The new comptroller for New York City, Brad Lander, who previously served as a Democratic councilman from Brooklyn, will be chauffeured by a NYPD security detail, even though as recently as June 2021 he claimed the city “already has more police officers per capita than nearly every large American city,” and in June 2020 he bragged to people wanting to defund the police, “I am fighting for $1 billion in cuts to the NYPD this year, and I am committed to voting no on a budget that does not make significant cuts to the NYPD.”
Former Fox News anchor and current podcast host Megyn Kelly reacted, “Another Dem hypocrite who wants regular New Yorkers to suffer w/o necessary police protection as he insists on his own NYPD driver and personal guard. These pathetic pols hate cops until they need one. Disgusting.”
Another Dem hypocrite who wants regular New Yorkers to suffer w/o necessary police protection as he insists on his own NYPD driver and personal guard. These pathetic pols hate cops until they need one. Disgusting. https://t.co/Gb8iFY4xUf
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) December 29, 2021
One source told the New York Post, “He’s the guy who hates the cops. If you don’t like cops, don’t use them. … Crime is at an all time high and now you’re going to give him 12 to 14 cops? You’ve gotta give them vacation, sick time. All that for this guy, who nobody really knows. Would anyone know him if he was walking down the street?”
Lander’s representative, Naomi Dann, told the Post, “As he steps into citywide office, Brad is grateful to the city workers who keep the Comptroller’s office and City government running, including the officers assigned to his security by the NYPD. There’s no contradiction between believing that some of our public safety dollars would be better spent on supportive housing, mental health services, and restorative justice programs — and following longstanding NYPD protocol regarding safety for elected officials.”
Considering public safety, Lander may need the security detail; The Post reported last April, “Lander has racked up eight school-zone speeding tickets since 2016, even though he’s publicly promoted speed cameras outside city schools and pushed legislation to crack down on reckless drivers.”
In his response to people reaching out to him to urge the city council to defund the police in June 2020, Lander wrote:
I am looking at proposals for further cuts and talking to my colleagues about what we can do on excessive overtime, and pulling back the NYPD’s expansion into homeless outreach, mental health response, and other social services. I am glad that Communities United for Police Reform and so many of you are setting us a $1 billion goal to work towards. I will push us to go as far as we can in the next few weeks of budget negotiations, and I won’t vote for a budget that does not include deep and significant cuts.
In the longer term, what we need is a fundamental re-thinking of the public infrastructure for achieving safety in our communities, as the Minneapolis City Council (which includes several of my friends through the organization Local Progress) announced this week. …
Let’s be clear: it is because of the massive organizing and public outcry in response to the killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd (following on so many more lost lives, Eric Garner, Mohammad Bah, Delrawn Small, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and so very many more) that the possibility for transformative change exists.