Incoming New York City Comptroller Brad Lander will have an NYPD security detail even though he advocates defunding the police, according to a report.
After demonstrations erupted across the county over the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis cop, Lander penned an open letter to his constituents in June 2020, titled, "My commitment to defund the NYPD," the New York Post reported. The memo called for slashing the department's budget by $1 billion.
Lander praised Minneapolis after its City Council voted to replace the police department with the "Department of Public Safety." Voters later defeated the controversial proposal.
Lander, an outgoing Brooklyn Democratic councilman, said in June that he was disturbed that the city's annual spending bill increased the NYPD budget by nearly $200 million and expanded the number of cops and corrections officers.