If you're just paying attention to Black Lives Matter activists and certain segments of the mainstream media, you're given the impression minorities across the country are mostly in support of cities slashing their police departments' budgets.
But that's not the case. The New York Times reported on Monday a number of black New York City Council members, who are staunch Democrats who represent blue districts, have criticized the city's push to defund the New York City Police Department.
Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson was against adding more cuts to the $1 billion cut that was approved to the NYPD's budget in July. The reason? Her constituents "want to see cops in the community. They don’t want to see excessive force. They don’t want to see cops putting their knees in our necks. But they want to be safe as they go to the store."
And Gibbson is not alone and it is not just a sentiment felt in NYC:
"Laurie Cumbo, a Black councilwoman from Brooklyn who is majority leader, compared calls to defund the police to “colonization” pushed by white progressives. Robert Cornegy Jr., a Black councilman also from Brooklyn, called the movement 'political gentrification.'
"This divide has widened in big cities across the United States, including in Minneapolis after Mr. Floyd was killed at the hands of the police.
"Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark, N.J., called defunding the police a 'bourgeois liberal' solution for addressing systemic racism."
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"But a fissure opened when it became clear during negotiations that passing a budget with the $1 billion in cuts meant reducing police presence on the streets and eliminating school safety agents.
"During the debate, Black and Latino council members representing both poor and middle-class communities of color, including Brownsville, Brooklyn, and Jamaica, Queens, wanted to take a measured approach to cutting the police budget. White progressives, allied with some Latino council members from gentrifying and racially mixed neighborhoods and two Black council members, called for more aggressive reductions and reforms."
The black city leaders are voicing what many already know: Shrinking down police departments will hurt those who can't afford to live in a safe neighborhood, and the security it brings, with minorities being the most affected by the lack of police in certain neighborhoods.
The low police morale and cuts to the NYPD are already starting to take a toll in the city, with shootings reaching an almost all-time high in recent years. By Monday, NYC saw its 1,000th shooting victim for 2020, according to WABC.
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