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“The purpose of NYPD is to criminalize and arrest people,” Henson said. “Not care for them.”

Henson, who works with the group Communities United For Police Reform, was joined by a group of elected officials who called on Mayor Eric Adams to rethink his budgeting and increase funding for social services like housing and education.

“Our police have a blank check to spend public funds,” said Park Slope City Council Shahana Hanif. “But somehow our housing, healthcare and libraries have to penny pinch.”

The rally came just a day after Adams’ budget director Jacques Jiha directed almost every city agency to cut budgets by 4 percent, with the Department of Education and CUNY requested to cut 3 percent.

Adams’ progressively drastic cuts will hit some agencies hard.

For New York City’s public libraries, the cuts could total about $37 million, a number representatives called “devastating.”

The NYPD was also asked to implement a 4 percent cut, but after years of drawing an annual $5 billion-plus from city coffers — and blowing past its overtime budget by millions — protesters contended unilateral slashes weren’t fair.

Anthonine Pierre, deputy director of Brooklyn Movement Center, also argued more money in police pockets wouldn’t mean a safer New York City and would lead instead to the further criminalization of its most vulnerable populations.

“We have a mayor who thinks that safety is making cops the answer to every problem,” Pierre said.

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“Can a cop take care of your kids at school and educate them? Can a cop support you and your family through a mental health crisis? Can a cop get you a lease for an apartment?”

“What we want is that real safety,” Pierre added. “We want justice, we want safety, and we want an end to that budget violence that says that Black and Brown communities don’t get the services and support that we deserve.”

Key among organizers’ demands was a non-punitive approach to homelessness and housing. Police should not be handling homelessness, and the city should instead push for affordable housing and protections for renters, organizers said.

Council Member Lincoln Restler, who represents northern Brooklyn, pointed to a massive 2022 policy survey that found New Yorkers prioritized affordable housing and reducing homelessness as their top public safety priorities.

The survey was touted as the biggest of its kind, asking 62,000 New York City locals about local policy ranging from public safety to infrastructure to education, Gothamist reported.

“Housing keeps us safe,” Restler said. “But Mayor Adams is insisting on cutting and cutting and cutting the essential services that our communities rely on.”

Advocates also took mental health as a key priority, calling to end NYPD’s involvement with mental health issues, according to Communities United for Police Reform.

Education and youth development was another key focus for organizers. NYPD should not be involved in New York City public schools or youth services and engagement, according to Communities United for Police Reform.

The city asks cops to do “everything under the sun,” Restler said.

Harlem representative Kristin Richardson Jordan called on her fellow City Council members to oppose Adams’ bill.

“Every time the mayor says crime, let’s say poverty. Let’s talk about addressing the violence of poverty. Every time this mayor says crime let’s talk about mental health,” Richardson Jordan said.

“We need to vote down a budget that is funding police.”

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