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A Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City who has called for slashing the NYPD’s budget in half bragged Tuesday that nearly a third of her campaign’s donors are unemployed.
"We are building a people powered movement that is making history," Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit CEO, tweeted Monday night. "Our most frequent donation is just $10, the average donation is $52 and 30% of our donors are UNEMPLOYED. We don't have to be beholden to special interests or big money. We don't have to go ‘back to normal.’"
More than 500,000 New York City workers lost their jobs between December 2019 and December 2020, according to the state’s Department of Labor. Even amid the coronavirus, that accounts for roughly twice the national rate.
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Small businesses in the city are reeling – with even some of its most prominent restaurants shutting down and many others forced to lay off workers due to coronavirus restrictions.
Morales’ campaign did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment.
Residents have also been fleeing the city in droves amid the pandemic and due to rising crime, according to the New York Post. Roughly 300,000 households packed up and left between March and October 2020.
Morales has nevertheless called for cutting a whopping $3 billion from the city’s police department.
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"We know defunding the police doesn’t mean giving up on public safety; in fact, it means the opposite," her campaign wrote in an email seeking donations Tuesday night. "Removing funding from an overly militarized, abusive agency founded on White supremacy and upheld by the status quo — and then investing in things like mental healthcare, housing, education, green spaces and public transit — makes us more safe, not less."
She has proposed a separate "Community First Responders Department" to respond to 911 calls about homelessness, mental health, substance abuse, emotional distress and other behavioral health issues – rather than the NYPD.
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Mayor Bill de Blasio is not expected to run for reelection due to term limits. But other high-profile Democrats in the race include former presidential hopeful Andrew Yang, a tech entrepreneur, and Eric Adams, a former NYPD captain who is now the Brooklyn borough president.