New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is the Mayor who just announced he’s doing his part to defund the police by cutting $1 billion of the New York Police Department’s budget. He’s also the Mayor who recently disbanded the NYPD’s 600-man plainclothes anti-crime unit. Oh, and he’s also the Mayor who’s been forced to limit the number of cops who can apply for retirement after droves of the boys in blue started rushing for the exits in late May.
To no one’s surprise — unless you happen to work in government or the media — New York City, like so many large urban centers, is experiencing a huge spike in criminal activity, including shootings. But never fear Warren Wilhelm, Jr. Mayor de Blasio has a plan for reducing criminality in the Big Apple, one block at a time.
And guess what: Bill’s plan features more cops on the streets. It’s true, you really can’t make this stuff up.
The man who’s done more than any other human being to tie the hands and reduce the number of police officers in the NYPD is planning on utilizing more of them to staunch the flow of blood in his city.
From the New York Post:
“We will take back our streets in Harlem and all over our city but we’re going to do it from the ground up,” de Blasio said. “We are going to break the cycle of violence.”
“Now starting tonight, you’re going to see a combination of things happening … increased NYPD presence at hotspots at key locations, more patrol officers on foot in vehicles, but also more community presence because that is the key to this, community leaders, committee organizations walking with police officers showing common cause,” the mayor added.
Maybe the these community leadersWho will these community leaders and organizers be who will be patrolling the streets with beat cops?
The plan appears to lean heavily on increasing the neighborhood watch, adding community members as “violence interrupters,” opening up churches and putting clergy and faith-based outreach programs on the streets — as well as boosting police presence on more than 20 streets and in city housing complexes.
If this sounds vaguely familiar, it should. It’s the same plan that Chicago has used to try to reduce the total number of shootings and dead bodies there over the last decade…with such smashing success.
Earlier this morning, police officers from the 73rd Precinct responded to a 911 call of a male and female shot in front of 41 New Lots Avenue. When they arrived, they discovered a male with a gunshot wound to the head and a female with multiple gunshot wounds. pic.twitter.com/uXNwmhatsO
— Chief Rodney Harrison (@NYPDDetectives) July 3, 2020
De Blasio said the initiative is also aimed at engaging youth, with pop-up basketball events and a youth town hall.
Shades of Bill Clinton’s midnight basketball. And we’re sure that gathering New York’s youths for earnest heart-to-heart meetings will be just what the violence interrupting doctor ordered.
“We have to do better and this weekend coming up has to be better, particularly in Harlem, where we’re focusing a lot of our efforts. Everyone agreed on a common vision, working together.”
Note that the term “bail reform” wasn’t mentioned in the account of Hizzoner’s grand plan. Nor does it mention bringing back the sorely missed anti-crime unit.
So to sum up, Mayor de Blasio’s is now relying on the same police force that he’s been fighting against since the day he was elected to do something about the crime problem his own policies have created. Good luck with that, Mr. Mayor.
The real tragedy here is the effect the de Blasio-inspired crime wave has had and will continue to have on the city’s law-abiding citizens. And it’s not like they can run out and buy themselves a firearm to defend themselves and their families from the feral criminal population that now freely roams the city. That privilege is reserved for the precious few who know the right palms to grease.