NYPD Dance Team Draws Criticism Amid City’s Crime Concerns
The New York City Police Department is being ridiculed on social media after video of the department’s “dance team” performing on television went viral.
The NYPD dance team, which was established in 2022, is part of nearly 50 sports units for the police department. The sports units, which include activities such as baseball, boxing, and paintball, are intended to provide officers with a recreational outlet after their shifts.
However, as footage of their performance went viral, critics on social media questioned the appropriateness of promoting a dance team amid a surge in crime across New York City. Recent NYPD crime statistics for January reveal a nearly 6% increase in robberies, alongside a rise in crimes occurring within subway and transit systems.
Additionally, the city is grappling with a migrant crisis, attempting to accommodate a growing number of illegal immigrants arriving from the southern border. Shocking video earlier this month displayed a group of migrants assaulting NYPD officers near Times Square, and the city came under fire when it was revealed that these migrants were released from custody without bail.
Even New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez weighed in on the spectacle, questioning the allocation of resources away from other programs. Of course, Ocasio-Cortez’s criticisms are ironic given her previous rhetoric condemning police officers for actually enforcing the law.
“How many school music programs got defunded for this,” Ocasio-Cortez posted on X on Monday.
Autumn-Raine Martinez, the president of the NYPD dance team, commented on the amount of criticism that the department has been receiving since the video went viral.
“Even with the comments we’ve been getting, we’ve been just leaning on each other, just supporting each other,” said Martinez. “It’s already tough being on this [police] job, but then to have more things like that [criticism] for doing something we love doing is kind of hard.”
