De Blasio: ‘Defund the police’ movement a ‘mistake’

Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) called the “defund the police” movement a “mistake” in a new interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity. 

“In retrospect, the whole concept of ‘defund the police’ made no sense,” de Blasio said in a preview clip of Thursday’s episode of the “Hang Out with Sean Hannity” podcast.

“It made sense to say, ‘How can we do better?’ It made sense to say, ‘Hey,’ — and, by the way, a lot of cops told me this, a lot of police leaders told me this — ‘We’ve got to do a lot more for young people to give them positive alternatives because that’s good for the police, too,” he continued. “That’s good safety, too.”

“So defund was a mistake. And I understand where it came from, but it was a mistake,” de Blasio added.

The New York City Council shifted roughly $1 billion away from the New York City Police Department budget in 2020, when de Blasio was mayor and the city was experiencing a rise in “defund NYPD” protests around the city. 

The former progressive mayor, at the time, defended the move away from police forces and toward civilian agencies.

“We think it’s the right thing to do. It will take work. It will take effort and we’re going to be reforming that work in the meantime,” de Blasio said in 2020.

The move was met with fierce backlash from Republicans, including then-President Trump, who said at the time that the move “will further antagonize New York’s Finest, who LOVE New York.” 

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