The nationwide push by the far-left to “defund the police” has reached a major milestone, with the police force of America’s largest city now facing a monumental budget cut due to the political pressure, according to ABC News.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-N.Y.) announced on Monday that he would seke a cut of $1 billion from the New York Police Department’s budget, though he added that this move is still being negotiated with the city council. De Blasio framed the decision as a “redistribution,” saying that “We need to redistribute revenue to communities that need it the most.”
De Blasio’s decision comes after pressure from a far-left protest group called “Occupy City Hall,” which has been camping out in City Hall Park for the last week with a list of demands. One of the movement’s leaders said that “If they defund the police by $1 billion then we have won, but that’s only our demand this week,” implying that they will push for further changes in the near future.
The NYPD has already drastically scaled back its operations in numerous ways. The department abolished its 600-member plainclothes anti-crime unit, which directly led to a spike in shootings across the city. Subsequently, nearly 300 of New York’s finest filed for retirement over the course of one month due to the rising anti-police sentiment.
There have been similarly successful efforts in other major cities; Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D-Calif.) announced his intentions to cut the LAPD’s budget by $150 million, while the Minneapolis City Council successfully voted to abolish their police department altogether.