Defund the police.
These words have powerfully entered mainstream American consciousness over the past couple of weeks. They’ve been spoken on TV, yelled at protests, and printed on signs and in headlines. The idea, which is not new, has also been getting backlash from people and institutions who argue that what we really mean is reform the police. We know reforming the police does not work because it has been tried over and over again.
As we grieve and demand justice for even more Black people murdered in recent days, including Oluwatoyin “Toyin” Salau, Dominique “Rem'mie” Fells, Riah Milton, and Rayshard Brooks, we follow the lead of organizers who are fighting to end police brutality as one manifestation of the violence of white supremacy.
We’re part of a movement that’s demanding that the NYPD budget be cut by at least $1 billion this year. We do mean defund the NYPD. We mean invest in communities instead.
We’ve been told the police serve and protect. But policing as an institution in the United States was not created to keep people safe. Policing in the South emerged from slave patrols, and throughout the country it was designed to protect private property, control the working class, and maintain white supremacy. (For more, see Alex S. Vitale’s book The End of Policing, which you can download for free here.)
So it should not be surprising that for as long as policing has existed in the United States, cops have harassed, brutalized, and outright killed Black people, brown people, Asian people, Indigenous people, LGBTQ folks, disabled people, poor people, and immigrants.
Even beyond the NYPD’s deeply violent response to protests over the past couple of weeks, their response throughout the pandemic has provided one more example of how the NYPD works: handing out masks to white people while violently attacking and arresting Black and brown New Yorkers for social distancing violations. Violence and disdain for Black lives should not be paid for and shielded by our tax dollars - especially when those tax dollars have been siphoned out of our social services that do serve and protect New Yorkers.
And yet, in the midst of this pandemic, Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed an executive budget that slashes and eliminates funding for essential education, health, and social services across the board. What’s not cut is the NYPD’s bloated funding. New Yorkers depend on these services to be healthy and safe, and are critical to Black, brown, and low-income New Yorkers —the very same communities most harmed by the NYPD.
In response, our friends at Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) are demanding #NYCBudgetJustice, and that City Council Defund NYPD by at least $1 billion in fiscal year 2021, which begins July 1, 2020.
We’re closer than we’ve ever been to taking this crucial step towards budget justice: on Friday, New York City Council proposed to cut $1 billion from next year’s budget. This is a rock-bottom minimum. It comes in response to massive organizing by movement leaders, and it’s going to take continued pressure to make sure that City Council follows through. As CPR said in their statement:
“Our hundreds of coalition member groups… want to make clear that public safety requires a minimum in $1 billion in NYPD cuts that includes not only a hiring freeze and reduction of officers, but also a complete removal of police from schools and social services, including homeless outreach, mental health response, and youth programs and outreach… New Yorkers must continue to protest, march, and call their City Council Members and Mayor de Blasio to let them know that we won’t settle for less than $1 billion in NYPD cuts - and that these funds must be reinvested in real community health and safety in the neighborhoods devastated by both the pandemic and violent policing – our Black, Latinx and other communities of color. This is not a time to let up....”
Join us to take action for for #NYCBudgetJustice. The budget deadline is June 30, so the time is now.
Call, email, and tweet your City Council Member to lift up CPR’s demands. Click here for call scripts and more information. (Not sure who your Council Member is? Find out here.)
Finally, a reminder that organizing works: Last week organizers across New York celebrated passage of the Safer NY Act, a series of bills that boost police transparency and help increase accountability in New Yorkers’ encounters with police. CPR, Justice Committee, and families with loved ones killed by police in the past 30 years led the push for these laws, while making it clear they’re still fighting for justice for the murders. This legislative win is a victory for the organizers and families who had been fighting for this for years. We at SURJ NYC are grateful for each of you who made calls demanding the repeal of 50a.
Unprecedented public pressure matters.
Together, our next goal is to make sure that the NYPD budget is cut by at least $1 billion this year. Please join us in keeping the public pressure up, and moving our collective energy towards the budget!
And as always, see below for more ways to show up.
In solidarity,
SURJ NYC