“The NYPD wants to add 1,000 new police officers,” Waithe joked while on stage, “which I think is okay if we maybe got rid of 1,000 old police officers.”
Recently, M.J. Williams, another member of NYC Shut It Down, made the news for asking Council Speaker Viverito about her push for more cops during the New York Law School legislative breakfast on Friday.
“How can you defend adding 1,000 more police officers before the NYPD is drastically reformed?” Williams asked. “And how will more cops lead to systemic changes and not more tragedies?”
Video of Mark-Viverito answering the question spread online shortly afterward. And though the council speaker answered that she thought that both reform and “more resources” were needed for the NYPD to do “effective community policing,” Williams felt unsatisfied by her answer.
“I found it to be rambling. I found it to be unconvincing,” Williams said. “She relied on, I think, the crutch of people being afraid and people needing to be comforted by there being more cops out there.”
Paintings of people killed by police violence were auctioned at the event to help raise funds for future direct actions. (WNV/Ashoka Jegroo)