The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 7.1 The "End" Of The PDS, Canada Day, Truth About NYPD "Budget Cuts", & Hong Kong's New Reality

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup you beautiful bastard, hope you have a fantastic Wednesday. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show. Buckle up, hit that like button and let's just jump into it. And the first thing we're gonna talk about today is very brief, just happy birthday Canada. When it comes to the Philip DeFranco show, you are the second largest audience I imagine because you're like what the hell's happening down there? But for whatever reason you're a part of this, thank you. I will also say the nicest emails and messages I ever get, it's always Canadians and also the Irish. Yeah, I love you. Even though people often kind of think of Canadians as just one people and it's not that.

Starting point is 00:00:31 Back when we did live shows, one of my favorite things to do is when we were in Vancouver, I'd be like, man, you know, I come to Canada, I love the people in Toronto. And when I go to Toronto, I'd say I love the people in Vancouver just to see, ah. The reaction's always so great.

Starting point is 00:00:42 Main point, it's all love. And then it always feels weird to do this. I feel so much more comfortable talking about other stuff than myself. I wanna talk about the future of this show. I was a little inspired to talk about it today because I saw a massive creator by the name of Jacksepticeye announcing to his audience today

Starting point is 00:00:56 that he's gonna be taking a one month break for a number of reasons, including mental health. I will say, it warms my heart to see that the audience in general was very accepting and understanding, which I will say, as far as communities go online, six years ago, I feel like that wouldn't be the case for a lot of audiences. But over the years, I think a lot of people have realized

Starting point is 00:01:11 like the people that we look at on videos and in papers, that they're actual people. And while I'm not announcing that I'm taking some sort of break right now, we did just finish the first part of 2020. And so now my mind is on the end of 2020, which if you've been watching the show for at least the last two, three years, I've been eyeing the end of 2020 and so now my mind is on the end of 2020, which if you've been watching the show for at least the last two, three years, I've been eyeing the end of 2020

Starting point is 00:01:27 as the place to potentially end this version of the Philip DeFranco show. Now as far as what that means and what that looks like, I don't, I haven't fully figured that out yet. Right now my plan is to continue on until the election and then figure it out sometime in the month after that, then take that Christmas break as I always do and hopefully figure it out by then.

Starting point is 00:01:44 That said, I do wanna make something clear. No matter what everything ends up looking like, I'm not abandoning you. Even though this job is sometimes miserable because 24 seven you're kind of having to look at the worst of the world, I love it. I made this show because as a younger man, I cared about the world and I didn't really have anyone

Starting point is 00:01:58 to talk to, I didn't have a community, a place to belong. Over the years I've found so many of you that are like, yes, I'm on for the ride as well. And I hope you feel that too. I know some of you maybe have started watching the last three weeks and you're like, what the hell are you talking about? You're coming on too strong, Phil.

Starting point is 00:02:10 I mean that genuinely and understand I'm also the same cynical bastard that, I hate what people call the people that watch them their friends, but I will say that I think that we genuinely do have a community. And I still wanna talk to you about the world and what's happening and what's important, things that you may have already seen,

Starting point is 00:02:24 but from a different angle or things you've never heard of. I think that I can also do it in a hopefully more sustainable and different, hopefully higher quality way. Or those plans will completely fall apart and it'll be status quo. It just feels like in this moment, and it's felt like this for a long time, that this is not sustainable and so something's

Starting point is 00:02:39 gonna have to be addressed. But I also think I can't fully evaluate that until the end of November. And specifically then, because I wanna make sure that if I'm leaving this house, I'm not leaving you inside of it with the house on fire. So all of that said, please consider this your official heads up and also just a big thank you.

Starting point is 00:02:56 Then very briefly, I just wanna promote the wear a damn mask challenge. So I'm also using the hashtag mask up. If you looked out on social media today or this week, you may have seen some massive celebrities promoting this challenge. For likes of Tracee Ellis Ross, noting, I am sure you are all seeing what I'm seeing.

