'What Does That Mean?' Cuomo Asks Over $1B NYPD Budget Cut

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo has some questions about a newly-approved, much-disputed $1 billion "cut" to the NYPD, starting with a simple one: "What does it mean?

"Does it mean I’m less safe? Where do you take the billion dollars from? Does it mean I’m more safe? Does it have any effect on police abuse? I don’t know what it means."

Cuomo's questions on Wednesday were the windup to a 14-minute, at-turns mocking and contemplative monologue on police reform.

It followed the approval of Mayor Bill de Blasio's and the City Council's $88.1 billion budget, which took $1 billion from the NYPD — at least on paper.

Declaring "Black Lives Matter" and reforming police is long overdue, Cuomo said. It should have happened after Eric Garner six years ago, or Rodney King 30-odd years ago, he said.

But painting the words "Black Lives Matter" in front of Trump Tower, while "great," isn't enough, he said.

"You know what’s better? Do something. Do something. Do something," he said.

It's there that Cuomo got to the $1 billion question and brushed the number away. He said the "problem" with the NYPD is bigger and worse than money.

There is no respect and trust between the community and the police, he said.

"The community has said the relationship with the police department doesn't work," he said. "And if it doesn't work for the community, it doesn't work. So what do you have to do? You have to redesign the whole relationship."

The NYPD was designed 50 year ago under a different mindset, Cuomo said. He pulled out a blank sheet of paper and envisioned the community — the taxpayers who the police serve, he said — drawing up their vision of the police department from the ground up.

What should the police's role in the community be? What is their use of force? Should they be militarized? Those are issues the community should address and the police department should follow, Cuomo said.

"Redesign the NYPD," he said. "Painting slogans on streets — I support it, cities all across the nation are doing it. Protests — I support it. You know what I support more? Do something, make change."

Cuomo compared it to attending Pride parades before he enacted marriage equality. The parades and protests helped raise and create energy around the issue, but "actual change" needs to be made in government, he said.

That's where a recent executive order comes in, Cuomo said. He required local governments to have a conversation about 500 police departments across the state, "redesign" them and pass a plan by April or else lose state funding.

The $1 billion cut doesn't address the questions on the blank sheet of paper, Cuomo said.

"Does it change the use of force policy? Are they going to stop beating people? Does it do anything on their immunity? Does it make the complaint process faster or more transparent? What does it do to change anything that we've been protesting about for a month? Would it have saved George Floyd's life? Would it have saved Eric Garner's life? Come on."