A crowd gathered Tuesday evening in McCarren Park to hear Council Member Stephen Levin explain his ‘yes’ vote for a city budget that many Black Lives Matter activists opposed.
What started as an in-the-weeds discussion of city finances turned into an open forum in which community members and activists criticized Levin for supporting a budget that failed, they argued, to adequately cut funding for the NYPD.
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He is not gonna win either way. By voting yes he incurs the wrath of the extreme socialists, cops are the problem with everything, let anarchy rule.
If he would have voted no, he would have incurred the wrath of the right, ie let anarchy rule.
That is the problem, the extremes get the squeaky wheel oil instead of looking at the problem, clearly identifying it without ax grinding and work with moderate people on both sides how to solve the issue.
Paul, you have no idea what you are talking about. Anacharists don’t fight for more government. That’s what people who support voting “No” were asking for. More money going from the NYPD budget to other government agencies. Not shifting money from the NYPD to “school safety officers.” Police officers by another name. There was a teacher in this very forum who was furious about the “No” vote.
Understanding completely the frustration of the people constituting what, in essence, is a disenfranchized majority in NYC, that government can’t just make things right already, and do it completely, now — I also understand that’s not going to happen. Incremental change is something we all have to begrudgingly accept.
That said, we SERIOUSLY need to increase the size of those increments. I’m heartened to read about folks continuing to put pressure on our elected officials to increase the pace of change. Keep it up, folks.