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Black, Hispanic NYC City Council Members Trash ‘Defund The Police’ Movement, Label It ‘Political Gentrification’

   DailyWire.com
BROOKLYN, NY - July 25: A protester's bicycle has a sign attached to the back that says, "End Police Violence" in Cadman Plaza, Brooklyn. This non-violent protest organized by Unite NY which included thousands of protesters that marched and rode bicycles across the Brooklyn Bridge was meant as a statement that the protesters in New York stand in solidarity with in Portland, OR and against federal invasions and in support of Black Lives Matter. Portland has seen federal agents have taken protesters and put into unmarked vehicles while others have been beaten and pepper sprayed. This was billed as a "We Will Not Be Silenced" where organizers asked protesters to bring pots, pans, buckets, whistles anything that can make noise. Protesters continue taking to the streets across America and around the world after the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer Derek Chauvin that was kneeling on his neck during for eight minutes, was caught on video and went viral. During his arrest as Floyd pleaded, "I Can't Breathe". The protest are attempting to give a voice to the need for human rights for African American's and to stop police brutality against people of color. They are also protesting deep-seated racism in America. Many people were wearing masks and observing social distancing due to the coronavirus pandemic. Photographed in the Brooklyn Borough of New York on July 25, 2020, USA. (Photo by Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images)
Photo by Ira L. Black/Corbis via Getty Images

Black and Hispanic members of the New York City council are firing back at colleagues who support the movement to “Defund the Police,” calling the effort “white-led,” and an example of “political gentrification” and “colonization” — a “‘bourgeois liberal’ solution for addressing systemic racism,” per a report in The New York Times.

Councilmembers who represent minority districts say they aren’t supportive of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to strip $1 billion from the New York Police Department (NYPD), even if they are supportive of efforts to reform the police, restrict their use of force, and even reduce the number of law enforcement officers overall.

“Black and Latino council members representing both poor and middle-class communities of color, including Brownsville, Brooklyn, and Jamaica, Queens, wanted to take a measured approach to cutting the police budget,” the NYT says. “White progressives, allied with some Latino council members from gentrifying and racially mixed neighborhoods and two Black council members, called for more aggressive reductions and reforms.”

One black councilwoman described the efforts to the NYT “’colonization’ pushed by white progressives.” A black councilman from Brooklyn called the movement “political gentrification.”

The problem, they say, is many who are supportive of the movement to “Defund” police don’t have to live with the consequences. New York City is already experiencing a spike in violent crime and those who live in high-crime neighborhoods expect the situation to get worse if law enforcement is removed completely.

Some councilmembers say they’re being pressured to “defund” the police by people who don’t even live in New York.

“About a week after the Council’s vote, Councilwoman Diana Ayala, who represents East Harlem and the South Bronx, reflected on the movement to defund the police,” the NYT reported Monday. “She said that she had received thousands of emails in favor of it, but that most came from people who lived outside her district or in another state. She also said she had heard from about 60 callers from East Harlem who had voiced their support, and ‘half were white or new to the community.'”

Instead, city council members would prefer that the NYPD increase its transparency, limit what kinds of force officers can use, and reform its union.

Support for defunding the police is limited nationally. According to Gallup, only around 25% of Americans support stripping some funding from police departments. More than 30% of those polled actually felt that police departments don’t receive enough funding.

As of last week, even NYC mayor Bill de Blasio was torn on the issue. Although the city council voted to take $1 billion from the NYPD coffers and spread it to other agencies, the mayor has yet to sign the measure, even though the NYPD has a budget of more than $85 billion and a $1 billion decrease — that’s “largely cosmetic” according to the NYT — would make little difference in law enforcement.

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The Daily Wire   >  Read   >  Black, Hispanic NYC City Council Members Trash ‘Defund The Police’ Movement, Label It ‘Political Gentrification’