The NYPD’s Pay Raise Shocker

Apr 29, 2023

NYC Mayor Eric Adams gave away the store in the new contract he reached with the police union, our columnist John Teufel writes. If City Council doesn't intervene, he adds, then "we live not in a city, but in a police department with some minimal public services attached."

The Mayor’s Irresponsible New Police-Union Contract Demands Closer Scrutiny
By John Teufel

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Teufel’s reporting on how the NYPD was looting the city’s treasury at the expense of other essential public services went viral and was retweeted hundreds of times including by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. This article also was the perfect coda to Teufuel’s July 2022 Indy cover story on how Eric Adams, the NYPD and the local media work to keep the public in a permanent state of fear of a city that is not nearly as dangerous as it is made out to be. The Mayor and the police union understand well that first you scare people out of their wits and then they will happily submit to whatever financial extortion their “protectors” demand. When will the rest of us figure it out?

Welcome to Eric Adams’ Fear Factory
By John Teufel

At $12 billion, the NYPD’s annual budget is larger than that of most of the world’s militaries.

But when it comes to helping itself to the public purse, the NYPD is a penny-ante grifter compared to the Pentagon. In our recent story on Move the Money, a group of local peace activists who are urging the New York City Council to speak out against runaway military spending, we look at how NYC taxpayers fork over $29.3 billion per year to help fund the military’s nearly $1 trillion annual budget.

Peace Activists Urge NYC City Council to Weigh in on Runaway Pentagon Spending
By Eleanor J. Bader

Tax Day Coverage: The Raging Grannies Demand a Tax Refund

Institutions like the military and the police are the products of a violent, repressive culture; they exist to uphold an unjust status quo. One perennial challenge for the left is to create radical spaces where a different culture based on inclusive, life-affirming values can take root. This Sunday our friends at the New York City chapter of Veterans for Peace will be sponsoring a benefit performance for Principles GI Coffee House, a venue in Gowanus, Brooklyn run by a former marine that is welcoming to “all other people who are not expressly welcome in society.”

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The Indypendent News Hour was off last week but we will be back on the air this Tuesday 5–6 p.m. on WBAI-99.5 FM and streaming on wbai.org. The show is also rebroadcast Wednesday 5–6 a.m. Here are some recent highlights from the show, which you can follow on our SoundCloud page.