vox--2020-06-19--Inside the fight to “defund” the NYPD

Inside the fight to “defund” the NYPD

“ Cut it !
Cut it !
Cut it !
Cut it !
Cut it !
” the crowd of protesters chanted .
Together , they raised their hands skyward , two fingers clipping together to mime scissors .
“ What ?
” the person leading the chant called over the sound system .
“ Your budget ’ s way too high , you need to cut it !
” The crowd repeated the line , fingers chop-chopping with every syllable .
The budget in question belonged to the New York City Police Department , the nation ’ s largest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ agencies across the country , the NYPD has come under renewed scrutiny in the wake of nationwide protests against racism and police brutality following the police killing of George Floyd .
Last Tuesday evening , at a rally outside of City Hall in lower Manhattan , demonstrators and activists , including family members of people killed by the NYPD , demanded that at least $ 1 billion be cut from the police department ’ s approximately $ 6 billion pot of the city budget .
Advocates want to see some of that money @ @ @ @ @ @ @ educational programs .
The New York City Council has since endorsed a plan to trim $ 1 billion from the department ’ s budget .
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he would shift funds from the police department to youth and social services , but he has rejected that $ 1 billion number .
This debate in New York City comes during a nationwide reckoning about policing .
That reckoning spans a wide spectrum , from reforms to increased accountability to outright abolition .
“ Defund the police ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ around the country , repeated by crowds and scribbled on cardboard signs .
There are many shades of “ defund the police , ” and in lots of places , what that might look like is being worked out in real time .
The call to cut NYPD funding is not new for many advocates and organizers , but the George Floyd protests have reshaped , rapidly , what feels achievable now .
” These things don ’ t happen in a vacuum : these slogans like ‘ defund the police ’ and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they don ’ t just come out in the sky .
This is the product of years and years of organizing , ” David Galarza , an activist with the Justice Committee , a grassroots group fighting racism and police brutality in New York , told me .
The protests have already pushed lawmakers to embrace reforms that had long stalled , including making police chokeholds illegal and repealing 50-a , which previously shielded police misconduct records from the public .
The NYPD said this week it would disband and reassign its plainclothes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the force .
Scrutiny of the NYPD ’ s budget has joined the list .
It is one that police unions oppose and NYPD ’ s top brass is at least wary over .
NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea has said he backs rerouting some funds from the police to youth programs , urging the city council to “ cut smartly.
” But the clock is ticking : New York City ’ s budget is due before July 1 , when the new fiscal year begins .
The coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing economic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ financials .
Right now , the city ’ s Independent Budget Office is predicting about a $ 9.7 billion tax revenue shortfall through the next fiscal year .
Federal help is still a question mark .
The mayor has trimmed about $ 6 billion from his original budget proposal in February , though that might not even be enough .
The city could be facing its worst fiscal crisis in decades , which would require slashing across city agencies .
But advocates say that now , as the city begins its painful recovery @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time to reinvest in social , health , and community services and away from law enforcement .
The coronavirus has killed more than 22,000 people in New York City , most heavily concentrated in black and Latino communities .
The city ’ s unemployment rate is about 14 percent .
Those most affected by these twin catastrophes overlap with communities that more deeply experience overpolicing .
“ This is actually part of a much broader public conversation that needs to happen , about decisive governmental action that needs to happen to keep our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this pandemic in a way that we don ’ t deepen inequity , especially in terms of black , Latinx , and other communities of color , ” said Joo-Hyun Kang , director of Communities United for Police Reform ( CPR ) , a coalition of advocacy groups that ’ s leading the charge to remove $ 1 billion from the NYPD budget and redirect those funds to lifesaving support and programs and critical infrastructure .
This debate over the NYPD ’ s budget will test a version of “ defunding ” the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , with a world-famous force .
Momentum for reform is colliding with the uncertainty of what the city will look like , and need , post-pandemic .
Add to that an urgent deadline .
Whatever the outcome , the fight is going to be a lot more complicated than “ cut it !
” How the city got here The New York City Police Department costs the city about $ 11 billion , about half of which goes to items like pensions and fringe benefits .
Its operating budget is just shy of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of that goes to its personnel , for things like salaries and overtime , according to the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission .
The NYPD has the third-largest operating budget in the city based on this year ’ s budget , behind the departments of Education ( $ 24 billion ) and Social Services ( $ 10 billion , including Medicaid payments ) .
This current fiscal year , the NYPD ’ s operating budget accounted for a little more than 6 percent of the city ’ s $ 90 billion-plus budget , though @ @ @ @ @ @ @ resources has actually declined in the past two decades .
Earlier this year , de Blasio submitted his initial $ 95.3 billion budget for the coming fiscal year ( FY2021 ) , which officially starts July 1 .
Then the coronavirus hit .
The mayor resubmitted a proposal this spring , shrinking the budget by about $ 6 billion total , to $ 89.3 billion .
Shaving billions from a massive budget like New York City ’ s required across-the-board cuts and hiring freezes at some agencies .
That included slashes to social @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the city ’ s summer youth employment program that employs about 70,000 teens , many from lower-income communities .
And those subtractions looked particularly glaring compared to the NYPD budget .
As Gothamist ’ s Jake Offenhartz reported : Even before the George Floyd protests , activists and city council members had questioned the mayor ’ s budgeting priorities — and why the NYPD escaped relatively unscathed , especially since there seemed like some areas worth trimming .
For instance , NYPD overtime was expected to go down because things like parade and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before the near-daily demonstrations ) because of the pandemic .
Plus , crime in the city remains near record lows , and at this time of extreme belt-tightening when other agencies faced freezes , some questioned the need for the NYPD to continue to bring on new members to the force .
“ Once again , there ’ s no need for @ NYCMayor to spend $ 25 million on a new police class .
Let ’ s redistribute those $ into [ Summer Youth Employment Program ] and the Crisis Management System @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would only add to social-distancing enforcement in black communities , ” Donovan Richard , a city council member from southeastern Queens and chair of the Public Safety Committee , tweeted in early May .
But the cries for # NYCBudgetJustice intensified with the protests against police brutality and racism that have enveloped the country following the police killing of Floyd in Minneapolis .
Calls to “ defund the police ” have accompanied a broader discussion about rethinking the use and purpose of law enforcement — whether an armed officer has to respond to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ money into social and mental health services would prevent the need for police intervention and better protect and build safer communities in the long run .
“ It remains really clear , again , that if we had more investments in our communities in education in the arts programs in music programs , in summer youth employment programs , in mental health services — if we really prioritize our citizens and gave them the tools and the things that they needed to be able to live a vibrant , healthy , safe existence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for law enforcement , ” Galarza , of the Justice Committee , said .
“ Law enforcement shouldn ’ t be used for every facet of our lives , ” he added .
“ They shouldn ’ t be in our school system .
They shouldn ’ t be evicting homeless people from trains .
They shouldn ’ t be used during a pandemic .
What do cops know about a pandemic and health services ?
” That conversation is still evolving , but activists are pushing for results now .
From Los @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Chicago to New York and beyond , organizers are seizing an opportunity to , if not to fully defund , then diminish and redirect funds that go to police forces , reshaping law enforcement and city priorities in the process .
Communities United for Police Reform released a report this week that documents where “ policing-related savings ” adding up to about $ 2 billion , though they are demanding at least a $ 1 billion slice of the NYPD ’ s budget .
That would include freezing new hires ( $ 208 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ benefits , according to CPR ) and slashing overtime ( $ 300 million ) , along items like deducting costs from settlements the NYPD has to pay out for misconduct and removing police from schools and putting school safety back under the control of the Department of Education .
The proposal would also take away funding for the NYPD ’ s role in responding to mental health and homelessness .
( Some of the figures also take into account savings from reduction in things like fringe benefits , which come out of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many of these instances , CPR recommends redirecting some of the savings to social programs , swapping the tens of millions that currently go to funding , say , school safety officers for more investment in restorative justice programs and guidance counselors .
Advocates argue that these broad cuts would bring the NYPD back down in size and in funding levels to where it was around 2014 , when de Blasio took office .
“ The city has historically underfunded areas that actually , we would argue , keep people safe in material @ @ @ @ @ @ @ CPR , told me .
She continued : The New York City Council has backed a plan to eliminate $ 1 billion , though the details are still emerging .
Politico , which obtained a copy of the plan , reported Wednesday that lawmakers are prepared to offer up a plan that cuts the NYPD ’ s budget by about 20 percent .
According to Politico , big chunks of savings would come from shaving and restricting the department ’ s overtime budget , totaling $ 163 million , and from not replacing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , at $ 300 million .
It would also return school safety officers to the Department of Education .
“ There is no doubt that this is an ambitious goal , but it is one that the time we are in calls for — both here in New York City and nationwide , ” City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and the other city council leaders wrote in a joint statement on June 12 .
“ This is possible : We have identified savings that would cut over $ 1 billion dollars , including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ overtime , shifting responsibilities away from the NYPD , finding efficiencies and savings in OTPS spending , and lowering associated fringe expenses , ” the statement said .
Like all budget negotiations , though , the details are going to matter — and , of course , what City Hall says .
The mayor and the NYPD are open to cuts , but how much ?
Mayor Bill de Blasio previously said he is open to shifting funds to “ to youth services , to social services , ” and the details would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ city council .
But so far , the mayor has resisted the size of the cuts some city council members and advocates are proposing .
“ The mayor has said we ’ re committed to re-prioritizing funding and looking for savings , but he does not believe a $ 1 billion cut is the way to maintain safety , ” de Blasio spokesperson Freddi Goldstein said this weekend .
( Vox confirmed Tuesday that this is still the mayor ’ s position . )
De Blasio ran for mayor on a platform of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — and , critics would say , deference to — the police department , especially in the last few weeks of protests , has rankled reformers , who already felt he had fallen short of his promise to revamp the department .
And the re-examination of the NYPD ’ s budget is a swift transformation in the city , as officials are usually loath to chop into the budget the police force , fearing blowback , especially if crime goes up .
But as the political mood has shifted , so have lawmakers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ signed on to the $ 1 billion plan , is planning a run for mayor in 2021 .
And then there are the police themselves : Police unions have staunchly opposed the plan , and have largely blasted any of the latest attempts at reforms .
Commissioner Shea told the Associated Press in an interview this week that he is open to reexamining funding for responsibilities the NYPD has taken on through the years , such as school safety , though he resisted cuts to the size of the force .
“ I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ think we ’ re going to be forced to do difficult things .
We certainly get that , ” Shea said .
“ What concerns me is a moment in time and some rash judgments stepping in and taking the place of some well thought out conversations about how to cut smartly.
” The NYPD “ will continue to work closely with City Hall during discussions around the NYPD budget , ” Sgt .
Jessica McRorie , a spokesperson in the police department ’ s press office , told Vox .
But cutting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — funds may be much harder in a city where the full scale of its economic crisis isn ’ t yet clear .
At least the city is about to find out .
The momentum of the protests has helped shift public opinion on police reforms .
Videos of police brutality during the protests have undercut the notion that this is just “ a few bad apples.
” And then there is devastation brought on by the coronavirus .
New York and its surrounding areas became the Covid-19 epicenter , isolated by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is now emerging from the peak of the pandemic , but into what isn ’ t clear .
Right now , the city is stuck in limbo : post-lockdown but not quite reopened .
That is obscuring the true scale of economic disruption — which jobs will come back , which businesses will survive , who will leave , and who will stay .
That requires building an “ equitable ” pandemic recovery , as Kang put it , one that doesn ’ t exacerbate the disparities revealed by the coronavirus .
At @ @ @ @ @ @ @ budget fight in a city that is facing a massive fiscal crisis , which means all agencies and their budgets are be under scrutiny — the “ no sacred cows ” idea .
And when every agency is stretched for funding and resources or staff , that requires a careful balancing act .
“ Budget cuts and decisions about the department should really be driven by an assessment of what services you want to provide in what way and how do you do that , ” Ana Champeny , director of city studies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Budget Commission , told me .
Champeny added that the NYPD is “ a personnel-heavy agency.
” New York ’ s uniformed police force is about 36,000 , with another 19,000 civilian employees .
Shrinking the force is likely to be the most controversial of areas , and some experts I spoke to were skeptical it could be cut down simply by attrition — basically not replacing the officers who depart .
Scott Stringer , the city ’ s comptroller , has found a way to achieve $ 1 billion in savings , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years — a cost savings of $ 265 million annually .
Advocates do not want to wait .
“ We ’ re drawing the line in the sand at $ 1 billion starting July 1 , ” Galarza said .
“ And it ’ s going to be $ 1 billion now , not in four years , 10 years .
And we ’ re hoping that this is just the beginning of that.
” But redirecting or shifting funds may not be as simple as just moving pots of money around .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , might mean accompanying broader reforms , or figuring out how to fill service gaps .
Beyond moving funds from a police department , it will likely require greater investments — just more money , period — into programs like affordable housing , education , and social services .
For example , in the late 1990s , moving school safety agents from the Department of Education to the NYPD was also a political battle .
Whether the DOE is prepared and ready to take on the responsibility is another issue .
The union @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It may make sense to take the NYPD out of schools , but doing so might require wholesale rethinking not just of the city budget , but of how services and law enforcement are structured in New York City .
Samuel Walker , a professor emeritus of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska Omaha , told me that these kinds of questions require planning , and a lot of it , and a sense that the agency getting the funds is going to be effective at achieving its goal .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said .
“ When we say we invest in the communities : what and where ?
And for how much ?
What evidence [ do ] we have that that ’ s going to produce the positive results we want ?
” Rebecca Neusteter , executive director of Health Lab at the University of Chicago Urban Labs , told me that many cities have told the police to do way more than most want to or are resourced to do .
“ And I think it creates a really toxic dynamic in some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you have this tension of a police department that isn ’ t resourced or equipped or really interested in responding to needs that have been flagged for them to solve , ” she said .
Untangling that is a lot more difficult .
Neusteter pointed to the 911 system : Most calls don ’ t require police , but overhauling the system to be more responsive to a community ’ s needs is not something that can be tweaked easily , even if resources shift .
“ If we are going to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that people receive services in this country and get help when they are asking for [ it ] , ” Neustater said , “ it can not go unrecognized that there are funding needs and services that have to be attached and correspond to those things.
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Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
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“Cut it! Cut it! Cut it! Cut it! Cut it!” the crowd of protesters chanted.
Together, they raised their hands skyward, two fingers clipping together to mime scissors.
“What?” the person leading the chant called over the sound system. “Your budget’s way too high, you need to cut it!” The crowd repeated the line, fingers chop-chopping with every syllable.
The budget in question belonged to the New York City Police Department, the nation’s largest police force. Along with law enforcement agencies across the country, the NYPD has come under renewed scrutiny in the wake of nationwide protests against racism and police brutality following the police killing of George Floyd.
Last Tuesday evening, at a rally outside of City Hall in lower Manhattan, demonstrators and activists, including family members of people killed by the NYPD, demanded that at least $1 billion be cut from the police department’s approximately $6 billion pot of the city budget. Advocates want to see some of that money redirected to essential services and social and educational programs.
The New York City Council has since endorsed a plan to trim $1 billion from the department’s budget. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has said he would shift funds from the police department to youth and social services, but he has rejected that $1 billion number.
This debate in New York City comes during a nationwide reckoning about policing. That reckoning spans a wide spectrum, from reforms to increased accountability to outright abolition. “Defund the police” has turned into a common protest slogan around the country, repeated by crowds and scribbled on cardboard signs.
There are many shades of “defund the police,” and in lots of places, what that might look like is being worked out in real time. The call to cut NYPD funding is not new for many advocates and organizers, but the George Floyd protests have reshaped, rapidly, what feels achievable now.
”These things don’t happen in a vacuum: these slogans like ‘defund the police’ and 50-a — all of these things, they don’t just come out in the sky. This is the product of years and years of organizing,” David Galarza, an activist with the Justice Committee, a grassroots group fighting racism and police brutality in New York, told me.
The protests have already pushed lawmakers to embrace reforms that had long stalled, including making police chokeholds illegal and repealing 50-a, which previously shielded police misconduct records from the public. The NYPD said this week it would disband and reassign its plainclothes anti-crime units, about 600 members of the force.
Scrutiny of the NYPD’s budget has joined the list. It is one that police unions oppose and NYPD’s top brass is at least wary over. NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea has said he backs rerouting some funds from the police to youth programs, urging the city council to “cut smartly.”
But the clock is ticking: New York City’s budget is due before July 1, when the new fiscal year begins. The coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis have upended the city’s financials. Right now, the city’s Independent Budget Office is predicting about a $9.7 billion tax revenue shortfall through the next fiscal year. Federal help is still a question mark. The mayor has trimmed about $6 billion from his original budget proposal in February, though that might not even be enough.
The city could be facing its worst fiscal crisis in decades, which would require slashing across city agencies. But advocates say that now, as the city begins its painful recovery from the pandemic, is exactly the time to reinvest in social, health, and community services and away from law enforcement.
The coronavirus has killed more than 22,000 people in New York City, most heavily concentrated in black and Latino communities. The city’s unemployment rate is about 14 percent. Those most affected by these twin catastrophes overlap with communities that more deeply experience overpolicing.
“This is actually part of a much broader public conversation that needs to happen, about decisive governmental action that needs to happen to keep our city safe — to come out of this pandemic in a way that we don’t deepen inequity, especially in terms of black, Latinx, and other communities of color,” said Joo-Hyun Kang, director of Communities United for Police Reform (CPR), a coalition of advocacy groups that’s leading the charge to remove $1 billion from the NYPD budget and redirect those funds to lifesaving support and programs and critical infrastructure.
This debate over the NYPD’s budget will test a version of “defunding” the police, at least in one city, with a world-famous force. Momentum for reform is colliding with the uncertainty of what the city will look like, and need, post-pandemic. Add to that an urgent deadline.
Whatever the outcome, the fight is going to be a lot more complicated than “cut it!”
How the city got here
The New York City Police Department costs the city about $11 billion, about half of which goes to items like pensions and fringe benefits. Its operating budget is just shy of $6 billion, and the bulk of that goes to its personnel, for things like salaries and overtime, according to the nonpartisan Citizens Budget Commission.
The NYPD has the third-largest operating budget in the city based on this year’s budget, behind the departments of Education ($24 billion) and Social Services ($10 billion, including Medicaid payments). This current fiscal year, the NYPD’s operating budget accounted for a little more than 6 percent of the city’s $90 billion-plus budget, though the NYPD’s share of city resources has actually declined in the past two decades.
Earlier this year, de Blasio submitted his initial $95.3 billion budget for the coming fiscal year (FY2021), which officially starts July 1. Then the coronavirus hit. The mayor resubmitted a proposal this spring, shrinking the budget by about $6 billion total, to $89.3 billion.
Shaving billions from a massive budget like New York City’s required across-the-board cuts and hiring freezes at some agencies. That included slashes to social and youth services, including completely gutting the city’s summer youth employment program that employs about 70,000 teens, many from lower-income communities.
And those subtractions looked particularly glaring compared to the NYPD budget. As Gothamist’s Jake Offenhartz reported:
But at least one city agency has largely escaped the chopping block. Under the mayor’s proposal, the NYPD’s nearly $6 billion budget would dip just $23.8 million—a 0.39 percent cut—in the coming fiscal year. During the same period, funding for Department of Education is poised to drop by $827 million—a 3 percent cut of its overall budget.
Even before the George Floyd protests, activists and city council members had questioned the mayor’s budgeting priorities — and why the NYPD escaped relatively unscathed, especially since there seemed like some areas worth trimming. For instance, NYPD overtime was expected to go down because things like parade and concerts were largely canceled (at least before the near-daily demonstrations) because of the pandemic.
Plus, crime in the city remains near record lows, and at this time of extreme belt-tightening when other agencies faced freezes, some questioned the need for the NYPD to continue to bring on new members to the force.
“Once again, there’s no need for @NYCMayor to spend $25 million on a new police class. Let’s redistribute those $ into [Summer Youth Employment Program] and the Crisis Management System. Crime is down. Another class would only add to social-distancing enforcement in black communities,” Donovan Richard, a city council member from southeastern Queens and chair of the Public Safety Committee, tweeted in early May.
But the cries for #NYCBudgetJustice intensified with the protests against police brutality and racism that have enveloped the country following the police killing of Floyd in Minneapolis.
What advocates want
Calls to “defund the police” have accompanied a broader discussion about rethinking the use and purpose of law enforcement — whether an armed officer has to respond to each 911 call, whether putting more money into social and mental health services would prevent the need for police intervention and better protect and build safer communities in the long run.
“It remains really clear, again, that if we had more investments in our communities in education in the arts programs in music programs, in summer youth employment programs, in mental health services — if we really prioritize our citizens and gave them the tools and the things that they needed to be able to live a vibrant, healthy, safe existence, we can greatly diminish the need for law enforcement,” Galarza, of the Justice Committee, said.
“Law enforcement shouldn’t be used for every facet of our lives,” he added. “They shouldn’t be in our school system. They shouldn’t be evicting homeless people from trains. They shouldn’t be used during a pandemic. What do cops know about a pandemic and health services?”
That conversation is still evolving, but activists are pushing for results now. From Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon, to Chicago to New York and beyond, organizers are seizing an opportunity to, if not to fully defund, then diminish and redirect funds that go to police forces, reshaping law enforcement and city priorities in the process.
Communities United for Police Reform released a report this week that documents where “policing-related savings” adding up to about $2 billion, though they are demanding at least a $1 billion slice of the NYPD’s budget.
That would include freezing new hires ($208 million, plus millions more in fringe benefits, according to CPR) and slashing overtime ($300 million), along items like deducting costs from settlements the NYPD has to pay out for misconduct and removing police from schools and putting school safety back under the control of the Department of Education.
The proposal would also take away funding for the NYPD’s role in responding to mental health and homelessness. (Some of the figures also take into account savings from reduction in things like fringe benefits, which come out of a different pot of money.)
In many of these instances, CPR recommends redirecting some of the savings to social programs, swapping the tens of millions that currently go to funding, say, school safety officers for more investment in restorative justice programs and guidance counselors.
Advocates argue that these broad cuts would bring the NYPD back down in size and in funding levels to where it was around 2014, when de Blasio took office.
“The city has historically underfunded areas that actually, we would argue, keep people safe in material ways,” Kang, director of CPR, told me. She continued:
We mean permanent affordable housing, public health, infrastructure and public health services, education supports for our young people in school, income and food justice, environmental and transportation justice — all of those compared to the city’s budget around policing criminalization is really dwarfed, and it shows the long-term priorities that the city has shown through it’s money.
The New York City Council has backed a plan to eliminate $1 billion, though the details are still emerging. Politico, which obtained a copy of the plan, reported Wednesday that lawmakers are prepared to offer up a plan that cuts the NYPD’s budget by about 20 percent.
According to Politico, big chunks of savings would come from shaving and restricting the department’s overtime budget, totaling $163 million, and from not replacing the retiring and departing officers this year, at $300 million. It would also return school safety officers to the Department of Education.
“There is no doubt that this is an ambitious goal, but it is one that the time we are in calls for — both here in New York City and nationwide,” City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and the other city council leaders wrote in a joint statement on June 12.
“This is possible: We have identified savings that would cut over $1 billion dollars, including reducing uniform headcount through attrition, cutting overtime, shifting responsibilities away from the NYPD, finding efficiencies and savings in OTPS spending, and lowering associated fringe expenses,” the statement said.
Like all budget negotiations, though, the details are going to matter — and, of course, what City Hall says.
The mayor and the NYPD are open to cuts, but how much?
Mayor Bill de Blasio previously said he is open to shifting funds to “to youth services, to social services,” and the details would be worked out in negotiations with the city council. But so far, the mayor has resisted the size of the cuts some city council members and advocates are proposing.
“The mayor has said we’re committed to re-prioritizing funding and looking for savings, but he does not believe a $1 billion cut is the way to maintain safety,” de Blasio spokesperson Freddi Goldstein said this weekend. (Vox confirmed Tuesday that this is still the mayor’s position.)
De Blasio ran for mayor on a platform of police reform, but his defense of — and, critics would say, deference to — the police department, especially in the last few weeks of protests, has rankled reformers, who already felt he had fallen short of his promise to revamp the department.
And the re-examination of the NYPD’s budget is a swift transformation in the city, as officials are usually loath to chop into the budget the police force, fearing blowback, especially if crime goes up. But as the political mood has shifted, so have lawmakers’ positions. Speaker Johnson, who signed on to the $1 billion plan, is planning a run for mayor in 2021.
And then there are the police themselves: Police unions have staunchly opposed the plan, and have largely blasted any of the latest attempts at reforms. Commissioner Shea told the Associated Press in an interview this week that he is open to reexamining funding for responsibilities the NYPD has taken on through the years, such as school safety, though he resisted cuts to the size of the force.
“I think everyone has to cut. I think we’re going to be forced to do difficult things. We certainly get that,” Shea said. “What concerns me is a moment in time and some rash judgments stepping in and taking the place of some well thought out conversations about how to cut smartly.”
The NYPD “will continue to work closely with City Hall during discussions around the NYPD budget,” Sgt. Jessica McRorie, a spokesperson in the police department’s press office, told Vox.
But cutting — and, more importantly, redirecting — funds may be much harder in a city where the full scale of its economic crisis isn’t yet clear. At least the city is about to find out.
A test for “defunding”
The momentum of the protests has helped shift public opinion on police reforms. Videos of police brutality during the protests have undercut the notion that this is just “a few bad apples.”
And then there is devastation brought on by the coronavirus. New York and its surrounding areas became the Covid-19 epicenter, isolated by the scale of the emergency. The city is now emerging from the peak of the pandemic, but into what isn’t clear.
Right now, the city is stuck in limbo: post-lockdown but not quite reopened. That is obscuring the true scale of economic disruption — which jobs will come back, which businesses will survive, who will leave, and who will stay. That requires building an “equitable” pandemic recovery, as Kang put it, one that doesn’t exacerbate the disparities revealed by the coronavirus.
At the same time, this is a budget fight in a city that is facing a massive fiscal crisis, which means all agencies and their budgets are be under scrutiny — the “no sacred cows” idea. And when every agency is stretched for funding and resources or staff, that requires a careful balancing act.
“Budget cuts and decisions about the department should really be driven by an assessment of what services you want to provide in what way and how do you do that,” Ana Champeny, director of city studies at the nonpartisan, New York-focused Citizens Budget Commission, told me.
Champeny added that the NYPD is “a personnel-heavy agency.” New York’s uniformed police force is about 36,000, with another 19,000 civilian employees. Shrinking the force is likely to be the most controversial of areas, and some experts I spoke to were skeptical it could be cut down simply by attrition — basically not replacing the officers who depart.
Scott Stringer, the city’s comptroller, has found a way to achieve $1 billion in savings, including through attrition, but over four years — a cost savings of $265 million annually.
Advocates do not want to wait. “We’re drawing the line in the sand at $1 billion starting July 1,” Galarza said. “And it’s going to be $1 billion now, not in four years, 10 years. And we’re hoping that this is just the beginning of that.”
But redirecting or shifting funds may not be as simple as just moving pots of money around. To do so effectively, and equitably, might mean accompanying broader reforms, or figuring out how to fill service gaps. Beyond moving funds from a police department, it will likely require greater investments — just more money, period — into programs like affordable housing, education, and social services.
For example, in the late 1990s, moving school safety agents from the Department of Education to the NYPD was also a political battle. Whether the DOE is prepared and ready to take on the responsibility is another issue. The union leading those school safety agents is opposed. It may make sense to take the NYPD out of schools, but doing so might require wholesale rethinking not just of the city budget, but of how services and law enforcement are structured in New York City.
Samuel Walker, a professor emeritus of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska Omaha, told me that these kinds of questions require planning, and a lot of it, and a sense that the agency getting the funds is going to be effective at achieving its goal.
“You need to specify,” he said. “When we say we invest in the communities: what and where? And for how much? What evidence [do] we have that that’s going to produce the positive results we want?”
Rebecca Neusteter, executive director of Health Lab at the University of Chicago Urban Labs, told me that many cities have told the police to do way more than most want to or are resourced to do.
“And I think it creates a really toxic dynamic in some instances between police and communities, because you have this tension of a police department that isn’t resourced or equipped or really interested in responding to needs that have been flagged for them to solve,” she said.
Untangling that is a lot more difficult. Neusteter pointed to the 911 system: Most calls don’t require police, but overhauling the system to be more responsive to a community’s needs is not something that can be tweaked easily, even if resources shift.
“If we are going to be trying to really fundamentally change the way that people receive services in this country and get help when they are asking for [it],” Neustater said, “it cannot go unrecognized that there are funding needs and services that have to be attached and correspond to those things.”


vox--2020-06-19--Fights, naps, chaos, and cuddles: 4 dads on how the pandemic transformed their notion of fatherhood

Like most of America ’ s 37 million families with children under 18 , I ’ ve been at home with my child all day , every day since the start of widespread coronavirus lockdowns .
There is no escape from parenting — no bar , no office , no work event I absolutely can ’ t miss .
It ’ s a stereotype to say all fathers are absent to some degree , but for my part , I ’ ll say I never imagined spending months on end sitting on the couch playing with my baby .
Even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in more time parenting and helping around the house than ever before .
According to Pew Research data , the average dad today spends almost three times as much of his week on child care and housework as his predecessor did in 1965 — now 8 and 10 hours per week , respectively — though moms continue to contribute almost twice that .
Dads are also more likely to stay home to look after their kids , though the numbers are still low .
Only 7 percent of fathers are stay-at-home , accounting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ parents , though it ’ s a dramatic upswing from the number who stayed home in 1989 .
But perhaps most importantly , more than half of American fathers now report thinking parenting is central to their identity .
So this if this was where fathers were before coronavirus , how has being suddenly and involuntarily confined with their families challenged them ?
Have they realized they are happy to be home and don ’ t actually need validation from work ?
Or are they going quietly off the walls , desperate to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ life ?
Vox spoke with fathers in different walks of life , to see who we are now that we ’ re all stay-at-home dads .
“ I felt really out of my strong suit ” Long story short , business pretty much collapsed .
When the stay at home order was issued , downtown Chicago completely emptied out .
In two weeks , I went from seeing 13 or 14 patients a day to sitting at lunch watching The Price Is Right .
It has actually picked up a little , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ treating patients because I ’ m an essential worker .
My wife quit her job .
She ’ s a physical therapist at a hospital , but she had her hours cut by 66 percent , which you never see happen with in-patient physical therapists .
We were looking at it , and she didn ’ t have set hours , and I still had patients , and one of us had to be home with the kids .
She was unhappy with the workplace anyway , but she decided that was the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like the job , and I thought she could do better .
It ’ s like , they weren ’ t doing anything for her , so why should she go in and increase her risk ?
The hospitals are where the sick people are .
So that was really the final straw .
Before my wife quit her job , I was working set hours Monday , Wednesday , and Friday .
I was watching the kids Tuesdays and Thursdays .
My wife ’ s aunt , who ’ s a schoolteacher @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them for a little bit .
I had to do a lot of adjusting .
I didn ’ t typically have to do all-day care with the kids prior to this , although when my wife had to work a weekend or holiday I did , and that was always a big challenge for me .
I ’ m not as naturally gifted in the child care department .
I ’ m not as creative ; I have less patience with them .
I felt really out of my strong suit .
There @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to learn in order to direct three little people and keep them alive from when my wife left to when she came home , and retain some sanity .
So the actual full day , keep them entertained , get them fed , make sure snack time ’ s there , put them down for their naps — I really had to shift gears , in a time where I had almost no mental bandwidth .
I definitely grew a new appreciation for my wife and her ability to do this , because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s keeping us all together , keeping the kids sane , keeping me sane .
My work is my creativity , and once that started to peter out , I felt rudderless .
So I threw more energy into trying to help around the house and up my dad skills .
Some days were phenomenal , if everyone was in a good mood .
We got to play , no stress .
But other days , we were potty training and we ’ d have an accident , or someone won ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or someone is mad they can ’ t watch more TV because we ’ re trying to limit their screen time .
It really depended on the day .
The hard part for me was just maintaining mental bandwidth , because I ’ m getting stressed about what I ’ m doing here at the office versus what I need to do at home , and there ’ s things I need to do there I can ’ t do because I ’ m here , and a lot of stressful decisions to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but it helped to develop a plan and get a little more creative .
We ironed it out , and I ’ m finding I appreciate it more .
Every morning , the kids come in the room and we get to snuggle for five or 10 minutes .
Who gets to do that on a Tuesday ?
That ’ s the stuff I ’ m kind of clinging to , because that ’ s the stuff you don ’ t get back .
“ This is the most time I ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” We don ’ t have garbage pickup here , and I started taking garbage to the dump in the first week , and that ’ s sort of my responsibility now .
I put a big sign on the refrigerator that says “ Hump day is dump day , ” and I go every Wednesday .
I think , without question , this is the most time I ’ ve spent with my kids , ever .
I ’ ve spoken to a lot of parents , and [ being on lockdown @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thought it would be .
I now understand why we ’ ve as a culture arranged our days to get a break from our home life , and our work life .
I think the physical act of being in another place sort of creates a mental container around those spaces .
And I think that is really beneficial for your mental health .
What I had that I ’ m lacking now is just alone time .
Today , my wife worked most of the morning , and I scheduled a chunk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clock , a 4 o ’ clock , and a 5 o ’ clock — so it would be an easy trade .
That ’ s my alone time for today .
Other days , I really relish my short drive to the dump and back , when I can roll down the windows and blast some music , just for a little period of time .
We really aim to have an equitable relationship in regard to parenting .
It ’ s a lot of fucking work .
I don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sort of different than [ before the pandemic ] : We ’ re also looking out for each other .
A lot of the time we ’ re parenting [ under normal circumstances ] , we ’ re together .
One parent can watch one kid while the other watches the other kid .
Now we ’ re mostly parenting alone , with the exception maybe of dinner , bath , and bed , where we can kind of tag-team a little bit .
One thing I ’ m really grateful for is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ keeps doing this thing where she sees me losing my patience and says , “ Hey , let ’ s switch .
You take the other kid , and I ’ ll take who you ’ ve got.
” That is a tiny gift that she can give every once in a while .
“ Once I got in the flow , my mental health got better than it ’ s been in 10 years ” The two weeks before we went into quarantine , I ’ d just moved from full time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my job ] .
My wife ’ s job is really intense and has a lot of travel .
She makes three times as much money as me , so her job is far more important than mine .
I was ready to be home and get some stuff done .
It was when school started that it got intense .
You have an 8- and a 10-year-old getting their full course load sent home every day .
My wife has to work nonstop ; she ’ s on Zoom all day , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The first two weeks were infuriating .
I tried to not get too pissed at the schools and the teachers , because it ’ s not like this is something they were prepared for .
But they send out the work and there ’ s , like , 10 different websites and Google Pages links and places to upload work , and everything has to go to its separate place .
The websites weren ’ t made to handle the traffic they were getting ; they were all super buggy .
We had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the other could use the iPad , but we found out real quick that , no , none of this stuff works on the iPad .
Then it became , okay , my son has to do this work from this time to this time on the computer , and my daughter has to do this stuff , and that changes from day to day .
After two weeks , I was like , I ’ m getting serious .
We ’ re going to do a full schedule , and we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alarms , and without that , I would not have survived .
My kids hated each other at the beginning .
They wanted to murder each other , constantly fighting .
[ Before quarantine , ] we saw each other for half an hour a day , which is basically how families are .
Two parents that work and two kids that stay at school as long as they can doing stuff , you get home from all of the shit , you ’ re racing to make dinner , and then it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
You feel like you ’ re at another job where everyone ’ s racing around , and you ’ re shouting , “ Go there !
Go there !
Now shut up and go to sleep , and I ’ ll see you tomorrow !
” And now it ’ s like Little House on the Prairie .
It ’ s a complete turnaround , but I ’ ll tell you I kind of love it .
If I can make a meal and fix an appliance and teach the kids something @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more out of that than being at work .
So I ’ ve always kind of wanted this — I just didn ’ t know that I did this much , or how it would be when it happened .
At first , it was crazy and I was like , I don ’ t know if I can handle this .
But once I got in the flow , my mental health got better than it ’ s been in 10 years .
You ’ re getting a taste of something more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ve kind of ditched as a society .
For many people , it ’ s like , “ Now I have kids , and now I need a nanny , and I ’ ll see them in a week.
” I ’ ve gotten a lot out of it .
At its worst , I still feel like it ’ s better than it was when everyone had a bad day separately and then came home and were all angry .
I ’ ve learned to defuse any situation before it happens .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ I didn ’ t have time to see before .
“ After a while , it was really clear that we needed to find some other approach ” We ’ re here with my mother , in my mother ’ s house .
One of my sons loves this and said he never wants to go back to the old way .
Today , he told me he had a nightmare where he was back in school .
That was it ; that was the entire nightmare .
My other son is doing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s really missing the in-person social aspect of school and is really feeling it .
It ’ s a tough thing to get them connected with their friends .
We ’ re working at it .
I ’ ve been reading a lot of parenting advice online .
