Hundreds of protesters camped outside New York City Hall to demand that officials slash the city’s police budget.
Protesters gathered in the area on Friday and Saturday to voice their requests that the city council cut at least $1 billion from the police department’s $6 billion budget, according to the Associated Press.
City officials, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, have expressed their aim to restructure policing. The mayor vowed earlier this month to redirect some money from the police department’s budget to youth services but did not indicate how much funding he plans to divert. The city’s comptroller, Scott Stringer, called for $1.1 billion to be cut from the New York City Police Department budget over four years.
Other major metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles have also moved to cut some funding from their police departments and reallocate them into other community areas. The latest demonstration in New York follows several others across the country calling for the defunding of police departments in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody last month.
The “Occupy City Hall” protest borrowed its name from the 2010 “Occupy Wall Street” movement that occurred in the city and demanded an end to economic inequality.
