Safir: We really have to do something about taking back New York City
Former NYPD commissioner Howard Safir calls for a return to broken windows and stop-and-frisk policing on 'Your World.'
During times of fear and uncertainty, a political leader’s words and presence can serve to inform, inspire and motivate.
President Franklin Roosevelt’s "Day of Infamy" address before Congress after the Pearl Harbor attack and New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s 9/11 communications immediately come to mind. But exemplary leadership examples of elected officials meeting the moment during times of crisis appear far more the exception than the norm.
Case in point: New York’s elected Democrats quickly assembled in Brooklyn on Tuesday, following a mass shooting in the subway, allegedly perpetrated by Frank R. James, a 62-year-old Black male with a lengthy criminal history and a propensity for racist social media screeds.
With a national audience tuned in to the hastily-assembled press conference coordinated by city officials, of paramount concern was the status of the manhunt for the shooter (now in custody). And yet, taking literally the immortal words of one-time Democratic Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul – facing tough election challenges from both flanks this year – certainly wasn’t about to allow this precious crisis opportunity to go to waste.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks at a news conference in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Tuesday, April 12, 2022. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Following New York City’s First Deputy Mayor Lorraine Grillo (Mayor Eric Adams was quarantining during a bout with COVID-19) and NYPD Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell to the podium, the governor began with this bit of insipid banality:
"This morning, ordinary New Yorkers woke up in anticipation of a relatively normal day … That sense of tranquility and normalness was disrupted – brutally disrupted – by an individual so col-hearted and depraved of heart that they had no caring about the individuals that they assaulted as they simply went about their daily lives."
The governor is relatively new to this chief executive business, leading a state now plagued by one-party rule. She inherited the top position last August when Andrew Cuomo was forced to step down following a litany of sexual harassment allegations.
NEW YORK CITY SUBWAY SHOOTING ATTACK TIMELINE
She followed up this gift by appointing as her lieutenant governor a progressive Democrat, Brian Benjamin, 45, who formerly served as a New York state senator, and was just arrested following his indictment on federal corruption charges for participating in a campaign finance scheme. While a state senator, Benjamin was also notorious for his open support for the "defund the police" movement.
One has to believe that Hochul’s poor talent assessment was predicated on her desperate need to bridge the Democratic Party divide between the moderates and the progressive, anti-police fringe.
Her political calculus – similar to Mayor Eric Adams’ ongoing pivot to address the surge of criminality in New York City – is transparent. But in the wake of what appears to be an act of terror in the Brooklyn subway and Hochul’s recent, tepid attempts to tweak the Democrats’ bail reform disaster, her "tough on crime" bluster rings hollow, served up as opportunistic pablum:
"The people in the entire state of New York stand with the people of this city, this community, and we say, ‘No more.’ No more mass shootings. No more disrupting lives. No more creating heartbreak for people just trying to live their lives as normal New Yorkers."
Lacing her address with platitudes and bromides, she vowed to commit the state’s "full resources" as a means to address "the insanity of these crimes." Without a hint of irony and ignoring Albany’s complicity in the current crime proliferation, she lamented "this surge of crime, this insanity that is seizing our city."
Spare me the self-righteous, moral indignation.
NYC SUBWAY SHOOTING: MAN WHO ALERTED POLICE TO SUSPECT REVEALS MOMENTS BEFORE ARREST
One cannot fairly lay the responsibility for James’ depraved attack on anyone else’s doorstep. This evil, madman is allegedly culpable for the heinous crimes committed in Brooklyn on Tuesday. And yet the Democrats, the political party in control of New York – which controls all levers of power – should accept responsibility for the continued diminution of what was once America’s safest big city.
I arrived in New York City as a freshly-minted FBI agent in 1991 -- the year that followed the bloodiest year on record, when 2,245 victims were murdered. Witnessing the epic turnaround accomplished by true "tough-on-crime" Gotham mayors, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg, along with their proactive police commissioners, Bill Bratton and Ray Kelly, was inspiring.
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But we exist in wholly different times now. The policing profession has been smeared, slandered, marginalized and demonized. Recruitment and retention in departments across the country has been impacted. Morale is abysmal.
Honest, experienced law enforcement officers are retiring in droves. Scores of prisons are being shuttered while criminal recidivists enjoy the fruits of bail reform’s turnstile-like "justice." And yet the liberal Democrats who step in front of microphones to express their concerns following an attack like the one in Brooklyn, appear aghast at the consequences their policies have wrought.
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Crime on the subways has dramatically increased. Open drug use, brazen thefts, and cops reluctant or fearful to engage are all part of the new permissive criminal environment that one-party rule has gifted us on behalf of "progress."
So please understand this, Governor Hochul: New York is suffering. And it appears it is going to get worse. Less "tough talk" in Brooklyn and more corrective action in Albany is the antidote.