NYC Budget Justice

For immediate release: June 14, 2022

NYC Budget Justice Campaign Reacts to FY23 Budget, Call for Bolder Future Investments

On June 13, 2022, the New York City Council voted to pass the FY23 city budget. The budget included the largest NYPD spending allocation ever, at over $11B.

For immediate release: June 11, 2022

CPR Statement: Communities Call for Bolder Action After Budget Handshake

Communities United for Police Reform responds to mayor and speaker’s FY23 budget announcement that included the largest-ever proposed NYPD budget

On Friday, June 11, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Speaker Adrienne Adams announced a handshake deal on the city’s FY23 budget, which included an NYPD budget of more than $11 billion, the largest in the city’s history. Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) released the following statement from spokesperson Keli Young (she/her):  “The crises that our communities are facing today require bold action from our city leaders and a budget that creates a clear path to a true recovery that would help not only keep us safe, but help us thrive. The budget announced by the mayor and speaker today falls short of meeting this need.  "We expected this new City Council to prioritize significant community investments over the continued expansion of the NYPD budget; instead the proposed FY23 budget reflects the largest NYPD spending in history. The projected $11.2B for the NYPD enables the mayor to continue to push regressive and failed policing tactics that harm Black, Latinx and communities of color and have been heavily criticized and condemned by New Yorkers. This does not make our city safer."
For immediate release: June 2, 2022

New CPR Budget Report: Communities demand a budget that invests in communities, not in policing

Communities United for Police Reform releases new budget report which demands a $1B cut in the NYPD and reinvestment in community safety solutions

Today, Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) released its budget report, Creating Safe and Vibrant Communities for all New Yorkers, a community-driven rebuke of the mayor’s proposed FY23 budget. Mayor Eric Adams’ proposed budget has been heavily criticized and condemned by community members across the city for continuing regressive and failed policing patterns of the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations and further bloating the NYPD budget while crucial community services receive comparatively microscopic investments. According to CPR’s budget report, the mayor is proposing the largest-ever NYPD budget – $11.2 billion, with minuscule investments in community-led violence prevention and intervention solutions that actually work.
For immediate release: May 25, 2022

At NYC Council Budget Hearing, New Yorkers Demand $1B Cut to NYPD Budget & Increase in Investments in Non-Police Health and Safety Solutions

Today, Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) members and partners, including Audre Lorde Project, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Make the Road NY, the Urban Youth Collaborative, New York City Anti-Violence Project and more delivered testimony to the NYC City Council public hearing on the FY23 budget. Community leaders, advocates and experts called for cuts to the NYPD budget and increased investments in non-police health and safety solutions.

For immediate release: April 27, 2022

Statement: CPR Responds to Mayor Adams’ Budget

“Budgets are moral documents, and the Mayor’s budget released yesterday reflects that the city values policing and criminalization over solutions that will actually improve the lives of New Yorkers across the city, especially Black, Latinx and other communities of color. These communities have been the most devastated by disinvestment and need solutions which address long-term public safety and health,” said Keli Young (she/her), spokesperson for Communities United for Police Reform.
For immediate release: March 7, 2022

Over 75 Grassroots Organizations, Community Groups, and Legal Advocates Demand Mayor Adams Immediately Halt Plans to Expand NYPD’s Power and Scope

In a letter, organizations call for an end to Mayor Adams’ “Neighborhood Safety Teams” and other proposals that will put more police on the street 

Today, over 75 organizations sent a letter to Mayor Eric Adams and the New York City Council ahead of the Mayor’s trip to Washington to share his new and deeply regressive “Blueprint to End Gun Violence” with Congress. The letter details community demands to address violence by using real public health solutions through investments in communities and called for an end to Mayor Adams’ proposals that expand policing and further criminalize Black, Latinx, and other New Yorkers of color. The letter, organized by Communities United for Police Reform, included signatories from all five boroughs and a wide range of organizations specializing in community organizing, civil rights, youth development, and interpersonal violence reduction.

The Root Institute 2021: Defund, Abolish or Reform? What to Do About Police and Prisons

09/21/2021
The Root

Say what you want, but here’s what we know to be true: the current state of over-policing in our communities combined with the prison industrial complex have created an existential crisis that needs to be sorted out, sorted through and resolved. The two women Michael Harriot spoke with in this episode of The Root Institute are unapologetic about their stances on this subject.

People Are Mad as Hell About the NYPD’s Plan to Hire ‘Precinct Greeters’

“We are trying to defund you people. Stop coming up with fake jobs. Learn how to talk to people like decent human beings.”
10/07/2021
Vice

NYPD brass and Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last week that they’re taking a page out of the Walmart playbook: hiring brand-new “greeters” at all 77 police precincts in the city, who will have the sole responsibility of welcoming people and guiding them to the right offices and officers for the services or paperwork they need.

CPR Members Testify at Sept. '21 City Council Hearing on Reducing The Responsibilities of The NYPD

Posted on September 27, 2021

Monday, September 27, 2021 – CPR members testified at the New York City Council Oversight Hearing of the Committee on Public Safety to examine reducing the responsibilities of the NYPD and related policies and practices. Among those that testified were representatives from the NYPD, District Attorneys, public
defender offices, advocates, and members of the public.

CPR staff and CPR member testimony at the hearing which included advocates, legal experts, and directly impacted communities called for: 

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