Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to cut funds from the NYPD is not enough. He recently announced a $1.5 billion budget slash of the police force, but AOC said that will make little difference because the cuts are based off of "funny math" that, apparently most egregiously, keeps police officers in schools.
“Defunding police means defunding police," she charged. "It does not mean budget tricks or funny math. It does not mean moving school police officers from the NYPD budget to the Department of Education’s budget so the exact same police remain in schools.”
"It does not mean counting cuts in overtime as cuts, even as NYPD ignores every attempt by City Council to curb overtime spending and overspends on overtime anyways," she added, wrapping up the city's plans as a "disingenuous illusion."
Asked about her accusations at his Wednesday press conference, De Blasio said that AOC is just plain "wrong."
"She's just wrong," he replied. "The facts are we took money from the NYPD, put it into youth programs, we are reducing the size of the NYPD, but still in a way that can keep us safe."
Mayor @BilldeBlasio: "[Rep. @AOC's] just wrong. The facts are we took money from the NYPD, put it into youth programs, we are reducing the size of the NYPD, but still in a way that can keep us safe." pic.twitter.com/N83bKeAUEq
— The Hill (@thehill) July 1, 2020
The mayor claims that the budget cuts will keep the NYPD's strength consistent, while saving a lot of money.
AOC responded to the mayor's response with a tweet.
https://t.co/yOxvgQxhnA pic.twitter.com/6lqpXGW3RW
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 1, 2020
Critics of both politicians wonder if this is really the right time to be cutting the NYPD's budget, considering shootings in NYC have recently increased by nearly 400 percent compared to the same time period in 2019, and riots and protests are still occurring in the wake of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. Even New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo expressed his disappointment in the mayor's handling of the recent crises.