Starting point is 00:03:10 COVID-19 rates in the USA are rising at a truly scary rate. Jennifer Aniston also noting, I understand masks are inconvenient and uncomfortable. But adding, don't you feel that it's worse that businesses are shutting down, jobs are being lost, healthcare workers are hitting absolute exhaustion, and so many lives have been taken by this virus because we aren't doing enough.

Starting point is 00:03:25 Reese Witherspoon hitting on a note that I very much agree with. "'Wearing a mask is not a political statement. "'It means you care about other people's health and safety.'" Right, and like we featured on that clip yesterday, you have Dr. Fauci saying the numbers are going in the wrong direction right now. We are truly at a point where we're asking others

Starting point is 00:03:38 to do the literal least. Wash your hands whenever possible, practice social distancing, and then just wear a mask. As someone that is not particularly attractive, I actually think that it's a good look for me. And to my Trump supporters out in the audience, I saw someone else say this, think of it as a border wall for your face.

Starting point is 00:03:52 Also, if that silly statement offended you, you're definitely not gonna wanna know what Tom Hanks said, which, according to People Magazine, was, "'Don't be a pussy, get on with it, do your part.'" It's very basic. If you're driving a car, you don't go too fast. You use your turn signal and you avoid hitting pedestrians. My Lord, it's common sense.

Starting point is 00:04:06 Also side note, Tom Hanks is a bamf. He's actually donated bags of his plasma, which contain antibodies that could help other people in their fight against the coronavirus. Yeah, wear a mask. And also if you want to promote this, wear one and use the hashtag, wear a damn mask. Let's promote a little common sense together.

Starting point is 00:04:20 And then let's talk about continued efforts to defund the police. Right, like we've talked about before, defunding the police has become one of the main demands and rallying cries of the nationwide protests. And while it appears that defunding the police means different things to different people, the general idea is cutting funds from a police budget

Starting point is 00:04:35 and reinvesting that money in the community. And the argument here is that in most major cities, the police budget is the highest single expenditure. And so you have people saying, what happens if we take that money and we put it into education, healthcare, homelessness and social programs? And could that address underlying issues,

Starting point is 00:04:49 make communities safer, reduce the need for policing and have specific solutions for specific problems rather than throwing the police at everything? As we've seen these protests and the movement continuing, we've also seen a number of cities actually start to take action and cut their police budgets. Of course, like we've talked about before, the most significant example is Minneapolis.

Starting point is 00:05:04 There, about three weeks ago, the council voted to dismantle the city's police department and create a new system for public safety. But also, since then, we've seen a number of other cities cutting their police budgets, and in some cases, putting it into social programs. Earlier this month, Baltimore City Council voted to cut 22 million from the police budget.

Starting point is 00:05:19 The City Council of Portland, Oregon, cutting $15 million from its police budget and putting $5 million of that into a new program that'll send unarmed first responders to answer calls regarding homelessness. Philadelphia also canceling a planned increase of $19 million for its police department and reallocating 14 million of that police budget

Starting point is 00:05:34 to other programs, including affordable housing. And I mean, just while I was recording this video, we also got the news that the Los Angeles City Council voted to cut the LAPD budget by $150 million. With some of that money reportedly set to go to programs for communities of color, right? And you have many others currently planning to cut the LAPD budget by $150 million. Some of that money reportedly set to go to programs for communities of color, right? And you have many others currently planning to cut budgets. But with that said, a lot of eyes are understandably

Starting point is 00:05:51 on New York right now. And the reason for that is the largest and most expensive police force in the country is the NYPD, right? The New York Police Department, which reportedly has a nearly $6 billion operating budget. And with the city's July 1st budget deadline looming, there has been increased pressure for them to act.

