We’re going to keep it short this week: we’ve got a couple of concrete actions for you to take.
There’s a crucial fight going on over the New York City budget. City Council is conducting hearings before they pass the budget, so it’s time for us to weigh in. Right now, we have an unprecedented opportunity to shift the conversation around where and how the city invests in safety.
Mayor de Blasio’s proposed budget includes cuts to essential social services across the board, and outright cancellation of the summer youth employment program. What’s not cut, though, is the NYPD’s bloated funding. This is not just a crisis response but comes against a backdrop of consistently increased spending on policing under de Blasio—from $4.6 billion in 2014 to $5.6 billion in 2019—even as crime has dropped to historic lows. The services the Mayor wants to cut now are services New Yorkers depend on to be healthy and safe, and are especially critical to Black, brown, and low-income New Yorkers —the very same communities the NYPD criminalizes, abuses, and locks in cages while leaving alone white and higher-income New Yorkers. There is also a real danger that the budget as currently proposed will result in the police being more integrated into social services—which we know is especially dangerous for communities of color.
As Joo-Hyun Kang, director of Communities United for Police Reform, said, “Budgets are moral documents, so now is the time to step back and assess what our priorities should be.”
We must take action this week to refuse the city’s prioritization of violent, racist policing over crucial public services. Please join us in taking these two actions:
This Thursday, the NYC City Council will hold the only hearing including a chance to testify on the Mayor’s Executive Budget. Please submit an online testimony! You have 72 hours after the hearing finishes to submit. And tune in at 9:30am on Thursday to watch the hearing; testimony begins at 11:30am. We’ll be watching together on Zoom, so please come join us to yell and tweet together! Amplify the testimonies on social media using #NYCBudgetJustice.
Call and email your City Council member for #NYCBudgetJustice! Some City Council members have already suggested a willingness to cut the budget for police and jails, so we need to call them to see how serious they are and push them to hold the line. Use the call script here and report back here. We also need people to call other SURJ NYC members and ask them to call their Council members.
And, as always, read on for more ways to plug in and show up. Take good care of yourselves.
In solidarity,
SURJ NYC