With many members complaining about the failure to clean up the agency that has done so far the best for New York City and its citizens over the past quarter century, and protesters beyond all but spitting on the faces of police officers, the City Council on Tuesday voted through a budget aims to calm the police by cutting one billion dollars from the NYPD budget.
At least some of those who shouted outside City Hall are still alive today because the police department has managed to cut the murder rate by almost 90 percent from the highest level of the early 90s. Others have benefited from the economic boom in the whole city, which penetrated into the poorest neighborhoods, which was only made possible by unprecedented public safety gains.
The NYPD uses force less frequently than other major city police departments and has spent the last few years doubling and redoubling de-escalation training, and in connecting each police station and every police officer deeper with their environment.
But the children – and the older radicals among them – don’t care. And the politicians become their brokers.
And not just board members: City Comptroller Scott Stringer also plays for the masses, denouncing budget deals because they don’t cut enough police. (Of course, the NYPD’s details aren’t on the chopping block.)
Even elected officials who know better – Mayor Bill de Blasio, Speaker Corey Johnson, Majority Leader Laurie Cumbo and the like – don’t dare to tell protesters that they are wrong, very wrong, and also ungrateful.
We think this is a tribute to the NYPD’s success so that many people cannot imagine how dangerous New York City (again) or other social problems that follow from the state. However, it is very upsetting that so many are determined to ensure that the whole city knows.