Starting point is 00:06:05 And so for the last week, hundreds of protesters have been occupying the area outside of City Hall with many camping out overnight to demand deeper cuts to the police budget. The protest reportedly starting last Tuesday with about 100 people, it has grown significantly since then. And while some activists have reportedly said they will stay after the budget deadline,

Starting point is 00:06:20 general aim, according to the organizers who put these demonstrations together, was to get the city council to cut the police budget by $1 billion. And what we ended up seeing is late last night, the New York City Council agreeing to that demand, cutting $1 billion of the police department's $6 billion operating budget and moving some of those funds

Starting point is 00:06:36 to education and social services. This including $115 million in youth and community programs, $116 million in investments in education, and $39 million in health services for school children, among other things. And while that might sound like they gave the protesters and others calling for the police budget cuts exactly what they wanted, that doesn't appear to be the case. And I say that because when you actually look at the cuts, it's not actually $1 billion.

Starting point is 00:06:58 I mean, you even had Mayor Bill de Blasio himself saying in a press release that it was only $430 million that actually is going to be cut from the department's budget with another $537 million being shifted to other departments. Now, notably the city council's press release on the budget gave some different numbers saying it was actually $484 million in cuts and $646 million in shifts to other agencies.

Starting point is 00:07:18 But regardless of which of these numbers is actually correct, it still means that less than half of these so-called cuts are actually cuts. And even then there's a lot left up in the air, somewhat questionable. For example, the biggest single cut is more than $350 million in overtime pay. But de Blasio said that those proposed cuts

Starting point is 00:07:32 to police overtime might not be possible if protests and other things that require a lot of police happen. And for some context here, reportedly just since George Floyd's death on May 25th, the NYPD has paid out over $115 million in overtime. Right, so that's basically $115 million in a month, which also makes up nearly a third of the proposed cuts for the full year.

Starting point is 00:07:50 When you dig into the funding that's being shifted to other departments, there are also some major holes. For example, nearly $400 million of funds they say they are shifting will be moved to school safety officers to be under the purview of the Department of Education. But according to the city's independent budget office, the education department already funds that program and gives the police department 300 million dollars a year to operate it. Which seems to mean that one of the biggest shifts of money is not a shift at all, it just means that the education department will now operate a program it was already funding. Right, and so with this whole story,

Starting point is 00:08:17 we've seen a lot of angry responses. Right, you get a lot of people saying the city is just shifting money around without making any substantive cuts to the police budget. This including the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who said in a statement, defunding police means defunding police. It does not mean budget tricks or funny math. It does not mean moving school police officers from the NYPD budget to the Department of Education's budget so the exact same police remain in school.

Starting point is 00:08:37 It does not mean counting overtime cuts as cuts, even as the NYPD ignores every attempt by city council to curb overtime spending and overspends on overtime anyways. And adding, these proposed cuts to the NYPD budget are a disingenuous illusion. This is not a victory. The fight to defund policing continues. A number of protest leaders and organizers also echoing that sentiment saying that it wasn't what they asked for. With one of the directing organizers of the Occupy City Hall protest telling reporters, we are being gaslit. This movement is about so much more than the $1 billion and this means they don't understand what we're saying."

Starting point is 00:09:05 Even had numerous city council members also voicing their dislike of the plan. This including council speaker, Corey Johnson, who helped lead the process in drafting the proposal saying, "'To everyone who is disappointed, and I know that there are many, many people who are disappointed that we could not go further, I am disappointed as well.

Starting point is 00:09:19 I wanted us to go deeper.'" With him also shifting blame to de Blasio, adding, "'This is a budget process that involves the mayor who would not budge on these items.'" And in a tweet, he also noted that he to de Blasio, adding, "'This is a budget process that involves the mayor "'who would not budge on these items.'" And in a tweet, he also noted that he and de Blasio started the budget process far apart on how they wanted to change the police budget and the department, but adding,

Starting point is 00:09:32 "'The council fought hard to get where we are, "'but I know this is just a starting point, "'not an ending point. "'We need to go farther.'" But also, it is important to know that at the same time, there were also plenty of council members that opposed the cuts because they didn't want any cuts at all.

Starting point is 00:09:44 People like Councilman Joseph Borrelli, who argued that reducing the NYPD's funds would make the city unsafe, saying, "'We know what we're doing, "'and we know that what we're doing "'will create a more violent city, "'and yet we're doing it anyway.'" But ultimately, that is where we are with this right now.

