The “Occupy City Hall” movement gathered further steam over the last week as the City Council vote on the City budget on Jun. 30 drew nearer. Protestors consolidated pressure on elected officials, calling for specific changes to the budget process, with the defunding of police at the top of the agenda. The Occupy City Hall movement appeared to morph out of a month of sustained Black Lives Matter protests across New York City, following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police on March 25, 2020.

 

Despite a series of recently passed State and City legislation which sought to address calls for police reform across the State, including the banning of chokeholds, and the disclosure of police misconduct records, several hundred protesters set up camp outside City Hall in lower Manhattan in recent weeks while inside officials wrestled to re-adjust the NYPD’s $6 billion budget. Protesters called for, at least, $1 billion of the budget to be diverted to social services like affordable housing, healthcare and education.

 

A similar “Occupy Wall Street” movement evolved amid protests from September 2011 to November 2011. Protestors at that time were calling out the reckless behavior of the Financial Services sector which lead to the 2008 recession, and refused to leave Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan in the heart of the financial district. Police physically removed them from the park on November 15, 2011.

 

Earlier this week, on Jun. 29, The New York Times reported that the City Council would vote on a revised City budget plan the following day which would cut the NYPD budget by the proposed $1 billion. According to the report, and three council members familiar with the revised plan, one proposed measure to reduce the NYPD budget was a hiring freeze of 1,163 police officers. In addition, school safety officers, who currently fall under the remit of the NYPD were to be transferred to the Department of Education budget.

 

FaceBook user, Suget Samuels, provided some context to this proposed move, saying on Jun. 26, “Safety agents aren’t cops. They do not arrest students, they do not get involved in discipline of students which is left to the staff of schools. In addition, safety agents were once under the DOE and the funds were mismanaged. Interestingly, when they were a part of the DOE they could arrest students. It would be nice if staff in schools were actually consulted sometimes when everyone makes these decisions.”

 

Following news of the revised budget plan, and ahead of the City Council vote on Jun 30, New York City Public Advocate Jumanne Williams wrote on Twitter, “As we near the final budget vote, it has become clear that this budget ignores some of the most critical elements of reducing NYPD funding and redefining public safety.”

 

He added, “Unless it meets those needs, I will use my Charter authority to prevent the budget from being executed,” referring to a section of the City Charter which requires that the Public Advocate sign off on the collection of the City’s property taxes, a lucrative source of City income.

 

Real Estate publication, The Read Deal, reported that the City’s property tax bills have already been sent out using last year’s tax rates. However, as the revised City budget plan proposes an increase in the property tax levy of about $1.7 billion, or 7 percent, the Department of Finance would have to bill property owners again later this year for that additional revenue. If Williams refuses to sign the tax warrants, those additional invoices might not get sent.

As we near the final budget vote, it has become clear that this budget ignores some of the most critical elements of reducing NYPD funding and redefining public safety.

Unless it meets those needs, I will use my Charter authority to prevent the budget from being executed.

More: pic.twitter.com/Bv0nyUuXhE

— Office of the Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams (@nycpa) June 30, 2020

On Jun. 30, the much-anticipated vote on the revised $88.2 billion City budget was presented and passed by 32 votes to 17 in the City Council. Local elected Bronx councilmen Fernando Cabrera, Ritchie Torres, Andy King and Andrew Cohen voted in favor of it, while Mark Gjonaj and Ruben Diaz Sr voted against it.

 

While, healthcare, food security, social and family services in the communities hit hardest by the coronavirus, and youth programs were prioritized, it fell short of what protestors were hoping for, and included the anticipated re-shuffling of funds between internal agencies. Protestors called the NYPD budget cut clever accounting rather than a true reduction of the budget.

 

Outside City Hall, both in the lead up to the vote, and after its passing, tensions were high with some physical altercations between police and protestors, the taunting of police officers by some protestors, apparent bottle-throwing, police force being used against protestors and a few arrests. One video shows protestors seemingly being crushed into cramped surroundings behind a barrier, with some on the ground, while others call to police to let them out.

 

Note, the following tweets contain some offensive language.

Protesters heckled the NYPD officers, including the dancer from above, who called the black officer a traitor to his people and a “fucking black Judas.” pic.twitter.com/uB63nIExrT

— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) July 1, 2020

 

A source sent me this video shot this morning at City Hall

Per source, the cops forcibly moved these barricades without warning the protesters behind them, and those people got crushed between the barricades and the ground pic.twitter.com/DhSr0l150j

— Noah Hurowitz (@NoahHurowitz) June 30, 2020

After done dancing, the protester walked up and down the line and yelled at the NYPD officers, saying one looked like a high school dropout and also singled out one black officer pic.twitter.com/KZ52rK3Jvu

— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) July 2, 2020

 

“You cannot move our bodies out of this space until you give us that $1 billion."

New York activists have been occupying City Hall since June 23 in an effort to get lawmakers to #DefundNYPD by at least $1 billion pic.twitter.com/t8gPg31V1S

— Bloomberg QuickTake (@QuickTake) June 30, 2020

 

Some elected officials issued formal statements on the day of the vote to share their public views on the matter. “Defunding police means defunding police,” said Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez via a press release. “It does not mean budget tricks or funny math. It does not mean moving school police officers from the NYPD budget to the Department of Education’s budget so that the exact same police remain in schools. It does not mean counting overtime cuts as cuts, even as NYPD ignores every attempt by City Council to curb overtime spending and overspends on overtime anyways.”

 

She added, “It does not mean hiring more police officers while cutting more than $800M from NYC schools. If these reports are accurate, then these proposed ‘cuts’ to NYPD’s budget are a disingenuous illusion. This is not a victory. The fight to defund policing continues.”

 

Those opposed to the cuts say they are counter-productive if the goal is to retrain police to carry out their role differently, as funding is needed to carry out that training. Others are concerned with the rise in crime and disturbances the City has seen in recent months. They fear that the proposed cuts combined with the negative attitudes towards police will embolden criminals to carry out even more crime.

 

In Norwood, one resident has complained that the NYPD has been walking past the knocked over barriers on Holt Place, used to corner off “Safe Street” zones, while other residents have complained about noise disturbances in the early hours and inaction by NYPD, when notified. We have reached out to the NYPD for comment on the matter.

 

1. Every night we get people fighting,riding on top of cars,honking, revving motorcycles,blocking our driveways.this is from ~ 5AM #UniversityHeights We call @NYPD46Pct @NYPD52Pct @nyc311 @NYPD911Dispatch with no success @NorwoodNews @Vpichardo86 @FCabreraNY @NYSenatorRivera pic.twitter.com/1Ne7OneQFG

— Victor (@victor__nyc) June 29, 2020

 

An overview of the budget has been released on-line in the meantime. The Fiscal 2021 Adopted Expense Budget Adjustment Summary Report was issued by New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, City Councilman Daniel Dromm, Chair of the Committee on Finance, City Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson, Chair of the Subcommittee on Capital Budget, and Latonia R. McKinney Director, New York City Council Finance Division.

 

It reads in part, “The Council will be the first to recognize that the City’s financial position as a result of COVID-19 had real, deleterious impacts on the ability to fund all the worthy items and organizations that should be funded in an ideal world. Heart-wrenching choices had to be made and after weeks of intense budget negotiations and rigorous debate, the Council and the Mayor reached an agreement that, even in the midst of a fiscal crisis, protects and preserves vital programs and services.”

 

*Editor’s note: The print version of this story stated that the Occupy Wall Street protestors were removed from Zuccotti Park by police on Nov. 11, 2011. In fact, this happened on Nov. 15, 2011.