “If they defund the police by $1 billion then we have won — but that’s only our demand this week.”
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Gothamist

https://gothamist.com/news/de-blasio...cilmembers-say

(excerpt)

De Blasio's $1 Billion NYPD Budget Cut Is Based On "Gimmicks" And "Fiction," Councilmembers Say
BY JAKE OFFENHARTZ
JUNE 29, 2020

According to some councilmembers briefed on the plan, the $1 billion figure touted by the mayor is based on budget maneuvers and outright "fictions" that do not meaningful reduce the size or scope of policing in New York City.

"This budget deal is not a people’s victory," said Brooklyn Councilman Carlos Menchaca, one of the council's most vocal supporters of the defunding effort, which has been a rallying cry at protests against racist police violence across the city for the last month. "It’s a retreat into fear, with accounting gimmicks standing in for the real thing."

The primary issue, according to some progressive members of the council, rests with the mayor's refusal to implement a full-scale hiring freeze within the police department.

A proposal from the council would have paused all hires for the next year, reducing the NYPD headcount by roughly 2,300 officers through attrition, while saving the city more than $300 million in this fiscal year. The mayor's plan would eliminate two cadet classes — saving an estimated $81 million — but would not freeze hires altogether, according to a draft of top-line budget items shared with councilmembers.

"If it’s anything less than a hiring freeze, when we’re still not hiring teachers, then the whole thing is a house of cards," Councilman Brad Lander told Gothamist. "I don’t know how you can stand in front of it and say this represents anything significant."
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The budget battle comes as New York City braces for a $10 billion shortfall in tax revenue due to COVID-19, triggering wide-ranging cuts to a range of municipal services. The mayor has faced sustained criticism of his approach to those cuts; his initial executive budget in April called for freezing new teacher hires and cancelling a widely popular youth unemployment program, but left the NYPD's budget essentially untouched.

The latest proposal for NYPD cuts were informed by police leaders, the mayor noted, who "did a hell of a good job of saying, ‘Okay here’s a bunch of things we can do while still keeping this city safe.’”

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https://nypost.com/2020/06/29/nypd-b...ess-officials/

(excerpt)

NY POST
Slashing NYPD budget by $1B will lead to more lawlessness, police unions warn
By Tina MooreJune 29, 2020 | 3:39pm | Updated

Plans to slash the NYPD’s budget by $1 billion threaten to further plunge the Big Apple into “lawlessness” and it’s the communities that will pay, union officials and police sources said Monday.

“Mayor [Bill] de Blasio’s message to New Yorkers today was clear: you will have fewer cops on your streets,” Police Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch said in a statement.

“Shootings more than doubled again last week. Even right now, the NYPD doesn’t have enough manpower to shift cops to one neighborhood without making another neighborhood less safe.”

The mayor announced Monday he would cut a sixth of the NYPD’s budget without releasing many specifics. The amount mirrors the cuts championed by police reform advocates, some of whom marched in the city on behalf of George Floyd and other people of color killed by police officers nationwide.

“We will say it again: the Mayor and the City Council have surrendered the city to lawlessness,” Lynch said. “Things won’t improve until New Yorkers hold them responsible.”

Chris Monahan, president of the Captains’ Endowment Association, said New Yorkers would pay the consequences.

“Our elected officials have raised the white flag and the communities they serve will suffer the most,” he said.

Detectives Endowment Association President Paul DiGiacomo said the cuts show criminals that the city isn’t prioritizing fighting them.

“By cutting $1 billion from the NYPD’s budget, Mayor de Blasio and the City Council have signaled every law abiding New Yorker and criminal that public safety is not a priority in our city,” he said in a statement. “The city will continue to experience increased violent crimes — and it will only get worse until elected officials see the very real dangers associated with cutting funds to the police.”

[Above Average Bear]

When the next 9/11 like event happens all y’all can blame your **** for brains mayor...
Don’t think that they aren’t looking at this as an opportunity...

[skilldeadly]

"For the people". Let's remember their rigorous support of defunding the police when crime continues to increase. It will take serious crime waves and the movement of well off individuals for them to see that defunding the police is dangerous to all communities.

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by Above Average Bear

When the next 9/11 like event happens all y’all can blame your **** for brains mayor...
Don’t think that they aren’t looking at this as an opportunity...

I get that counter-terrorism is important and that city agencies including NYPD were important first responders, but I also feel like NYPD didn’t prevent 9/11 from happening, the part of NYPD’s budget that can be cut isn’t really its counterterrorism bits, and there are other agencies especially on the federal and international level that have a lot more to do with countering terrorism than municipal police agencies.

The city is facing a deficit, and no thanks to Big Bird but also not entirely his doing, there are economic repercussions that would necessitate cuts for many departments including NYPD unless there is federal money coming in since it’d require a level of fiscal policy control beyond municipal or state levels to essentially “create” the order of magnitude funds to keep things as is.

Besides, about half the cuts for NYPD are essentially reshuffling some of the jobs and work scope to other departments.

[stormgal]

It’s not the NYPDs job to prevent incidents like September 11th from happening. That’s more federal intelligence and military. But this doesn’t mean we should defund the police. It’s like saying that the fire department didn’t prevent all local fires and well they should be defunded.