Starting point is 00:09:55 It is gonna be interesting to see what happens. And I mean that both in New York and other cities nationwide where we're seeing the movement, we're seeing some changes, especially because as of right now, this movement is continuing and it's showing no signs of stopping. But with that said, I do wanna pass a question off to you. What are your thoughts about this?

Starting point is 00:10:09 Whether it be around the idea of defunding or taking some money from the police department and putting it in other programs, and also specifically what we're seeing in New York, especially I would love to know your thoughts if you live in New York. And then let's talk about Hong Kong's national security law and the updates that we're seeing there.

Starting point is 00:10:23 You know, we covered part of this law yesterday, but one, we're now actually seeing it in practice. And two, the full text of the law has finally been released and it is absolutely insane. Right, and if you're unfamiliar, last month China proposed a new national security law against Hong Kong, this mainly to crack down on the 15 months of protests that have rocked the city.

Starting point is 00:10:40 And the crazy thing was is, as this was being pushed through by Beijing loyalists, we only knew some of the details because China wouldn't actually reveal the full text. And what's even crazier is that law passed and no one really knew what was actually in it until yesterday. Right, and so we're gonna try and walk through this.

Starting point is 00:10:54 You have four big offenses. You have secession, subversion, terrorism, and foreign activity. And the text here regarding these laws, they're super defined, they're clear, everything is meticulously laid out. And I'm lying, No it isn't. It is vague as hell because that is what you do

Starting point is 00:11:07 when you're the Chinese Communist Party and you wanna crack down on freedoms. And as the New York Times points out, "'The four major offenses in the law are ambiguously worded "'and give the authorities extensive power "'to target activists who criticize "'the Chinese Communist Party.'" For example, I mean we talked about this briefly yesterday,

Starting point is 00:11:21 but collusion with foreign forces is partially defined as working with foreign governments to enact laws and policies that can cause serious obstruction or serious consequences to Hong Kong or China. Right, and so notably, it does not clearly spell out what constitutes serious obstruction or consequences. So that's why you have a lot of people worried that this definition is meant to target lobbyists

Starting point is 00:11:38 asking foreign governments to impose sanctions. And let's say you get charged with a crime. According to the Hong Kong Free Press, serious cases will generally attract penalties of at least 10 years and up to life imprisonment. And remember, they get to decide what is serious or not. Also, related to being charged, one article in this law explicitly states

Starting point is 00:11:55 that it overrides local Hong Kong law if there are inconsistencies. For example, another article in this law states that bail will not be granted to suspects, quote, "'Unless the judge has convincing reasons to believe he or she will not continue acts that endanger national security. However, that is at odds

Starting point is 00:12:09 with Hong Kong's criminal procedure ordinance which presumes innocence and leans in favor of granting bail. While this national security law also says that it presumes innocence, it doesn't really explain what those protections are. And so many have feared that this leaves an open door for China to impose some of the same harsh practices that are common on the mainland.

Starting point is 00:12:23 For example, as one NYU law professor explained, "'As a national security suspect, "'you can be locked up for as long as six months "'in communicato, subject to torture, "'coerced confession, no access to counsel "'or family or friends, before the police decide "'whether to process you for a crime.'" We also need to talk about the trials themselves

Starting point is 00:12:39 because one article states that trials may be closed to the public for reasons such as maintaining state secrets and public order. And whether or not a trial involves state secrets is actually decided by the chief executive, AKA Beijing's favorite puppet. Also with this whole situation, we're learning more about the new National Security Office.

