Cop-Mayor Eric Adams recently took to Times Square to taunt New Yorkers with the New York Police Department’s new arsenal of surveillance drones. The NYPD is already using these weapons as the latest escalation in their ongoing occupation of our city.
The NYPD purchased two of the drones, these “Digidogs”, for $739,000 using funds outside the official city budget through a program that incentivizes the NYPD to seize cash and other property from the community to be used for their own purposes. They call this “asset forfeiture,” and it is standard practice for the armed militias serving and protecting private property in every corner of the United States.
The police are empowered to seize property through forfeiture simply by claiming that the property was involved in criminal activity whether or not you’ve been convicted, or even charged with a crime. In fact, unless they are challenged, the police don’t even have to present evidence that the theft is justified; when the cops seize property in order to auction it off and keep the cash for themselves, the burden is on the victim of this stickup to show up to court and argue that the property was not used in a crime or acquired through crime. This is a very difficult process that often requires a lawyer and frequently results in the property staying in the hands of the police. With the cost of legal fees, you might even be better off trying to buy your own property back at the police auction.
Adams hosted this charade barely a week after announcing his plans to cut funding 4% city-wide in the new budget. While New Yorkers wait to find out what essential services are slated to be ripped out of our hands, we are presented with this unabashed mockery. Of course, we never expect the Landlord-Cop comfortably reigning over us to care about our needs, our rights. But it seems he is also incapable of basic human shame! Well, the budget is now released. So while he and his goons in the NYPD get shiny new drones to harass us with, what do we get?
We get a $1 billion cut to education! With all the glaring flaws of our school system, they must have done a rigorous study of NYC schools and determined that our children were $1 billion too educated last year. Never mind the underpaid and overworked educators who are forced to personally buy supplies for their overflowing classrooms; Adams is attacking the heart of the issue!
We also get a 4% cut in the Department of Buildings! These are the people responsible for staffing and inspecting construction projects throughout the city. Surely, the parking garage that just collapsed in lower Manhattan, and the 4-year high in construction site deaths are due to the DOB having too much money for hiring construction workers and safety inspectors.
And more good news! The Pig-In-Chief heard all of our complaints about NYC libraries being open too much, and has proposed cutting $53 million out of their budget so that they can reduce Saturday hours and be rid of Sunday hours entirely.
So where is all of this money going? Along with boasting about the record amount of funds this budget will keep in the reserves, the Mayor also reached a deal with the NYPD police “union” that will raise salaries across the board, some as much as 40%. This deal includes back pay all the way to 2017, as well as more flexible overtime hours just to tie a neat bow on it all.
Every time they ignore our demands that our money go towards vital social services instead of the NYPD it’s a crime. Year after year, they shift more money to the NYPD’s obscene budget at the expense of New Yorkers’ education, healthcare, housing, and infrastructure. And when that extortion is not enough for them, they also rob us in the streets at gunpoint and head to midtown to show off the cutting-edge surveillance tech they buy with the new funds. Tech that will, as always, be weaponized against the people who paid for it.
The NYPD exists to protect the landlords and all others who live on the income of their private property, or more accurately, live on our backs. Until the working class takes the reins of power from the exploiters, our taxes will always be used to protect these private property interests at the expense of our wellbeing. An organized working class fighting for all of our collective interests is the first step towards ridding ourselves of the parasites and their armed thugs forever.
