‘Defund’ doesn’t mean devastate NYPD
COURIER LIFE, JUNE 12-18, 2020 21
OP-ED
I was trapped by NYPD on the Manhattan Bridge
BY LEIGH CONNER
During the ongoing protests
across the city Tuesday night, a
group of about 2,000 demonstrators
were stopped by police on
the Manhattan Bridge, and sequestered
on the span for more
than an hour after curfew. One
Brooklyn Paper reader, Leigh
Conner, shared her experience
in a letter to the editor. Her
words have been lightly edited
for clarity.
Hey Brooklyn Paper,
I am a regular reader and
thought I’d share my experience
from being trapped
on the Manhattan Bridge on
June 2. I’ve spent the day laying
in bed, fully emotionally
and physically exhausted and
since I didn’t have the energy
to get back out there today, I
fi gured the least I could do is
get out the word about how
things went down.
The 100 percent peaceful
march started on Fifth
Avenue in Park Slope, went
through Downtown, and
landed back around to the
Barclays Center. After doing
a moment of silence and taking
a knee, it was 8 pm and
the curfew had begun. Those
of us who decided to break
curfew began marching down
Flatbush Avenue towards the
Manhattan Bridge while the
rest went home.
Upon reaching the Manhattan
Bridge entrance, we
were met by maybe a couple
hundred police offi cers. They
physically blocked us from
entering the bridge, so everyone
stopped. At this point,
all white allies moved to the
front of the line and a couple
of black leaders of the protest
negotiated with police.
They would not let us pass,
so we went around and found
another entrance onto the
bridge.
We marched across on a
Brooklyn-bound lane and,
after about 20 minutes, we
reached the Manhattan side.
We were greeted with barricades
and a massive police
presence — about triple the
number on the Brooklyn side.
The group of protesters
stood and chanted “let
us through,” among other
things. No one was pushing
on barricades and everyone
remained peaceful. At this
point, it was 9:45 pm and we’d
been waiting to march into
Manhattan for around 45
minutes. I’m a public school
teacher and had to get back
home to rest up for the next
day, so I decided to leave the
group and walk with a few
others back to Brooklyn.
I was about three minutes
from reaching the Brooklyn
off-ramp when a small group
in front of us walked towards
us and said to turn around
and that the police would not
be letting us through. They
said if we attempted, we would
be arrested and that we would
need to walk back and get on
the pedestrian walkway to get
back into Brooklyn.
We walked over a mile
back to the Manhattan offramp,
but the police were
blocking the entrance to the
pedestrian walkway. (At this
point the crowd was still
standing at the barricades
waiting to get into Manhattan).
Me and about 15 other
protesters took turns helping
each other down from the
street to the pedestrian walkway,
which was around 10 feet
below. I was then able to walk
over a mile back into Brooklyn
and made it home.
The remainder of the
group were fi nally allowed
off on the Brooklyn side at 11
pm. By the time this was all
over, we’d been marching for
six hours. People were hungry,
thirsty, tired, and had to
use the bathroom. This is in
the midst of a pandemic. Being
trapped on a bridge by the
NYPD during a pandemic for
no reason other than to seemingly
punish protesters for
breaking an arbitrary curfew
is reckless and not the way a
city should treat its citizens
who are peacefully marching
to ask that black lives not be
taken for no reason.
I think back to the civil
rights march across the Pettus
Bridge and how that scene
is a moment in history Americans
look back on as how
peaceful protest worked to
achieve rights for those who
didn’t have them. Somehow,
New Yorkers in the 21st century
doing the same thing are
terrorists who deserve punishment
for breaking laws.
It’s almost as though no
peaceful protest could ever be
peaceful enough.
Already there is panic
among some New Yorkers
who hear the protest
mantra ‘Defund the
NYPD’ and think it’ll mean
the NYPD will cease to exist.
That’s just not true.
It’s not an appeal to destroy
a department; it’s an appeal to
strengthen the city.
First of all, there will always
be an NYPD in New
York. This city needs them to
protect and serve the public
and provide safety. There can
be — and there must be — reforms
made to uphold and enforce
the law equally not just
in New York, but all across
this country.
The city will always make
sure the NYPD is well-funded
and has the proper resources
not just to fi ght crime, but
to also prevent terrorist attacks.
The NYPD’s counterterrorism
program is second
to none in the world, and because
we are a target for evildoers,
we must always be prepared
if and when they strike
again.
Which isn’t to say that
New York can’t “defund” the
NYPD. Defund, in this context,
means shifting some
(not all) resources from the
department to education and
youth programs to open up
greater opportunities to New
Yorkers in disadvantaged areas.
It’s not just protesters who
support a “Defund the NYPD”
movement.
“To help the kids of our
city, I’m 1,000% behind shifting
some funding from the
police to youth programs,”
Police Commissioner Dermot
Shea tweeted on Monday
morning. “It’s incumbent
upon all of us to dig down and
do what’s needed.”
Last week, City Comptroller
Scott Stringer called
for an 18.6% reduction in
the NYPD’s nearly $6 billion
budget. Much of that reduction
comes through cost savings
such as reducing the roster
via attrition and a 5% cut
in overtime. These changes
would bring the NYPD roster
down to 35,000 cops — the
total it had between 2011 and
2016.
We’re not talking about
gutting entire bureaus
within the NYPD or weakening
their ability to keep
the city safe, as some critics
believe. The billion dollars
shifted from the NYPD will
go a long way toward programs
that will help close
the racial divide in education
and public services.
Let’s not fall for the word
games played by opponents of
change who have stalled the
path of progress before. Let’s
embark on a real effort to
make New York more equal,
just and safer for everyone.
EDITORIAL
Protesters marched across the Manhattan Bridge during a night of demonstrations
against police brutality. Leigh Conner