With the rising risks of police brutality across US, especially on the Black Americans, the citizens and protestors have started demanding for justice.
Considering recent events and the murder of George Floyd, the New York city government has decided to move some of its funding for the police department to the youth and the social services. The same was shared by Mayor Bill De Blasio on Sunday.
The announcement from De Blasio comes following the string of protests demanding defunding the police forces across US, especially because of the kind of behaviour they have shown in the past few days against the protestors and with people in general.
The activists have been demanding the city officials to invest more on the communities and the youths that have been oppressed over the years. The same is with more focus on the marginalized communities who have experienced the wrath of the police all throughout.
The same also comes across in a time when the world is protesting for the murder of George Floyd and thousand other Black Americans that have had to die because of misuse of power by the police officials.
The protests in New York have been paired with acts of violence, both by the police and the protestors as well.
“These will be the first of many steps my Administration will take over the next 18 months to rebuild a fairer City that profoundly addresses injustice and disparity,” said de Blasio.
The city has decided to reallocate the funding in a way that would ensure the city’s safety without any compromise at all.
“While we have taken many steps to reform policing in this city, there is clearly more work to do to strengthen trust between officers and the New Yorkers they serve,” de Blasio further reiterated.
De Blasio assured the citizens that the government will find enough savings from the budget for the NYPD and invest the same on the varying youth and social services.
The government is also going to take out the street vendor enforcement out of the NYPD duties to ensure that the police officers have far more and real crimes to focus on.
NYPD officers suspended
Two NYPD officers have also been suspended without pay because of wrongly policing the protestors. A supervisor of one of these officers have been reassigned.
The suspended officers include one who has been accused of shoving a woman to the ground on Brooklyn during a protest that took place in Friday. The other one accused of pulling down a protestors face covering and then spraying them with pepper spray directly.
Both the officers will also be charged with further disciplinary action.
In the meantime, the supervisors of one of these officers further has been reassigned. Further reviews are being done.
Other cities are stepping in
With New York taking the lead, other cities are also stepping in to defund the police departments.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey was greeted with sounds of protests when he claimed that he didn’t support disbanding of the police department. But, later Sunday, 9 members of the Minneapolis City Council announced that they are going to defund and dismantle the police department of the city.
While Californian council announced to increase the Los Angeles Police Department budget to $1.86 billion just last week, following the protests and the events happening across the world, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti agreed to keep the funding between $100-150 million from the originally proposed amount.
When asked New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, he further said that disbanding or stripping the entire police departments will cause more looting.
“But no police? You get looting. That’s what you get. Nobody wants that,” said Cuomo.
De Blasio further assured that they are going to enhance the community voices to the senior levels of NYPD by hiring community ambassadors.
“Conversations with a task force of city leaders for equity and inclusion prompted him to make the change,” the mayor exclaimed.
The task force will also further help make recommendations for the steps and the prospects the NYPD should focus on in the coming days.