A lot of it said , let things slide , this is extraordinary for everybody , it ’ s really a pick-your-battles moment , and this isn ’ t one you want to pick .
So we did that for a while : Whatever , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 9 am to 6 pm basically nonstop , you know , no biggie .
But after a while , it was really clear that we needed to find some other approach .
I mean , we haven ’ t hit on it yet .
That goes for me and my husband , too .
We ’ re both working full time from home , on video calls all day , and it ’ s exhausting .
It ’ s way different than in-person working .
Having to kind of do that full time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my mind , at 2 in the afternoon when I usually wouldn ’ t have to worry about too much because my kids are in school and their day is planned out , I ’ d be like , now I got ta go figure out if they ’ re gon na do their exercise today .
That creates an added layer of complexity and stress and all this .
I have a lot of colleagues who have young children , and having been there and been a stay-at-home parent , that ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ m not in a bad boat .
When I was at home with twins , there were big stretches where it was just me , at home , in the apartment , in the middle of winter .
This is nothing compared to that .
That was way harder .
When it came time to decide who would stay at home , it was a financial decision .
But I really wanted to do the primary caregiving .
It was something I ’ d been looking forward to , and I wanted that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my children .
I was excited to be able to take them around the city and do activities with them .
I wouldn ’ t trade that for anything in the world , but it doesn ’ t mean it wasn ’ t hard sometimes , and exhausting and isolating .
Now , not to say it ’ s not stressful because of everything happening in the world that causes so much stress for everyone , but we ’ re all here together .
My husband is here , my mother is here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same house together , so labor is spread across a whole bunch of additional people .
It has been a really good thing to be able to spend so much time together with my husband and my kids , and my mother .
But it ’ s hard to talk about things like this in a pandemic , and the pandemic is the reason for it .
Because it ’ s not something you ’ d want to prolong in any way .
But there are aspects of it that are so … @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it things that are positive for you and your family .
Chris Chafin covers the business of culture for publications including Rolling Stone , Vulture , and the BBC .
He also hosts a movie podcast .
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Like most of America’s 37 million families with children under 18, I’ve been at home with my child all day, every day since the start of widespread coronavirus lockdowns. There is no escape from parenting — no bar, no office, no work event I absolutely can’t miss. It’s a stereotype to say all fathers are absent to some degree, but for my part, I’ll say I never imagined spending months on end sitting on the couch playing with my baby.
Even before lockdown, American dads were putting in more time parenting and helping around the house than ever before. According to Pew Research data, the average dad today spends almost three times as much of his week on child care and housework as his predecessor did in 1965 — now 8 and 10 hours per week, respectively — though moms continue to contribute almost twice that. Dads are also more likely to stay home to look after their kids, though the numbers are still low. Only 7 percent of fathers are stay-at-home, accounting for just 17 percent of all stay-at-home parents, though it’s a dramatic upswing from the number who stayed home in 1989. But perhaps most importantly, more than half of American fathers now report thinking parenting is central to their identity.
Related The coronavirus will cause a child care crisis in America
So this if this was where fathers were before coronavirus, how has being suddenly and involuntarily confined with their families challenged them? Have they realized they are happy to be home and don’t actually need validation from work? Or are they going quietly off the walls, desperate to get back to a “normal” life?
Vox spoke with fathers in different walks of life, to see who we are now that we’re all stay-at-home dads.
“I felt really out of my strong suit”
Jason Kart, physical therapist, Chicago, Illinois
Three children: 4.5, 2.5, 8 months
Long story short, business pretty much collapsed. When the stay at home order was issued, downtown Chicago completely emptied out. In two weeks, I went from seeing 13 or 14 patients a day to sitting at lunch watching The Price Is Right. It has actually picked up a little, and I’ve been allowed to keep treating patients because I’m an essential worker.
My wife quit her job. She’s a physical therapist at a hospital, but she had her hours cut by 66 percent, which you never see happen with in-patient physical therapists. We were looking at it, and she didn’t have set hours, and I still had patients, and one of us had to be home with the kids. She was unhappy with the workplace anyway, but she decided that was the breaking point. I didn’t like the job, and I thought she could do better. It’s like, they weren’t doing anything for her, so why should she go in and increase her risk? The hospitals are where the sick people are. So that was really the final straw.
Before my wife quit her job, I was working set hours Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I was watching the kids Tuesdays and Thursdays. My wife’s aunt, who’s a schoolteacher, would also come up and watch them for a little bit.
I had to do a lot of adjusting. I didn’t typically have to do all-day care with the kids prior to this, although when my wife had to work a weekend or holiday I did, and that was always a big challenge for me. I’m not as naturally gifted in the child care department. I’m not as creative; I have less patience with them. I felt really out of my strong suit. There were a lot of things I had to learn in order to direct three little people and keep them alive from when my wife left to when she came home, and retain some sanity. So the actual full day, keep them entertained, get them fed, make sure snack time’s there, put them down for their naps — I really had to shift gears, in a time where I had almost no mental bandwidth.
I definitely grew a new appreciation for my wife and her ability to do this, because she’s been the one that’s keeping us all together, keeping the kids sane, keeping me sane. My work is my creativity, and once that started to peter out, I felt rudderless. So I threw more energy into trying to help around the house and up my dad skills.
Some days were phenomenal, if everyone was in a good mood. We got to play, no stress. But other days, we were potty training and we’d have an accident, or someone won’t go down for a nap, or someone is mad they can’t watch more TV because we’re trying to limit their screen time. It really depended on the day. The hard part for me was just maintaining mental bandwidth, because I’m getting stressed about what I’m doing here at the office versus what I need to do at home, and there’s things I need to do there I can’t do because I’m here, and a lot of stressful decisions to make.
It wasn’t easy, but it helped to develop a plan and get a little more creative. We ironed it out, and I’m finding I appreciate it more. Every morning, the kids come in the room and we get to snuggle for five or 10 minutes. Who gets to do that on a Tuesday? That’s the stuff I’m kind of clinging to, because that’s the stuff you don’t get back.
“This is the most time I’ve spent with my kids, ever”
Zach Pollakoff, music producer, temporarily relocated to Vermont from Brooklyn
Two children: 3, 9 months
We don’t have garbage pickup here, and I started taking garbage to the dump in the first week, and that’s sort of my responsibility now. I put a big sign on the refrigerator that says “Hump day is dump day,” and I go every Wednesday.