Starting point is 00:12:54 For example, it is not actually bound to Hong Kong's laws. And in fact, the Hong Kong government is actually required to cooperate and prevent any obstruction of its work. And in addition to that office, a new National Security department will be created within the Hong Kong police force. And there it is required to keep its operations secret. And maybe it's the all of human history talking,

Starting point is 00:13:13 but it doesn't sound great that you have secret police. Police who reportedly in that department have a host of new powers, including search powers restricting overseas travel, freezing and confiscation of property, requiring service providers to delete information and provide assistance, requiring foreign political organizations

Starting point is 00:13:30 to provide information, secret surveillance and interception of telecommunications, and requiring people implicated in cases to answer questions or provide information. Please understand, all of this is very concerning. As that NYU law professor pointed out, all in all, this is a takeover of Hong Kong. But one of the most outrageous articles

Starting point is 00:13:47 in this entire law is Article 38, which states that non-Hong Kong residents can be prosecuted for their acts outside of Hong Kong. And really, I think the reaction that best summed up the situation came from an Axios reporter on Twitter who said, oh my God, am I reading this right? Did Beijing just grant itself sweeping extraterritoriality to everyone on the planet?

Starting point is 00:14:05 And I mean, just think of how massive that could be. I mean, especially just for tourists. If you're on China's shit list, you could be arrested just for arriving in Hong Kong. I mean, not only does that potentially threaten independent journalism on the ground in the city, I mean, think of if you were originally from Hong Kong, but now you're living outside China.

Starting point is 00:14:19 You are now essentially forced to either one, keep advocating for basic human freedoms, but never visit home again, or two, shut up and keep quiet even outside of China so you can potentially go back home to visit your family. And like I said, part of the reason we're talking about this today is we're already seeing this law implemented.

Starting point is 00:14:33 Right, we've now seen the Hong Kong police force using it to make arrests, with the first happening after a man displayed a flag reading Hong Kong independence. Right, so to be clear, this man's crime was literally displaying a pro-democracy flag. We also saw more arrested after a few thousand people demonstrating in a major commercial district

Starting point is 00:14:48 were forced off the streets by police. And there, police reportedly arrested nearly 400 people, including nine, for offenses related to this new law. And one of those nine reportedly is a 15-year-old girl who is waving a Hong Kong independence flag, which once again is absolutely insane. Also, to switch gears for a second, we've seen a number of responses internationally,

Starting point is 00:15:04 this including Canada, which has now updated its travel advisory warning to Hong Kong. That advisory now reading, "'You may be at an increased risk of arbitrary detention "'on national security grounds "'and possible extradition to mainland China.'" We also saw British Prime Minister Boris Johnson

Starting point is 00:15:16 pledging to introduce a new five-year visa and his promise to provide refuge for up to three million Hong Kong citizens. And yesterday evening, we saw Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatening further action from the United States. Writing on Twitter, the CCP's draconian national security law ends free Hong Kong and exposes the party's

Starting point is 00:15:30 greatest fear, free will and free thinking of its own people. And then adding in a statement, the United States will not stand idly by while China swallows Hong Kong into its authoritarian maw. But ultimately that is where we are with this. It's obviously something that we're gonna keep our eyes on because it is the Communist Party of China stomping out democracy, stomping out individual liberties

Starting point is 00:15:48 with the lightest of smoke screens. This is a very transparent move. And so I guess if there's a place that I can end this story, just a massive giant fuck you to President Xi and his band of goons. Winnie the Pooh looking motherfucker. And that is where I'm going to end today's show. As always, thank you for being a part of these daily dives

Starting point is 00:16:04 into the news, it makes me feel less alone in the chaos's show. As always, thank you for being a part of these daily dives into the news. It makes me feel less alone in the chaos. And also more specifically, thank you for watching, liking the video, sharing it with friends and family, being a part of the conversation in those comments down below. Also, if you're new here and you liked today's show, you want me to be your daily or weekly bringer of sadness,

Starting point is 00:16:18 hit that subscribe button and then tap that bell so it looks like this, so you get all notifications when I post. But with that said, of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. you've just been filled in i love yo faces and i'll see you tomorrow i hope you like this video subscribe if you like it

Your Ad Here

The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 7.1 The "End" Of The PDS, Canada Day, Truth About NYPD "Budget Cuts", & Hong Kong's New Reality

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.