NYC first lady Chirlane McCray says police-free city 'would be like a nirvana, a utopia,' but not anytime soon

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First lady of New York City Chirlane McCray said Tuesday that it would be like "nirvana" if society didn't need police officers to keep the peace, but then also highlighted the need for law enforcement in larger, urban cities.

“That would be like a nirvana, a utopia that we are nowhere close to getting to,” she told Time magazine.

McCray's comments came just days after local lawmakers in Minneapolis were pushed to defund the police, in response to the death of George Floyd, as protests continue across the country.

She was also asked if New York City had any plans to emulate Minneapolis and scale back on their police force. “They’re a small city,” McCray replied. “They can do things that would not be possible in a large city like New York."

Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, agreed that it would be nearly impossible to institute the same police reduction policies in a place as big as New York City.

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“Could the human race evolve to a point where no guardians, no structures are needed? I guess in theory,” he said. “But I don’t see that in the future we’re going to live the next few generations.”

These comments come two days after reports surfaced that the president of the Los Angeles City Council, who filed a motion to cut $150 million from the LAPD, was receiving private police protection at her home.

Nury Martinez and her family initially had round-the-clock protection from two officers at her house, before reportedly canceling the detail after Spectrum News 1 called her office on Thursday, looking for comment on the issue.

Her motion to slash police funding cited slavery, Jim Crow, segregation and corporatism as the driving forces behind police department agendas. She also claimed police are trained to enforce a system that benefits certain races over others.

“We need a vision for our city that says ‘there is going to be justice.’ American society is founded on a racial hierarchy, one that is born out of slavery, followed by Jim Crow segregation and corporate abuse of labor. As such, police departments are asked to enforce a system of laws that are designed to reinforce and maintain economic and racial inequality," Martinez said in part of the motion, according to Spectrum News.

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Fox News reached out to the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Public Information and the Police Benevolent Association (PBA) of New York, but neither responded to the request for comment.