For several hours on Tuesday night, hundreds of New Yorkers sat cross-legged on the pavement next to a deserted City Hall, watching their elected representatives vote. Around them, a makeshift village teemed with street rallies, teach-ins, dance parties and intermittent police stand-offs. As the vote dragged past midnight, much of the bustling occupation settled in front of the projector screen, lobbing jeers and occasional applause toward the live broadcast of a virtual municipal budget meeting as if it were a sporting match.
When it was over, many of the protesters ultimately felt as if they'd lost. By a margin of 32 to 17, the council passed an $88.1 billion budget, which will divert school safety agents from the NYPD, cap overtime for officers, and cancel two police academy classes. But the budget does not fully freeze police hires or transfer at least $1 billion from the NYPD budget toward social services — the central demand of the group that has occupied City Hall since last week.
In his opening remarks, Speaker Corey Johnson acknowledged that, despite his own personal desire to slash police funding by $1 billion, “this budget does not include that level of cut for the NYPD.” Johnson pointed to the mayor’s resistance to further police reforms and misgivings within his own council, including among Black and Latino members. “You’ll never be mayor!” heckled one observer.
Protesters said they expected that the weeks of protests against racist police violence, combined with the historic revenue shortfall wrought by COVID-19, would inspire more drastic cuts to the NYPD from the progressive majority within the council.
“I did have more faith in them,” said Cali Gonzalez, a 24-year-old competitive cyclist. “They all kept saying, ‘It’s so hard,’ and I’m like, look: it’s not. Do your job. It’s just common sense that we have too many police officers.”
Gonzalez, who is Black, added he was bewildered by the suggestion, voiced repeatedly by Brooklyn Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo, that the movement had been co-opted by white gentrifiers.
“We’re all out here because the NYPD is a violent mob,” he said. “It’s sad the council couldn’t see that.”
Of the seventeen members who did vote against the budget, about half of them cited the lack of meaningful cuts to the NYPD (the other half opposed the budget for having too much police reform). Some occupiers said they were heartened to know that their demands had been heard, if not necessarily met.
“Defunding the police has become a mainstream narrative — it wasn't like that a month ago,” said J.P. Petit, a 27-year-old former waiter and DJ now unemployed because of the pandemic. “That we can celebrate on, but...we need to continue marching in the streets. We need to continue holding our politicians accountable."
As the final votes were tallied, the budget spectators joined a group of protesters who’d seized the roadway at the north end of the camp. They remained on high alert for police, fortifying themselves with barricades made from construction debris, and sending teams of cop-watchers to observe the dozens officers stationed behind the gates of City Hall.
A similar vigilance was reserved for other would-be infiltrators. Earlier in the evening, Brooklyn Councilmember Chaim Deutsch, a conservative and outspoken police advocate, was seen approaching protesters and asking for alcohol. Multiple people informed him it was a dry camp. Deutsch ended up streaming his budget vote from behind a police barricade adjacent to the occupation.
(The councilmember did not respond to Gothamist’s request for comment).
It’s unclear what comes next for the occupation. While the original conveners said the action would last only to the budget vote, the camp’s sprawling physical infrastructure — including a medical tent, book store, People’s Bodega, and a rolling supply of food — remained intact on Wednesday.
According to Jawanza Williams, a lead organizer with VOCAL-NY, which helped set up the occupation, the group has stepped back from their leadership role, giving control to a new crop of Black activists.
“The power of that space has been transferred over to organic leadership from folks on the ground,” Williams told Gothamist on Wednesday. “We should expect that this will continue to grow and the demands will expand.”
Just how long the NYPD will tolerate the presence also remains uncertain. Early on Tuesday morning, police violently confronted occupiers just after 5 a.m., arresting two people and injuring several others. A similar altercation nearly played out on Wednesday morning, though protesters said they were able to diffuse the situation.
Some young activists described the occupation as both an educational and radicalizing experience. Rami, a student at the School of Visual Arts, said that seeing NYPD brutality firsthand had convinced him that the $1 billion demand was not sufficient — a conclusion that his time at Occupy City Hall had only reenforced.
“At first I was all for the budget stuff, but didn’t really understand abolishing [the police],” the 21-year-old, who declined to give his last name, told Gothamist. “But seeing police brutality again and again, now I’m all for it. I can’t really see an opportunity for progress otherwise.”
Several other protesters also planned to continue occupying for the foreseeable future. With the budget now finalized, Gonzalez said he hoped the movement’s demands would expand to include other issues facing New Yorkers.
“I feel like we’re going to see another surge of protests,” he added. “Rent is due tomorrow. People are still pissed.”
