In 2022, the NYPD Dance Team was introduced, and the backlash it sparked was legendary. No matter what side of the aisle people were on, they couldn’t get behind the idea of wasting taxpayer money on this idea. When they saw the results, it got even worse. After a news clip came out of the dancing on NY TV channel PIX11, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asked the question everyone else wanted answered “How many school music programs got defunded for this,” in a tweet on social media giant X.
The clip showed a collection of seven dancers performing off-beat and out of sync for the TV audience at home. With six of them grossly overweight, these “officers” were an embarrassment to the NYPD.
Dance team president Autumn-Raine Martinez spoke with PIX11 on February 20th about the flood of comments. She claimed that the troop received no funds from the taxpayers like any other department team, and she insists it’s important to continue dancing.
“We’re not looking to be professional dancers. Some of us have never danced before, some of us have danced our whole lives. Even with the comments we’ve been getting, we’ve been just leaning on each other, just supporting each other. 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.”
As past investigations have uncovered, these teams and organizations may not receive the money directly from taxpayers. Instead, they are funded through city financing of the spaces where they practice or perform. In addition to, providing uniforms for their sport, as well as advertising events through multiple channels. Given the level of funding wasted on the illegals who are flooding NYC daily, a dance troop like this isn’t a smart use of taxpayer funds or resources. If anything, this is a slap in the face of the hardworking citizens of NYC and the state of New York.
