NYC Budget Justice

Tuesday marked one year since the May 25, 2020 police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Several events across the country and the city took place to remember the incident that ignited a nationwide racial reckoning and calls for police reforms.

The infamous cellphone video of former police officer Derek Chauvin putting his knee on Floyd’s neck during an arrest for more than nine minutes was forever cemented as a dark moment in American history. Last month, justice was served as Chauvin was convicted on two counts of murder and is facing up to 40 years in prison.

On April 26, Mayor de Blasio presented his executive budget plan for the city’s next fiscal year, FY22, which begins July 1. In it, he included slight increases to the NYPD’s budget. This comes on the heels of the largest civil rights movement in a generation demanding reinvestments and the heartbreaking murders of Adam Toledo and Daunte Wright. If I were in the City Council now, I would fight for a right-sized police budget and deep investments into community care when the adopted budget is agreed upon in June.

A rallying cry

After the death of George Floyd in May, protests erupted calling for an end to police brutality all across New York – and the rest of the country. 

Eight years before Daniel Prude – a Black man experiencing a mental health crisis – died after being detained by police in Rochester, Hawa Bah watched a similar situation play out with her own son, Mohamed, in New York City. In 2012, Hawa Bah, a Guinean immigrant, called 911 for an ambulance to help her son, who had been acting erratically. New York City Police Department officers arrived at his apartment and eventually shot Mohamed Bah eight times, killing him. Police said Mohamed Bah lunged at one officer with a knife.