Hollywood and Broadway actors from New York teamed up with activists in a new video calling on Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York City Council to defund the NYPD’s FY21 expense budget by at least $1B and redirect those monies to crucial services, programs and infrastructure in Black, Latinx and other communities of color. In the video, they call on Mayor de Blasio and the City Council to take at least $1 billion out of the NYPD’s bloated almost $6 billion expense budget and invest it instead in the city’s youth and communities of color – to reduce police violence and help ensure an equitable recover from COVID-19 for NYC’s Black, Latinx and other communities of color. The video was created in partnership with Communities United for Police Reform (CPR), Working Families Party, About Face and We Stand United.

New York City Council leaders issued a statement late Friday responding to Communities United for Police Reform’s demand for $1 billion in cuts to the NYPD’s budget. In response to that pledge, CPR issued the following statement, attributable to CPR spokesperson Anthonine Pierre.