My opinion is (I should start writing disclaimers like Mr Retired does ) that the police should have better screening hiring processes coupled with ongoing training - the latter to better respond to mental illness and drug abuse. It’s a fact that many in the police department do not understand how to properly respond to mental illness. Also, regular visits to a psychiatrist should be part of the job just like drug screenings. I say this because my brother was a cop with the LAPD and told me about a time when one of the guys at his precinct committed suicide because he responded to a call where a man was eating a baby that was cooked in the oven. The cop couldn’t handle seeing such evil. Meaning, the job is stressful enough to cause extreme personality changes - either for the better or worse.

Anyways all of this calls for more funding - not less.

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by stormgal

It’s not the NYPDs job to prevent incidents like September 11th from happening. That’s more federal intelligence and military. But this doesn’t mean we should defund the police. It’s like saying that the fire department didn’t prevent all local fires and well they should be defunded.

My opinion is (I should start writing disclaimers like Mr Retired does ) that the police should have better screening hiring processes coupled with ongoing training - the latter to better respond to mental illness and drug abuse. It’s a fact that many in the police department do not understand how to properly respond to mental illness. Also, regular visits to a psychiatrist should be part of the job just like drug screenings. I say this because my brother was a cop with the LAPD and told me about a time when one of the guys at his precinct committed suicide because he responded to a call where a man was eating a baby that was cooked in the oven. The cop couldn’t handle seeing such evil. Meaning, the job is stressful enough to cause extreme personality changes - either for the better or worse.

Anyways all of this calls for more funding - not less.

Exactly—it’s not the NYPD’s job, so the reference to 9/11 doesn’t make quite so much sense as to why we should or should not defund the police. I think there are a few things that municipal police departments do that can probably be carried over to other agencies (for example, traffic violations were formerly part of NYC DOT a couple of decades back, but were moved over because of the promise that it would be more effective, but that has arguably not turned out to be true and meanwhile personnel costs went way up for essentially the same work; plus, automating a lot more of this is probably far more cost-efficient).

Agreed that there should be more stringent screening and auditing processes along with more training. Putting up some of the first response to unarmed disturbances to social workers whether as part of the NYPD or shuffled to another department does require funding though how you do that doesn’t always necessitate more funding—social workers on average don’t exactly cost a premium over police officers despite the years of tertiary education and training many social workers have.

[mysticpearl]

I'm seeing videos of executions in the streets, mass rioting and vandalism, people punching old women, setting homeless people on fire with fireworks and mobs throwing bottles at cars.

While rumors are 49% of the police force is going to retire.

And this clown of a major thinks that's the solution to all this?

Is this the liberal utopia all the Dems wanted?

[stormgal]

Originally Posted by OyCrumbler

Exactly—it’s not the NYPD’s job, so the reference to 9/11 doesn’t make quite so much sense as to why we should or should not defund the police. I think there are a few things that municipal police departments do that can probably be carried over to other agencies (for example, traffic violations were formerly part of NYC DOT a couple of decades back, but were moved over because of the promise that it would be more effective, but that has arguably not turned out to be true and meanwhile personnel costs went way up for essentially the same work; plus, automating a lot more of this is probably far more cost-efficient).

Agreed that there should be more stringent screening and auditing processes along with more training. Putting up some of the first response to unarmed disturbances to social workers whether as part of the NYPD or shuffled to another department does require funding though how you do that doesn’t always necessitate more funding—social workers on average don’t exactly cost a premium over police officers despite the years of tertiary education and training many social workers have.

Omg we finally agree on something!

[Airborneguy]

Originally Posted by mysticpearl

I'm seeing videos of executions in the streets, mass rioting and vandalism, people punching old women, setting homeless people on fire with fireworks and mobs throwing bottles at cars.

While rumors are 49% of the police force is going to retire.

And this clown of a major thinks that's the solution to all this?

Is this the liberal utopia all the Dems wanted?

It's not going to be 49%, but a lot are leaving. I'm retiring at the end of the month, short of 20 years. I planned to stay 26-27. My kids mean much more to me than anyone else who lives in this city. Myself and many others are making the choice to take whatever pension we already have and run rather than risk being thrown in jail. I don't care if murders skyrocket to 2500+ again. Not my problem anymore!

[prospectheightsresident]

Originally Posted by stormgal

It’s not the NYPDs job to prevent incidents like September 11th from happening. That’s more federal intelligence and military. But this doesn’t mean we should defund the police. It’s like saying that the fire department didn’t prevent all local fires and well they should be defunded.

My opinion is (I should start writing disclaimers like Mr Retired does ) that the police should have better screening hiring processes coupled with ongoing training - the latter to better respond to mental illness and drug abuse. It’s a fact that many in the police department do not understand how to properly respond to mental illness. Also, regular visits to a psychiatrist should be part of the job just like drug screenings. I say this because my brother was a cop with the LAPD and told me about a time when one of the guys at his precinct committed suicide because he responded to a call where a man was eating a baby that was cooked in the oven. The cop couldn’t handle seeing such evil. Meaning, the job is stressful enough to cause extreme personality changes - either for the better or worse.

Anyways all of this calls for more funding - not less.

It's a joint effort, which is why Joint Task Forces have been stood up for partnerships between the federal, local, and state governments. Local and state police resources (more numerous than federal) are often at the front lines of these efforts, providing officers, eyes, and ears on the ground to serve as deterrents and to respond immediately to any potential actions. Simply put, the federal government is responsible for immigration, national defense generally, and intelligence generally, but the local and state governments have more numerous resources to hit the ground running instantly if intelligence points to a threat or something has happened.

That said, I don't think this should be the primary reason to discuss cutting or leaving the size of the NYPD as it is. For the record, I'm against any cuts, but if we are to cut, it should be due to financial reasons and not giving into the reckless mob, IMO.