On June 30th, 2020, after a month of Black Lives Matter protests across the city and a week-long Occupation outside City Hall, the City Council was preparing to vote on the annual budget due at midnight.
It remained to be seen whether the council would vote down the proposed budget by Mayor Bill de Blasio and Speaker Corey Johnson. Even though the Mayor and Speaker publicly announced the budget would cut $1 billion from the NYPD, details were released showing that most of the supposed cuts consisted of shifting school officers under the Department of Education budget.
Thousands of protestors gathered at the Occupation in front of City Hall, and shut down several adjacent streets to pressure the council members to meet the movement’s immediate demands.
Below are some images I captured hours before the historic vote:
Call Speaker Johnson
Immediate, Long-term and Theoretical Demands
West sculpture outside Surrogate’s Courthouse
East sculpture outside Surrogate’s courthouse
Centre and Chambers Street facing west
Centre and Chambers Street facing south
Spiderman in front of David Dinkins Municipal Building
Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall Subway Station
The People’s Bodega
The Junction 