Brooklyn residents rally in support of New York City police. Photoreport

The City Council of New York until midnight on June 30 should adopt the budget of the metropolis for fiscal year 2021. The most controversial article in it now turned out to be the financing of the police. Prior to this, city law enforcement allocated 6 billion a year. But now activists of the Black Lives Matter movement have been living under City Hall for several days, in fact, seeking to reduce funding for NYPD. But there were those who decided to support the police.

Mayor Bill de Blasio a couple of weeks ago expressed his intention to cut the police budget by $ 1 billion next fiscal year, yielding to a wave of protests and criticism after the death of African-American George Floyd.

According to the mayor and city council leaders, “an agreement to cut the budget has already been reached,” but it should still be discussed at a council meeting and approved or rejected along with other budget items.

According to the plan voiced by de Blasio, the reduction will cancel the planned hiring of nearly 1200 new NYPD employees for the summer and fall. Overtime expenses will also be reduced, and officers who previously performed administrative duties will be sent to patrol the streets.

The City Police Department, if approved by the budget cuts, will no longer be responsible for the school security controls that New York City police have carried out since 1998. De Blasio said that details of the transfer of this responsibility to civilian agents are being worked out.

Money cut from the police budget, according to the mayor, will go to education, social services in communities heavily affected by the virus, and summer youth programs for more than 100 young people.

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But not all residents of the metropolis like this idea. Many understand that maintaining order in such a huge city is not an easy and expensive task, and fear that funding cuts will make New York less secure.

Therefore, on the day of the budget vote, dozens of Brooklyn residents went to the rally in support of the police and maintaining their level of funding. The rally participants gathered under the flags and slogans of the Blue Lives Matter (the movement in defense of the police) and the election campaign of Trump.

ForumDaily correspondent visited the action and gathered a photo report about it.