A New York Beyond Police

On June 30, 2021, over a year after the international uprising against racism and police brutality began, the New York City Council passed a budget that increased NYPD funding by half a billion dollars. City Council ignored calls from Black and brown organizers to divest from policing and invest in housing, homeless services, mental healthcare, and education in one of the least transparent budget processes in recent memory.

There’s been a lot of news coverage lately about “rising crime,” and this narrative dominated both the recent election cycle and budget discussions, with many council members citing it as a reason to increase the NYPD’s budget. But crime statistics are frequently manipulated to fit pro-police agendas, and there is little evidence that crime is actually spiking in our city. Many NYC mayoral candidates also used this false narrative about rising crime during their campaigns, including Andrew Yang, Kathryn Garcia and Eric Adams, who on July 6 was declared the winner of the Democratic primary.

Black voters are not a monolith, and Adams’ win will mean different things for different groups of Black and brown New Yorkers. Adams will likely be elected mayor this November, which would make him only the second Black mayor in NYC history. He spent decades in city government advocating for police reform before becoming Brooklyn Borough President. But Adams is also a former cop who opposes both defunding the police and removing police from schools, and his positions are generally not aligned with our partners’ demands.

Although this is not the mayor many of us hoped for, there is proof that New Yorkers are looking for change, especially when it comes to policing. Progressive candidates -- like Alexa Avilés, Tiffany Cabán, Shahana Hanif, Kristin Richardson Jordan, Brad Lander, Antonio Reynoso and Jumaane Williams, to name a few -- ran on platforms of defunding the police and investing in community care and won. Our work in the Beyond Policing Working Group continues as we follow our partners’ leads in fighting to defund the NYPD. Will you join us?

In solidarity,

SURJ NYC

P.S. We’re excited to invite you to our next monthly meeting and upcoming fundraisers for one of our partner organizations, Communities United for Police Reform. Check out these events: