NEW YORK (PIX11) – The NYPD is responding after a performance by its new dance team on NewsNation affiliate WPIX Morning News went viral on social media.

New Yorkers and politicians like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticized the department on social media, accusing the NYPD and Mayor Eric Adams of using taxpayer dollars to fund the dance team.

“Fire the NYPD dance team and hire more cops,” said conservative activist Brigitte Gabriel on X.

“They closed the New York City libraries on weekends,” Bailey Carlin said in a response to the video on X.

“Defund the Dance Team,” one commenter wrote on an Instagram post from @newyorkers.

In response to the criticism, Autumn-Raine Martinez, the president of the dance team, pointed out on the PIX11 Morning News on Tuesday morning that the NYPD has other sports teams like basketball and volleyball.

“We’re not looking to be professional dancers,” she said. “Some of us have never danced before, some of us have danced our whole lives. But we have to have choreography that’s fit for everybody so that everybody feels comfortable doing what they want to do.”

NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Communications Tarik Sheppard clarified that taxpayer dollars given to the NYPD aren’t used for the dance team.

Martinez also opened up about how the backlash has affected the team.

“Even with the comments we’ve been getting, we’ve been just leaning on each other, just supporting each other,” Martinez said. “It’s already tough being on this job, but then to have more things like that for doing something we love doing is kind of hard.”

You can watch the NYPD dance team’s original performance on the PIX Morning News in the video player below.