‘Defund the police’ politicians are utter fakes

New York City has three weeks to balance its budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. And the city’s economy is going to take years — if not longer — to recover from one crisis that’s not our fault, the pandemic, and one that is, failing to deter looting. Instead of hard-headed budgeting, though, the City Council is busying itself with a hashtag: Defund the NYPD.

The council’s “progressive caucus” — at 23 people, a hefty portion of the 51-member body – wants to gut the police department’s budget. “It’s time to #DefundNYPD,” tweets Ben Kallos of the Upper East Side. “Slash the NYPD budget this year,” vows Carlina Rivera of the Lower East Side.

The council says it now wants to reform the police — suddenly, even though the existing council has been in office for three years. Of course, this is the first time in history a Democratic body has ever thought that cutting a budget can lead to fixes, so, fair enough.

Fortuitously for the cutters, Gotham faces the worst fiscal crisis in history. So we may as well #DefundNYPD, as part of a policy to #DefundEverything.

So what’s the big plan? Kallos proposes $1 billion in cuts, over four years. Across a $10 billion annual police budget, that’s $250 million a year, or less than 3 percent. Others propose $1 billion a year — still only 10 percent.

And despite all the over-the-top rhetoric, the actual ideas are pretty trivial.

Cut overtime — the first refuge (and usually a false promise) of all budget-cutting elected officials.

Cancel the upcoming police class — sure, but if you want a department with brand-new ideals, don’t you do that by bringing in people unencumbered by the old?

“Keep cops out of schools.” Right: Buy new uniforms for the NYPD’s unarmed school-safety agents, and put them in some other department. But it doesn’t change the job. Plus, most parents want an armed cop or two as backup for a serious crime.

There’s lots of bloat in the NYPD — just as in all New York City departments. The department has 1,700 more civilians than it did when Mayor Bill de Blasio took office, nearly 18,000. That’s nearly one civilian for every two cops.

The council won’t say a peep about the pension and health-benefit costs that make up nearly half of the police department’s budget, including nearly $3 billion in annual pension costs.

You’d think if we’re gonna burn everything down, these revolutionaries would at least consider whether a different pension structure would attract a different officer. The devil’s bargain a lot of cops make is: It’s a rough job, but after 22 years, I’m out, and I can start a second career in my 40s.

So maybe switch to a 401k-style benefit rather than a guaranteed pension, and attract people who want to do the job for just a few years before moving on to law school, like Teach for America.

Nope. #DefundNYPD, sure, but don’t touch cops’ gold-plated pensions.

In fact, the council well knows it can’t do much to match its rhetoric. Any intimation of pay tied to merit will alienate other unions. As will any real efforts to reform discipline. The teachers’ union well knows that if you can fire a cop who doesn’t fit the job, even if he hasn’t broken the law, you can fire a teacher for the same reason. Discretionary management and powerful unions don’t mix.

Meanwhile, even the most aggressive proposed cuts don’t come anywhere close to what the council has to do . . . to all city departments.

New York’s economy is decimated twice over — once by coronavirus shutdowns, and once by rampant looting. It’s likely we’ll see a $15 billion budget gap this upcoming year, a fifth of local tax revenues.

Before protests and rioting broke out across the city, Council Speaker Corey Johnson, to his credit, called on the mayor to find 5 percent to 7 percent cuts across city agencies. That is unlikely to be enough, even if the state Legislature unwisely allows the city to borrow for day-to-day expenses.

And neither Johnson nor anyone else has backed cuts that don’t hit frontline services, such as a full wage freeze for all union workers, or the cancellation of a retroactive bonus for teachers and other civilian workers in October.

Meanwhile, the de Blasio administration is actually about to ratify a new contract — 8 percent raises for sanitation workers over four years — that we can’t afford.

For now, to “defund” is to deflect.

Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor at the City Journal.