Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., weighed in Tuesday on the proposed New York City budget cuts to the police department she said don’t go far enough, saying “defunding police means defunding police.”
“Defunding police means defunding police. 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 the exact same police remain in schools,” the congresswoman said in a statement.
Inbox: @AOC weighs in quite critically on developing de Blasio-City Council NYPD budget deal > pic.twitter.com/QRZ3hvmBU6
— Ben Max (@TweetBenMax) June 30, 2020
Establishment Democrats and progressives have debated over what “defund the police” actually means. Some argue the phrase shouldn’t be taken literally and just stands to represent police reforms.
“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,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “If these reports are accurate, then these proposed ‘cuts’ to the NYPD budget are a disingenuous illusion. This is not a victory. The fight to defund policing continues.”
The New York City Council and Mayor Bill de Blasio reached a deal Tuesday to cut $1 billion from the NYPD’s $6 billion budget.