[Photo on 2nd Avenue by Derek Berg]
• Police reform advocates want Mayor de Blasio to cut $1 billion from the NYPD budget. Per local City Council member Carlina Rivera: "It’s absolutely shameful, that in the wake of all of these protests, our mayor still clings to the notion that the NYPD’s massive budget doesn’t play a huge role in the inequities and racism that we see in this city." (NY1)
• What could NYC do with its $6 billion police budget? (Curbed)
• Details on the 10th day of protests in the city (Gothamist)
• More arrests, more calls to end the curfew (B&B)
• Supporting black-owned restaurants in NYC (Eater)
• Efforts to provide meals to the growing numbers of homeless and in-need residents on the Lower East Side (The Nation)
• Online Pride Month activities (Stonewall50)
• 1 Union Square South fetches $200 million (The Real Deal)
• The plan for expanded outdoor dining in NYC (Grub Street)
• Diversions: Punk covers of AC/DC songs (Dangerous Minds)
The June 6th issue of The Economist (cover story: "The fire this
ReplyDeletetime") has an article on how to fix American policing. I haven't read it yet, but skimming it now I see an ACLU lawyer making a point about "an elaborate culture where police created cases for prosecutors who in turn were expected to defer to officers as a professional courtesy." State-on-state back scratching in other words. They are both two large poles of the CEKATT (criminal entity known as the State).
There is some interesting discussion about police defunding campaigns.
The cost of a unionized police force is outrageous. Unions make it virtually impossible to fire bad cops.
Get with anarchy, justice and peace already. Out with the CEKATT.
Bill
AADL
Wouldn't "criminal entity known as the state" be CEKATS"? Or do we not want to be encouraging people to see Cats?
ReplyDeleteCEKATS is better, and see Cats.
ReplyDeleteI beg to differ. The east village needs the NYPD. It used to be full of violent crimes and gangs running the streets. This will only make criminal activity high again. This whole notion defunding the police is insane.
ReplyDeleteHow does defunding the police translate to better training? I live in a "poor" and "minority" neighborhood and we don't need less police, we need police to stop harassing easy targets and focus on violent offenders.
ReplyDeleteIt is terrifying to me that we live in a world where an entire profession can be vilified and defunded for a handful of high-profile cases of misconduct. This is not to minimized the seriousness of those cases, but to point out the implications to every other field. I work in the museum field and already certain museums have been targeted and have caved in to pressure in order to protect their buildings, funding and employees. When people's livelihood and safety is in jeopardy, it is hard to expect them to stand by their professional integrity.
Absolutely, no defundimg of police.
ReplyDeleteWe actually need more police, considering how overwhelmed they were this past week.
The police protect everyone.
Without them, it's every man, woman, and child left to fend for themselves.
Totally nonsensical idea.
Unfortunately, the Eater article left out Seasoned Vegan, a Harlem restaurant whose tagline is "The food you love, veganized." A particular favorite of mine is their "crawfish" made of burdock root.
ReplyDelete@From the East Village:
ReplyDelete"The police protect everyone."
That is, empirically, false.
I guess you don't feel personally threatened by the police, but other people do, and with good reason. For example the police kill some of them.
The police weren't overwhelmed, either. We don't need more police to sit in their cars and watch the looters.
"Defund the police" means moving money from the police department into social services where it will actually do some good.
@7:56am
ReplyDeleteYou can't vilify all police for a few bad actors. I grew up in the east village during the 70s and 80s. I saw the difference after Giuliani cleaned it up and Bloomberg kept the crime trend going down. The left wingers in city council, along with similar minds like Carl Heastie (no bail)in the state assembly, are reversing the downtrend in crime. These policies are starting to drive us back to the 70s in crime.
Just compare the latest crime stats, to those a year ago. Crime up 130%.
@ From the East Village -
ReplyDeleteI'll believe the "few bad actors" shtick when the good actors make an appearance. Right now, if they exist, the system bullies them into silence so the system needs to be changed.
I was also here in the EV in the 70s and 80s. Giuliani had nothing to do with the drop in crime. Crime started dropping under Dinkins, and it dropped in cities all over the country. The drop continued under Giuliani at the same rate and then under Bloomberg, as it did in many cities at the same time.
If you don't like the recent trend in crime, well, remember that De Blasio has *raised* the NYPD budget by $1 billion.