New York City - Green Party officers responded to the passage of New York City’s FY 2021 budget with the following statement: “In the face of a massive month-long social uprising demanding the end of police violence against Black and Brown communities and a massive reduction in the NYPD budget, the Mayor and City Council instead used accounting tricks to maintain funding for the department, while attempting to claim otherwise,” said Chris Archer, chair of the Green Party of New York County. “We are disgusted by the half-truths and lies emanating from city government, and the continued police violence against our communities as well as peaceful protesters. In a time when the elimination of 22,000 city jobs is being proposed, the Mayor and City Council’s refusal to cut the NYPD shows where their priorities lie: maintaining a police state above all else.”