Ocasio-Cortez: $1B Cut to NYPD Isn’t Enough, ‘Disingenuous Illusion’

Rep. Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Tuesday slammed an agreement to slash $1 billion from the budget of the New York City Police Department (NYPD), declaring the decision is “not a victory” and that “the fight to defund policing continues.”

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) and the City Council struck a tentative deal to cut $1 billion from the NYPD’s budget by moving school safety services to the city’s Department of Education, according to the Gotham Gazette.

On Tuesday, Ocasio-Cortez slammed the tentative deal in a pointed statement: “Defunding the police means defunding the police. 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 budget so that the exact same police remain in schools.”

The New York Democrat added: “It does not mean counting overtime cuts as cuts, even as NYPD ignores every attempt by City Council to curb overtime spending and overspends on overtime anyways. it does not mean hiring more police officers while cutting more than $800M from NYC schools. If these reports are accurate, then these proposed ‘cuts’ to NYPD’s budget are a disingenuous illusion. This is not a victory. The fight to defund policies continues.”

Plans to cut funding come after the New York Post reported that New York City shooting spiked following the NYPD’s decision to end its plainclothes anti-crime unit.

Anthonine Pierre, a press representative for Communities United for Police Reform, slammed De Blasio’s plan to cut funding for the NYPD: “Mayor de Blasio and Speaker [Corey] Johnson are using funny math and budget tricks to try to mislead New Yorkers into thinking that they plan to meet the movement’s demands for at least $1B in direct cuts”

“This is a lie,” added Pierre.

On Monday, de Blasio confirmed plans to slash police funding, telling reporters: “I am excited to say that we have a plan that can achieve real reform.”

“Everything was with an eye to safety, so we will be able to ensure the patrol strength we need. We will be able to ensure that school safety can do its job. The school safety issue would be addressed over several years,” the left-wing mayor continued.

“I was skeptical at first, and wanted to see how it could all come together,” he added. “A lot of painstaking work occurred to figure out the right way to do things.”