Several New Yorkers in the district of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) are questioning calls to defund the police as they experience rising crime rates in their cities.
Ocasio-Cortez’s 14th Congressional District, which represents more than 650,000 people in the boroughs of the Bronx and Queens, has experienced a steady rise in crime over the last two years. The district has experienced a 44% increase in crimes reported so far in 2022, compared to the same time frame last year, and an even larger increase of 57%, compared to 2020, according to police statistics.
As a result, wary New Yorkers are beginning to question the platform of defunding the police.
“The more and more time goes on, and you see these crimes go up in the city, especially around this area, it’s gotten a lot worse,” one New Yorker named Max told Fox News.
A majority of New York voters (52%) say they believe the budget for the New York Police Department should be increased, compared to just 27% who say it should remain the same, according to a recent survey by Spectrum News/Siena College. Even fewer (17%) want the budget to decrease.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to defund the police,” said another resident, Daniel. “I think we need more police in the area.”
Ocasio-Cortez has long voiced calls to defund the police, particularly in the summer of 2020 after nationwide protests erupted in response to the death of George Floyd, a black man who died at the hands of law enforcement. At the time, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed a $1 million budget cut to the NYPD, but Ocasio-Cortez decried the move as not going far enough.
“These proposed ‘cuts’ to the NYPD budget are a disingenuous illusion,” she said in June 2020. “This is not a victory. The fight to defund policing continues.”
* Article from: The Washington Examiner
