NYC Budget Justice

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: 

For immediate release: June 30, 2021

Statement: #NYCBudgetJustice Campaign Slams City Council Vote That Prioritizes NYPD Over Community Investment

Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) and the #NYCBudgetJustice campaign of more than 200 national and local organizations, called on the City Council to vote against a FY22 budget that increases money to the NYPD instead of redirecting money to non-police safety solutions.
For immediate release: June 29, 2021

New Yorkers, Elected Officials, Rally To Demand City Council Vote No On City Budget That Increases NYPD Funding

The #NYCBudgetJustice coalition, with families of New Yorkers killed by police, Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) members and partners, and elected officials held a rally and press conference to call on City Council members to vote against the FY22 budget that increases the NYPD’s bloated $6 billion expense budget, as compared to the FY21 budget adopted last June.
For immediate release: June 25, 2021

New Policy Report, “Path To A Safe, Healthy And Just Recovery: Cut NYPD’s Budget & Invest In Communities” Provides Budget Demands To Create A Thriving NYC

Today, Communities United for Police Reform (CPR), the lead organization of the historic #NYCBudgetJustice campaign, released a policy report, Path to a Safe, Healthy, and Just Recovery: Cut NYPD’s Budget & Invest in Communities, calling for a reduction in the NYPD’s budget, scope, and size, and reallocation of funds to non-police health and safety strategies in New York City’s FY22 budget. Last year, Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Corey Johnson pedaled a $1 billion lie—that the NYPD’s budget would be cut by $1 billion in FY21—but that never happened, and CPR’s report details the extent of these fake cuts, as well as communities’ demands for the FY22 budget.
For immediate release: June 16, 2021

New Yorkers Demand City Council Last Year’s Promises of Cuts to NYPD's Budget & Reallocation Of Funds To Non-Police Health & Safety Solutions

Today, Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) members, Brooklyn Movement Center, Citizen Action of NY, DRUM, Girls for Gender Equity, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, Justice Committee, Make the Road New York, VOCAL-NY, and NYC Council Member Brad Lander, and others held a rally and press conference as part of the #NYCBudgetJustice campaign. Organizers, activists, and elected officials called on the City Council to:

‘Our Message Is Clear: Defund the Police, Invest in Our Communities’

Activists and community members gathered over the weekend to unveil five new community murals advocating the defunding of the NYPD
06/08/2021
BK Reader

Carl Stubbs put it simply: “I wonder what my life would be like if the money used to arrest me and lock me up was instead used to support my education and help me get a job?”

Stubbs, who has been affected by and fighting mass incarceration “my whole life,” posed the rhetorical question over the weekend to a crowd gathered for the unveiling of five community murals demanding a defunding of the NYPD.

First arrested at age 12, Stubbs said he spent the next 20 years “going in and out of jail, mostly committing crimes because I couldn’t find a job.”

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