Governor Cuomo made clear Wednesday that he doesn’t believe the city’s $1 billion change to the NYPD budget comes close to solving the deep-rooted issues at hand.

“Well, we took money from them," he said. "Well, what does that do? The problem is bigger than that. The problem is worse than that. There is no respect and trust between the community and the police.”

What You Need To Know


  • Governor criticizes mayor's cutting of NYPD funds, saying it won't effect change.

  • Cuomo says he supports murals and protests but favors concrete action.

  • Meanwhile, Trump slams Black Lives Matter mural on Fifth Avenue.

His lengthy and impassioned call for change was accompanied at his Manhattan event by an impromptu imagining of a stakeholders’ conversation on reform.

“Sit down at the table. Bring the NYPD, bring the community activists, bring the council, bring all the politicians," he said, then taking a notepad: "Start with a blank piece of paper. We want to design the NYPD. Any questions? Yeah, yeah, I have a question. What?” 

Mayor de Blasio announced what he described as a $1 billion slashing of NYPD coffers, but Speaker Corey Johnson and other lawmakers questioned the math. 

And protesters called it smoke and mirrors.

The governor last month set an April 2021 deadline for municipalities to redesign their police departments under the threat of losing state funding.

“Painting slogans on streets, I support it," he said. "Cities all across the nation are doing it. Protests, I support it. You know what I support more? Do something. Make change. Make change. “

Cuomo’s reference to the Black Lives Matters murals being painted around the city … and in front of Trump Tower … came as President Trump railed against the demonstration.

Trump tweeted that NYPD funds are being cut "and yet the @NYCMayor is going to paint a big, expensive, yellow Black Lives Matter sign on Fifth Avenue, denigrating this luxury Avenue."

De Blasio responded that the luxury was the product of black labor.

He tweeted, "The fact that you see it as denigrating your street is the definition of racism."

Cuomo agreed that the mural sends the message to Trump that excessive police force must stop.

The governor last month signed into law legislation that bans police chokeholds and repealed the 50-a measure that shielded officers’ disciplinary records.