I think, without question, this is the most time I’ve spent with my kids, ever. I’ve spoken to a lot of parents, and [being on lockdown] is significantly more challenging than we thought it would be. I now understand why we’ve as a culture arranged our days to get a break from our home life, and our work life. I think the physical act of being in another place sort of creates a mental container around those spaces. And I think that is really beneficial for your mental health.
What I had that I’m lacking now is just alone time. Today, my wife worked most of the morning, and I scheduled a chunk of meetings — a 3 o’clock, a 4 o’clock, and a 5 o’clock — so it would be an easy trade. That’s my alone time for today. Other days, I really relish my short drive to the dump and back, when I can roll down the windows and blast some music, just for a little period of time.
We really aim to have an equitable relationship in regard to parenting. It’s a lot of fucking work. I don’t think that our roles have changed. Sort of different than [before the pandemic]: We’re also looking out for each other. A lot of the time we’re parenting [under normal circumstances], we’re together. One parent can watch one kid while the other watches the other kid. Now we’re mostly parenting alone, with the exception maybe of dinner, bath, and bed, where we can kind of tag-team a little bit. One thing I’m really grateful for is my wife just being aware. She keeps doing this thing where she sees me losing my patience and says, “Hey, let’s switch. You take the other kid, and I’ll take who you’ve got.” That is a tiny gift that she can give every once in a while.
“Once I got in the flow, my mental health got better than it’s been in 10 years”
Juan Comas, art fabricator, Tallahassee, Florida
Two children: 10, 8
The two weeks before we went into quarantine, I’d just moved from full time to two days a week [at my job]. My wife’s job is really intense and has a lot of travel. She makes three times as much money as me, so her job is far more important than mine. I was ready to be home and get some stuff done.
It was when school started that it got intense. You have an 8- and a 10-year-old getting their full course load sent home every day. My wife has to work nonstop; she’s on Zoom all day, so I was helping with school.
The first two weeks were infuriating. I tried to not get too pissed at the schools and the teachers, because it’s not like this is something they were prepared for. But they send out the work and there’s, like, 10 different websites and Google Pages links and places to upload work, and everything has to go to its separate place.
The websites weren’t made to handle the traffic they were getting; they were all super buggy. We had thought one kid could use the computer and the other could use the iPad, but we found out real quick that, no, none of this stuff works on the iPad. Then it became, okay, my son has to do this work from this time to this time on the computer, and my daughter has to do this stuff, and that changes from day to day.
After two weeks, I was like, I’m getting serious. We’re going to do a full schedule, and we’re going to do everything by alarms, and without that, I would not have survived.
My kids hated each other at the beginning. They wanted to murder each other, constantly fighting.
[Before quarantine,] we saw each other for half an hour a day, which is basically how families are. Two parents that work and two kids that stay at school as long as they can doing stuff, you get home from all of the shit, you’re racing to make dinner, and then it’s time to go to sleep. You feel like you’re at another job where everyone’s racing around, and you’re shouting, “Go there! Go there! Now shut up and go to sleep, and I’ll see you tomorrow!”
And now it’s like Little House on the Prairie. It’s a complete turnaround, but I’ll tell you I kind of love it.
If I can make a meal and fix an appliance and teach the kids something, I’ve always gotten way more out of that than being at work. So I’ve always kind of wanted this — I just didn’t know that I did this much, or how it would be when it happened.
At first, it was crazy and I was like, I don’t know if I can handle this. But once I got in the flow, my mental health got better than it’s been in 10 years. You’re getting a taste of something more fulfilling, which is something we’ve kind of ditched as a society. For many people, it’s like, “Now I have kids, and now I need a nanny, and I’ll see them in a week.” I’ve gotten a lot out of it.
At its worst, I still feel like it’s better than it was when everyone had a bad day separately and then came home and were all angry. I’ve learned to defuse any situation before it happens. I can see all these little clues I didn’t have time to see before.
“After a while, it was really clear that we needed to find some other approach”
Erik Botsford, New York government worker temporarily in Florida
Two children: twins, 12
We’re here with my mother, in my mother’s house.
One of my sons loves this and said he never wants to go back to the old way. Today, he told me he had a nightmare where he was back in school. That was it; that was the entire nightmare. My other son is doing fine, but I think he’s really missing the in-person social aspect of school and is really feeling it. It’s a tough thing to get them connected with their friends. We’re working at it.
I’ve been reading a lot of parenting advice online. A lot of it said, let things slide, this is extraordinary for everybody, it’s really a pick-your-battles moment, and this isn’t one you want to pick. So we did that for a while: Whatever, you’re on the computer from 9 am to 6 pm basically nonstop, you know, no biggie. But after a while, it was really clear that we needed to find some other approach.
I mean, we haven’t hit on it yet. That goes for me and my husband, too. We’re both working full time from home, on video calls all day, and it’s exhausting. It’s way different than in-person working. Having to kind of do that full time while also, in the back of my mind, at 2 in the afternoon when I usually wouldn’t have to worry about too much because my kids are in school and their day is planned out, I’d be like, now I gotta go figure out if they’re gonna do their exercise today. That creates an added layer of complexity and stress and all this.
I have a lot of colleagues who have young children, and having been there and been a stay-at-home parent, that’s the real struggle. I’m not in a bad boat. When I was at home with twins, there were big stretches where it was just me, at home, in the apartment, in the middle of winter. This is nothing compared to that. That was way harder.
When it came time to decide who would stay at home, it was a financial decision.
But I really wanted to do the primary caregiving. It was something I’d been looking forward to, and I wanted that level of control over the care of my children. I was excited to be able to take them around the city and do activities with them. I wouldn’t trade that for anything in the world, but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t hard sometimes, and exhausting and isolating.
Now, not to say it’s not stressful because of everything happening in the world that causes so much stress for everyone, but we’re all here together. My husband is here, my mother is here, we’re all in the same house together, so labor is spread across a whole bunch of additional people.
It has been a really good thing to be able to spend so much time together with my husband and my kids, and my mother. But it’s hard to talk about things like this in a pandemic, and the pandemic is the reason for it. Because it’s not something you’d want to prolong in any way. But there are aspects of it that are so … unique. You have to find in it things that are positive for you and your family.
Chris Chafin covers the business of culture for publications including Rolling Stone, Vulture, and the BBC. He also hosts a movie podcast.