In a pre-dawn raid on July 22, City officials reported that members of the NYPD moved in on the fifty or so remaining demonstrators who were part of the larger group of protestors to have occupied City Hall Park since June 23, and removed them from the area. As reported previously by Norwood News, the demonstrators vowed not to leave until the NYPD’s budget was slashed.

 

On June 30, the much-anticipated vote on the revised $88.2 billion City budget was presented and passed by 32 votes to 17 in the City Council. Local elected Bronx councilmen Fernando Cabrera, Ritchie Torres, Andy King and Andrew Cohen voted in favor of it, while Mark Gjonaj and Ruben Diaz Sr voted against it.

While funding for healthcare, food security, youth programs, and social and family services in the communities hit hardest by the coronavirus, was prioritized, it fell short of what protestors were hoping for, and included the anticipated re-shuffling of funds between internal agencies. Protestors called the final budget revision clever accounting rather than a true reduction in the police budget.

 

The Fiscal 2021 Adopted Expense Budget Adjustment Summary Report by New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, City Councilman Daniel Dromm, Chair of the Committee on Finance, City Councilwoman Vanessa Gibson, Chair of the Subcommittee on Capital Budget, and Latonia R. McKinney Director, New York City Council Finance Division, has since been made available online.

It reads in part, “The Council will be the first to recognize that the City’s financial position as a result of COVID-19 had real, deleterious impacts on the ability to fund all the worthy items and organizations that should be funded in an ideal world. Heart-wrenching choices had to be made and after weeks of intense budget negotiations and rigorous debate, the Council and the Mayor reached an agreement that, even in the midst of a fiscal crisis, protects and preserves vital programs and services”.

 

The month-long sit in protest at City Hall Park by demonstrators was the culmination of weeks of Black Lives Matter protests in response to the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, MN., on May 25, among other African Americans.

Volunteers provided food to the protestors which, at times, numbered several thousand. However, in the early morning hours of Wednesday, July 22, police moved in, some with video cameras, documenting the remaining campers’ removal.

 

One arrest was reported after a man allegedly tossed a brick at an officer, which dented the officer’s riot helmet but did not cause injury. Mayor Bill de Blasio said the decision to evict the demonstrators had nothing to do with threats from President Donald Trump to send in federal officers to clear them. By July 23, police had taken control of the park and workers had begun cleaning up the park itself, as well as the surrounding buildings.

Although protestors are no longer camped out outside City Hall, a number of Black Lives Matter murals, authorized by the De Blasio administration, have been painted at various sites across the City in remembrance of those who lost their lives at the hands of police, and as a way of symbolizing the legacy of the Black Lives Matter movement which expanded its reach across the world, highlighting the need to address racial inequality everywhere.

 

Some of the NYC murals have since been been defaced, such as the one outside Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, as previously reported by Norwood News. 

 

Meanwhile, CNN and NBC recently reported that groups like Blue Lives Matter NYC, a support group for police officers and their families set up in 2014, prompted by the killing of two New York officers while sitting in their patrol car, Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, formally asked Mayor Bill de Blasio for authorization to paint a Blue Lives Matter mural outside NYPD headquarters at One Police Plaza, in lower Manhattan.

Back the Blue #BlueLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/umEmd5k2XH

— RNR Maine (@RNRMaine) July 26, 2020

The group said the aim of the mural was to remember those who have died on the job, and to highlight the dangers faced by police in fighting violent crime. SI Live reported that, to date, the City has refused their request, while NBC reported that the mayor was asked about it during a recent press briefing.

 

During his recorded remarks, the mayor explained the City’s decision saying that Black Lives Matter, and all it stands for, is unique, making reference to, “the original sin of the United States of America, slavery, and all of the effects over 400 years being brought out in the open in a new way, and a chance for this country to get it right, to address this problem, to move forward, and it’s summarized in the three words, ‘Black Lives Matter'”.

 

NBC also reported that Blue Lives Matter NYC is separate and distinct from a national group, Blue Lives Matter.

Meanwhile, despite the removal of the sit-in demonstrators from City Hall Park, other Black Lives Matter protests have continued across the City, including in Morris Park in the Bronx, and throughout the country.

 

At the same time, the Black Out campaign continues to target certain brand names and corporations like Walmart and Amazon in the form of a boycott on given days of the week and month, as previously reported by Norwood News. The aim is to wield the power of the Black dollar against such organizations to highlight racial inequality, while simultaneously encouraging the purchase of products from Black-owned businesses.

 

*Síle Moloney provided additional reporting to this story.