A renewed push to “defund the police” threatens to divide the City Council’s dominant Progressive Caucus, with at least one member jumping ship and others ready to bolt, The Post has learned.
“This is the last straw,” one disgruntled Council Democrat said. “A bunch of people are leaving the caucus entirely and are fed up and have had it.”
Another caucus member called the plan to “reduce the size and scope of the NYPD” an “inflexible virtue test” and said it showed the growing influence of pols aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America.
“It leads one to believe the Progressive Caucus is now becoming the ‘DSA Caucus’ and they are looking to shed any members they deem ideologically impure,” the source said.
The caucus’ DSA allies include Councilwoman Tiffany Cabán (D-Queens), a former public defender who is pals with firebrand US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-The Bronx, Queens), a socialist darling.
The new “defund” proposal comes more than two years after anti-cop activists staged a monthlong protest from an encampment across from City Hall, leading officials to slash $1 billion from the NYPD’s annual operating budget.
It’s contained in a two-page “Statement of Principles” that was distributed last month by the caucus’ executive director, Emily Mayer, according to an email obtained by The Post.
The document calls for a “holistic, multistrategy approach to community safety that ensures true safety and justice.”
“By enacting policies that build a robust public health infrastructure to provide New Yorkers with mental health support, stable housing, violence prevention teams and tools, training and employment, and harm reduction for drug use, we will do everything we can to reduce the size and scope of the NYPD and the Department of Correction, and prioritize and fund alternative safety infrastructure that truly invests in our communities,” it adds.
The loyalty oath has blank lines at the bottom for a signature and date, with a deadline to return it by Friday.
It’s unclear how many of the caucus members have complied. Before the defund proposal, there were 35 members, one more than two-thirds supermajority of the 51-member council needed to override any legislative vetoes by Mayor Eric Adams.
The defund movement gained prominence and traction following the May 25, 2020, police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
But it’s since been repudiated by many Democrats, including President Biden, who in May said the way to fight violent crime was “not to defund the police, it’s to fund the police.”
Biden and US Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) have also blamed the “defund” movement for Democratic electoral defeats, with Biden saying it “beat the hell out of us” in 2020.
Last year, former council member-turned-US Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-The Bronx), told MSNBC, “The defund police movement is dead in New York City — and good riddance.”
And Adams last month said, “When people hear public safety, they think police,” during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.”
Some Progressive Caucus members told The Post that their constituents were adamantly opposed to further cutting the NYPD’s budget.
“Right now, New Yorkers are on edge about the everyday experiences — including subway crime and random attacks — that seem to occur every single day,” one source said. “Everyone is hearing they want public safety issues addressed and to have police involved, and I think that message is pretty clear.”
The source added: “It’s tone deaf to completely ignore that right now.”
The council’s minority leader, Staten Island Republican Joe Borelli, was heartened to hear about the rift across the aisle.
“If the Progressive Caucus wants to remain hijacked by the radical left who wants to continue down this path, I’m glad many of my colleagues are jumping ship,” he said.
Other planks in the Progressive Caucus’ proposed platform include an economic policy that provides “life sustaining wages” and more unionization, as well as the creation of “truly affordable housing” and a guarantee of “full civil rights for all New Yorkers.”
“This includes a commitment to the safety and well-being of LGBTQIA New Yorkers, but especially Black and brown trans women,” it says.
In a prepared statement, the caucus’s co-chairs, Brooklyn Democrats Shahana Hanif and Lincoln Restler, defended their proposals.
“The Progressive Caucus recently adopted updates to our bylaws and statement of principles that were approved by a supermajority at our last meeting and shared with the entire caucus more than a month in advance of the vote,” they said.
Meyer, the group’s executive director, declined to say how many members were present at the Jan. 4 meeting or reveal how they voted.
