Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: what percent of the police live in the city?
Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: 5%, so 95% donāt live in the city.
Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: so when you say that the vast majority of the percentage goes towards salaries, et cetera, fringe benefits, that means that they take their money on 81, go to outside the city, pay taxes in those communities that have some of the best schools while we have an underfunded school districtā
someone else: $60 million up.
Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: so i just want to put into context what weāre talking about, because itās really easy to say, mayorā and with all due respect, i like you. but that was a very politician answer.
mayor: sorry, what specifically?
Yusuf Abdul-Qadir: the, āwe will consider, and we will look.ā what weāre saying is weāre not interested in considering and looking. what weāre saying is, actually, thereās $50 million. commit to $20 million cut, because weāre sending moneyā as the mayor of Syracuse, when you donāt have a tax base, youāre sending money out of Syracuse. and not just for 30 yearsā for the rest of their life because their pensions, their health insurance, their families. so we are funding for other peopleās communities to have the promise of the American dream while we are denying it in our community. thatās the context that you, as the mayor, have to look at this under.
so when we talk about renegotiating union contract, what weāre saying is you canāt play around with, āmaybe, um, we willāā no. yāall got to go, because you donāt provide a service that is beneficial to the community, that is meaningful to the community. the services that you provide criminalize our community, impoverish our community, reallocate resources to suburbs. we are actually funding the suburbs, both in our police departments and in our schools.
and to be clear, just to be clear, itās not just the fact of, like, the percentage of people. weāre also funding what race of people are on the police force, the percentage of race of teachers, as well, superintendent, board president. so we want to put in context, because itās not just a class issue. itās a race issue. weāre telling black and brown people and poor people, you donāt matter. the devilās in the data and in the details, mayor. respectfully, it is not acceptable for us to be here considering.]