Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa on Thursday accused Mayor Invoice de Blasio of refusing to beef up the NYPD as a result of he’s a “police hater” — as Hizzoner claimed that President Biden was referring to different cities when he approved the usage of COVID-19 funds to rent extra cops.
Throughout a information convention exterior One Police Plaza, Sliwa blasted the brand new, $98.7 billion metropolis price range, which, as The Submit reported Wednesday, added simply $200 million to the NYPD price range for time beyond regulation and IT after $1 billion was slashed final yr amid calls to “defund the police.”
“You now have virtually a billion-dollar price range — greater than most international locations — and you continue to received’t re-fund the police!” Sliwa stated.
“Which implies you’re a police hater! There is no such thing as a doubt about it.”
Sliwa added: “The truth is we want extra police, we have to rent extra police. We have to take {the handcuffs} off the police and put it on the criminals.”
Earlier, de Blasio defended his choice to not battle surging crime by hiring extra cops with among the $6 billion town received from Biden’s “American Rescue Plan,” though the president OK’d such a transfer final week.
“He specified that to sure cities that have been coping with challenges which might be larger than ours,” de Blasio stated when requested by The Submit throughout a Metropolis Corridor information convention.
“What we did right here was strike a steadiness. We had loads of totally different wants to ensure we might carry town again. We had to consider jobs, we had to consider bringing again colleges.”
De Blasio added: “Clearly. the deal with combating COVID — as soon as and for all, do away with it for our metropolis — and naturally, public security — loads of investments in community-based options and conserving the NYPD at a robust degree. I feel we actually struck a steadiness right here on this price range.”
