Defund the NYPD
A simple toolkit for taking action from home by contacting city officials to change NYC’s budget.
Background Information
The new NYC Fiscal Year begins on July 1st, when the new budget is adopted. The deadline for City Council members to vote on the mayor’s current proposed budget is the end of June.
Call on your council members to commit to voting no on the current budget, and significantly defunding the NYPD, before June 23rd. We need 26 council members to veto the budget.
NYPD Budget Cuts to Suggest
NYC Budget Justice 101, listing cuts to the NYPD budget that should be considered:
- Freeze NYPD hiring (including School Safety Agents)
- Freeze discretionary promotions
- Cancel cadet classes
- Cut abusive police from payroll
- Cut NYPD’s expansion into non-police activities/social services (e.g. homeless outreach, mental health response, the new “youth initiative”, and social distancing outreach/enforcement).
- Reduce overtime severely
- Overtime spending is projected to exceed $700 million dollars
- It may be even more now due to increased policing of protests
- Cuts to other non-essential areas, including NYPD public relations/media budget and expansion of costly (& legally dubious) surveillance infrastructure
Where to Redirect That Money
People Over Police: With the amount of money allocated to one year of the NYPD budget, New York City could do any of the following:
- Pay the rent of all New York renters earning less than $61,250 (80% Area Median Income) for 5 months1
- Fix NYCHA developments for 5 years
- Cover the 5-year citywide capital needs for electrical, mechanical, and elevator work in all NYCHA developments2
- Cover half of 5-year citywide capital needs for apartments, including covering all needed work for bathroom and kitchens in all NYCHA developments
- Match COVID-19 federal aid for all undocumented, excluded New Yorkers and mixed-status households 6 times over
- Finance 130,000 new units of affordable housing3
- Expand the city’s emergency food assistance program by 24 times its current budget, funding 228 million meals for hungry New Yorkers
- Cover the immediate capital repair and maintenance needs for New York City’s public hospital system, parks, public schools, CUNY community colleges, and all three library systems — with over $1 billion left over
- Cover the cost of Small Business Services (SBS) COVID-19 grants for all Black-owned businesses in New York City 10 times over4
- Triple services for industrial business service providers and commercial tenants in perpetuity
Funding these programs will do more for public health and safety than the NYPD ever could.
Adapted from @_erichu and @wenevernever IG posts and @lpafridi thread. • Follow @changethenypd for informative graphics and budget literacy, and visit Movement for Black Lives for more actions. • For more info on defunding police in other cities and additional NYC scripts, check out this Google Doc. • Living document. Have suggestions or corrections? DM @studiocatgut. • Thanks to Li + colleagues from City Council for providing better information.
Who to Contact
#DefundtheNYPD Public Commitment Tracker:
Find out who hasn’t committed to defund the NYPD and all their contact info.
We need 26 council members to veto the budget. See first tab for more info.
Input your address to find your councilmember info:
https://defund-nypd-reps.glitch.me/
And input your name and borough to auto-generate an email:
Scott Stringer, New York City Comptroller:
(212) 669-3916
Daniel Dromm, Chair of Committee on Finance:
Donovan Richards, Public Safety Chair:
Melanie Hartzog, NYC Budget Director:
Finance Committee Members:
If you call, you can save the phone number and call once a day.
Automated emails are easy to filter out on inboxes. First call, then send a follow-up email and change the subject line or customize it in some way, then tweet.
Click to open a prefilled email with all email addresses and the script below!
Works best if you have a mail client like Gmail or Mail set up on your phone or computer.
Email / Call Script
Short version
Hi, my name is [NAME] and I am a resident of [BOROUGH]. I am calling on you and all city council members to commit to voting NO on the mayor’s proposed budget and significantly defunding the NYPD. I would like to redirect money away from NYPD into [YOUR LIST HERE, e.g. social services, housing, and education]. Please vote yes on a budget that significantly defunds the police, and publicly make a definitive statement in support of #DefundNYPD before the end of the month.
Long version
Hello,
My name is [x] and I am a resident of [borough]. Last April, NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio proposed major budget cuts for the Fiscal Year 2021, especially to education and youth programs, while refusing to slash the NYPD budget by any significant margin. I urge you to consider pressuring the office of the mayor towards an ethical and equal reallocation of the NYC expense budget. This means cutting overtime, implementing a hiring freeze to prevent violent over-policing, a moratorium on equipment, firearm, and military expenses, and an overall cut of at least $1 billion to the NYPD budget this year.
I am urging you to vote yes to a budget that significantly defunds the police. I am also asking that Council members remain transparent with their residents on the process of negotiation in the coming month, and publicly make a definitive statement in support of #DefundNYPD before the end of the month, so residents can hold them accountable.
Thank you,
[x]
Tweet Script
Calling on @Dromm25 @DRichards13 @JumaaneWilliams and the NYC Budget Director to commit to voting NO on the current budget. The expenditure on police overtime for curfew highlights that the current budget favors police funding over social services and education. Change the budget NOW!
Insert your chosen officials’ handles above.
Share This Info
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#DefundtheNYPD #DefundthePolice #NYCBudgetJustice
Social Graphic
Download this graphic and share with #DefundtheNYPD
A better world is possible! Black lives matter!