The Conservative Read

 

 

July 1, 2020

Crime in New City is skyrocketing. Over the past months, violent mobs have beset upon the city, rioting, looting, and now destroying monuments that memorialize our founding fathers.

 

Further, in just nine days between June 19 through June 27, there were 114 shooting victims. Compared to this time last year shootings are up 192%. Since the unrest began, 350 police officers have been injured in New York City.

 

Within the past 24-hours, twelve more New Yorkers were shot, including one fatality.

 

But- no worries, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and the New York City Council have a solution. Early this morning the City Council approved a budget that slashes funding for the NYPD by $1 billion, almost 20% of the budget.

 

Protesters, no doubt many of the same anarchists who have been busy destroying our national monuments, have been camping out in City Hall demanding the city police budget be slashed.

 

Not surprisingly, rather than make the safety of New Yorkers a priority, de Blasio has capitulated to the angry mobs. It’s clear that he, like many Democrats do not see the police as a force for good. During de Blasio’s tenure, changes to policies that many consider antithetical to effective policing, and law and order have been enacted. New York has become a sanctuary city, and the Stop and Frisk program, which gave officers discretion to search people for weapons, has been ended.

 

Moreover, on a national stage, during one of the Democratic debates de Blasio recounted a conversation he had with his biracial son to warn him about the danger of police.

 

“I’ve had to have very, very serious talks with my son, Dante, about how to protect himself the streets of our city…including the fact that he has to take special caution because there have been too many tragedies between young men and our police.’

 

Shortly after the debate, Dante de Blasio penned an op-ed for USA Today depicting police as menacing threats to “people of color.” Dante recalled a night walking by himself to his friend’s apartment in a strange city. According to Dante, he had “No fear on a night walk, until the police came.” To spare you the pain of reading the op-ed, Dante felt threatened because a police car pulled up on the side of the road near him. The police never even stepped out of their car.

 

The reduction in the NYPD budget will be achieved by diverting money from school safety. School safety agents and crossing guards will be moved from the purview of the NYPD and into the city Department of Education. It is unclear what impact this shift would have on safety within NYC schools.

 

The plan also calls for canceling the July class of 1,163 police recruits. Further cuts will be accomplished by abolishing the plain-clothes, anti-crime unit. The anti-crime unit has been touted as an important tool in fighting and preventing crime. Many give credit to this unit for taking thousands of illegal guns off of the street.

 

The cuts to the police force undoubtedly are going to hurt the very population whom the protesters and de Blasio claim to be advocating for, the minority poor in high crime neighborhoods. Most of the victims of crime in NYC are non-white. In 2019 56.6% of murder victims in NYC were black.

 

Upon hearing of the budget cuts, Police Benevolent Association president Pat Lynch released a statement,

“Mayor de Blasio’s message to New Yorkers today was clear: you will have fewer cops on your streets. Shootings more than doubled again last week. Even right now, the NYPD doesn’t have enough manpower to shift cops to one neighborhood without making another neighborhood less safe. We will say it again: the Mayor and the City Council have surrounded the city to lawlessness. Things won’t improve until New Yorkers hold them responsible.”

 

Not only will the cuts to the NYPD budget make the city less safe, but it is also premised on a false narrative- that there is systemic racial bias in policing. In NYC almost 60% of the police force is non-white.

 

Further, statistics belie the claim made by Black Lives Matter activists. According to a database of police shootings in the U.S. compiled by the Washington Post, to date, in 2020, 10 unarmed white men were shot by police compared with 6 unarmed black men. In 2019 the ratio was similar, 22 white men to 13 black men. It is true that black Americans only account for 13% of the population. However, they commit far more crime than white Americans. In 2019, 65% of all murders were committed by black Americans.

 

It’s unimaginable how de Blasio and his fellow far-left colleagues running NYC believe that slashing the police budget will improve the lives of NYC residents. Even before the economic catastrophe resulting from the Coronavirus lockdowns, residents of NYC have been fleeing the city.

 

For the third straight year, there has been a decline in the city’s estimated population. Last fiscal year NYC lost 53,264 residents. According to a report from the New York Times, between March through May, nearly 420,000 residents have left NYC amidst the pandemic. The Times has estimated that in the more affluent areas, the population has decreased by 40% or more.

 

If NYC residents were ambivalent about returning to the city, de Blasio and the City Council made their decision far-easier. Thanks to failed leadership, the once-thriving metropolis is on a dangerous path from which it may never recover.