DEFUNDING THE POLICE MEANS PRIORITIZING
PUBLIC SERVICES, INVESTING IN COMMUNITIES
7
QUEENS WEEKLY, JULY 12, 2020
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
The months-long protests over
police brutality and systemic racism
has mobilized hundreds of
thousands of New Yorkers — and
one of the main calls coming from
community members and elected
officials is to “defund the police.”
But what does that mean?
Although it might be a confusing
statement at first, advocates
say the calls to defund the police
translate to directly investing in
communities and prioritizing social
services over a criminal justice
system that perpetuates the
disproportionate abuse of Black,
Brown, immigrant and minority
communities.
The goal is to provide people
with the basic resources they need
to live better lives, such as inclusive
education, affordable housing
and accessible health care — services
many say are desperately
needed now more than ever due to
COVID-19’s impact.
“We need to direct cost-savings
towards the Department of Youth
and Community Development,
education and adult literacy, housing,
housing the homeless, and
social services that keep our communities
safe and healthy,” Make
the Road NY wrote in their call to
defund the police and have police
free schools.
Some may argue those social
services already exist and are adequate,
but if that were the case
— why are schools overcrowded?
Why is there a housing crisis while
there are more than 90,000 New
Yorkers who are homeless? Why
was the health and hospital system
overburdened once COVID-19 hit,
leaving low-income and minority
neighborhoods to suffer the worst
of it?W
hen it comes down to city and
state budget negotiations, oftentimes
it’s social services working
to address those issues that either
don’t get a budget increase or are
among the first to get cut.
In the time of the pandemic,
which Mayor Bill de Blasio said
has left the city with a $9 billion
deficit, there have already been
cuts to programs that have a positive
impact on the city’s youth
— namely, the suspension of the
Summer Youth Employment
Program.
The program was one of the
first to go due to COVID-19 fears
and the budget crisis, but community
members and City Council
members believe it was a mistake.
Councilman Donovan Richards,
who’s the chair of the Council’s
Committee on Public Safety,
addressed the issue during a rally
for the repeal of 50-A on June 4.
“The mayor has the gall to want
to cut the Department of Youth and
Community Development’s budget
by 48 percent, the mayor proposed
to cut the Summer Youth Employment
program,“ Richards said. “If
you’re a mayor who’s standing for
justice and inequality … you would
only cut one percent of the NYPD’s
budget. Yet, the mayor proposed to
graduate a new police class at the
cost of $25 million.”
According to Schools Chancellor
Richard Carranza, the DOE’s
budget was also facing hundreds
of millions in budget cuts. The
DOE planned to cut the “Single
Shepherd” program, which placed
130 counselors and social workers
in historically underserved neighborhoods
in the Bronx and Brooklyn,
according to the New York
Daily News.
During a Tuesday, June 30,
press briefing, de Blasio said
the 2021 budget will restore the
DOE’s budget and fund the “Single
Shepherd” program.
Activists and elected officials
are calling for priorities to shift
moving forward.
NYPD among top three city
agencies with largest budget
Expenses for the NYPD will
total almost $11 billion in 2020,
comprised of the NYPD’s nearly $6
billion operating budget and $5.3
billion of costs “centrally allocated”
of city funds, including $2.3 billion
for fringe benefits, $2.8 billion for
pensions, and $215 million for debt
service, according to the Citizens
Budget Commission. The NYPD’s
centrally allocated costs are significantly
high since uniformed health
insurance and pension benefits are
“more generous than for other city
employees,” according to the CBC.
The NYPD is among the top
three city agencies with the largest
operating budgets, after the Departments
of Education (DOE) and
Social Services (DSS). The NYPD’s
budget, including the centrally allocated
expenses, accounts for 11
percent of the city’s current $98
billion budget.
In April, while the mayor’s executive
budget for 2021 showed significant
cuts to other sectors, the
NYPD’s budget was “mostly left intact,”
according to Public Advocate
Jumaane Williams.
The City Comptroller’s office
recommended the city cut $1 billion
over four years, with $265 million
in cuts annually by reducing
uniformed headcount through attrition,
scaling back overtime and
trimming Other Than Personnel
Services.
“Breaking down structural racism
in New York City will require
long-term, lasting change — and
that must include reducing the
NYPD’s budget,” Comptroller Scott
Stringer said. “If our budget is a
reflection of our values, it is unconscionable
that services for Black
and Brown New Yorkers are on the
chopping block while the NYPD’s
budget remains almost entirely untouched.”
First steps to change
policing
The City Council committed to
cutting $1 billion from the NYPD’s
2020-21 budget as a response to
the marches and demonstrations
across New York City, which were
sparked by the police killing of
Minneapolis’ George Floyd, Louisville’s
Breonna Taylor and countless
other Black people in the United
States.
As a result of the Black Lives
Matter demonstrations — some of
which have been met with police
violence and a questionable curfew
instated by the city earlier
Photo by Dean Moses
in the month — the city banned
the use of chokeholds and Gov.
Andrew Cuomo signed into law
a repeal of 50-A to grant more
transparency of the NYPD.
But these are just some steps
that are part of a bigger movement
to fundamentally change the way
policing works, not only in the city
but the whole nation.
“It’s not just about police reform;
it’s about educational reform, mental
health reform, social service reform.
It’s about health care reform
and environmental justice reform,”
said Jamaell Henderson, a professor
at City University and from the
CUNY Rising Alliance, at a press
briefing on the steps of Tweed
Courthouse on Sunday, June 28.
Some ideas to immediately address
those reforms include having
professionals trained in mental
health, substance and/or domestic
abuse deal with people who need
intervention rather than police —
as people with untreated mental
illness are 16 times more likely to
be killed during a police encounter,
according to the Treatment Advocacy
Center.
Advocated have also called for
investment in drug rehabilitation
rather than punishment as another
way to address those underlying
needs.