NYPD budget slasher Bill de Blasio doesn’t blame moderates for rejecting progressives in NYC Council

They’ve gone too far to the left, even for NYPD public servant Bill de Blasio.

The former NYC mayor said Friday he doesn’t blame moderate Democrats for turning down a left-wing progressive caucus that dominates the city council that wants to defund the NYPD, arguing that New Yorkers should ” know they’ll be safe.”

“Understandably, some members of the Council are confused about this language, because I am absolutely sure that there are things that civilians could do better than the police, for example, in many cases, deal with mental health crises, and this is what we started doing. We need to do more,” de Blasio told Brian Lehrer on WNYC Radio.

“But I also think the public needs to know that they will be safe and that there is a right way to invest in the police and a right way to invest in public services. And it doesn’t feel like or like – So I guess [that] the kind of language that is reductionist, I understand why some members don’t like it, honestly.”

The former mayor himself infamously signed up for a $1 billion NYPD budget cut in 2020.

Last week, The Post reported exclusively that far-left Democrats in leadership positions in the caucuses were pressuring police to sign a pledge that would “reduce the size and reach of the NYPD and the Department of Corrections.”

But since then, several Democrats have left the caucus, which had 35 members last Friday alone — a group that includes members ranging from Council member backed by Democratic Socialists of America Tiffany Cabane (D-Queens) to Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Queens). ).

De Blasio faced enormous pressure to downsize the NYPD, slashing at least $1 billion of its then $6 billion annual spending as George Floyd’s protests – some of which escalated into riots – raged amid budget talks. the demands of the protesters, put forward in accordance with the banner of “prohibition of funding” of the police.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to cut the budget of an agency that is supposed to keep us safe,” he said in June 2020.

He eventually struck a deal with then-council speaker Corey Johnson that cut the police department’s budget by $1 billion.

They also reduced the amount of money budgeted for overtime pay, despite the Police Department rarely limiting itself to working overtime. These transfers were never made, and in later years the Police Department was again allowed to exceed its overtime levels.

However, de Blasio was in trouble again the following year when he refused to spend federal stimulus dollars granted in 2021 to hire new officers despite a spate of shootings.