About 100 radicals are camped out in front of City Hall in NYC, with a list of ridiculous demands. About a thousand have congregated for the last two evenings.

Calling themselves “Occupy City Hall,” they started gathering there on Tuesday afternoon and stayed. Some of the same old leftists who were behind Occupy are involved in this action, proving everything old is new again.

Some of their demands? Not just defunding and abolishing the police but freeing people from prisons and jails, repealing laws criminalizing survival (whatever that means), provide safe accessible, affordable housing (no, it isn’t really about George Floyd or police brutality), fully invest in care (again, whatever that means).

Their main aim is to force a $1 billion cut to the police. How that will make the police a better department, they don’t seem to be able to say. But they want the money directed to their interests.

“A protest is a physical manifestation of the body politic. A protest is the physical manifestation of our ancestors wildest dreams.” – Jawanza James Williams at the Defined NYPD Occupy City Hall Rally #BlackLivesMatter #DefundNYPD pic.twitter.com/RHwaByeUYL

— Rise and Resist (@riseandresistny) June 23, 2020

Occupy protesters set up camp outside New York City Hall
Activists are demanding the NYPD be defunded by $1 billion; Alex Hogan reports. https://t.co/CAai6YxkqM

— William B. (@willbarrett_1) June 25, 2020

They want this despite the huge increase in shootings. Why? Because they caved to the defund crowd and got rid of 600 anticrime police. The anticrime police were the plainclothes division which helped deter crime and shootings before they happened, but now they’re only reacting after the fact.

From CBS Local:

“We need safety and we need fairness. We need safety and we need justice. We have to do both,” de Blasio said.

So far this month, the NYPD reports 125 shooting incidents citywide, violence that has not been seen in June since 1996.

“You cannot keep people safe without keeping bad, dangerous people off the streets,” Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said.

The police commissioner blames bail reform and the criminal justice system, which has not been fully operating in the pandemic.

“We have thousands of cases where people have been arrested and not even charges brought up against them because they’ve been deferred,” Shea said.

Chances are they’re going to get the $1 billion cut too. The city council, which is full of progressives, has already indicated they could be receptive to such a cut. It makes no sense.

Here is the new occupation near New York City Hall.

As someone who spent 6+ months covering Occupy Wall Street in 2011-12. I notice the following similarities (Here’s hoping this doesn’t become a COVID-19 disaster)

(thread) pic.twitter.com/vgPahE25QL

— Zach Williams (@ZachReports) June 24, 2020

Protesters occupy a space outside City Hall demanding that @NYCMayor cut 1B from the #nypd budget due June 30 @wcbs880 pic.twitter.com/QvjtwmJ0uZ

— Marla Diamond (@MDiamond8) June 25, 2020