“He Knows In and Out of Policing”: Law and Order Candidate for the Mayor of New York

At the end of last year, when the election for mayor of New York City officially began, the city was still shocked by the murder of George Floyd. From the Bronx to Battery Park, the call of “divestment police” continued.

Now, with Tuesday’s Democratic primaries approaching, Eric Adams—a former black policeman who called for an increase in New York Police Department officials—is one of the hottest candidates to win this game. It has become a referendum on New Yorkers’ attitudes towards public security and public safety.

Multiple opinion polls show that Adams leadership With the proliferation of shootings and hate crimes, this crowded field has pushed public safety to the point where voters are most concerned, and the response to the coronavirus pandemic that was once a major issue has faded.

Among the party’s moderates, Adams is competing with entrepreneurs Andrew Young and Catherine Garcia, the former head of the city’s health department, whose campaign seems to be gaining momentum. Everyone has proposed various reforms to improve policing, from better training to raising the age of recruitment and imposing harsh penalties on bad police officers. However, they still verbally support the police force and its role in the city, and rejected progressive calls to reduce its resources.

The situation is very bad.The city has almost given up any law enforcement on quality of life crimes politically

“Without public safety, our city can’t do anything. For public safety, we need police,” Yang declared after a four-year-old girl was shot and killed in the sun in Times Square last month.

At the same time, Garcia believes that “cancellation of funding” is not serious. He said: “The lives of black people are very important, the end… But we still need safe police services.”

On their left is Maya Wiley, the chief attorney of former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who promised to cut $1 billion from the $6 billion budget of the New York Police Department and use it for society service. She has benefited from some recent endorsements, including congresswoman and progressive star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from the Bronx.

“This is the reality-we are hiring the police to do the work of social workers,” she said in the final debate on Wednesday night, which was mainly about public safety.

Jumaane Williams, a public advocate in New York City, said that after concluding that voters were given a wrong choice, he felt compelled to support her campaign: between more policing or more violence. “Policing alone cannot-and never has-provided public safety,” Williams said.

Another progressive candidate, former school official Dianne Morales (Dianne Morales) wanted to take $3 billion from the police station and even claimed that the police made the city more dangerous.

In a city where the Democrats have an overwhelming advantage, the winner of Tuesday’s primary election will almost certainly win in the November election and take over the largest city in the United States at a dangerous time as it tries to kill more than 33,000 residents from a battle. And weaken business and social structures.

No matter who wins, some analysts and observers have concluded that the political wind has turned to security.

Richard Aborn, chairman of the Citizen Crime Committee, said: “The pendulum has turned to the abolition of funds movement, and I think it is now falling back.” The Citizen Crime Committee is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to improving policing. “I think that due to the low crime rate, the refund movement has only flourished in a short period of time.”

Alexander Reichl, a professor at Queens College of the City University of New York, agrees that the rising crime rate has “reshaped” the mayoral campaign, saying: “The sails of many progressives have been affected.”

Similar debates are being staged in other American cities that are also affected by rising crime rates. However, as Reichl observed, due to the “long shadow of the 1970s and fear of losing control of the city,” this is a unique and outstanding problem for New Yorkers.

According to statistics from the New York Police Department, the number of shootings in the second week of June this year has increased by 64% compared with the same period last year. In the past 12 months, shooting incidents have more than doubled compared to the previous 12 months. Murders increased by 13%, and reported hate crimes increased by 117%.

What the figures do not reflect is the reports of elderly Asian women being attacked on the sidewalks and the fear caused by reports of community decline as graffiti and other lawless behaviors take root.

“The situation is very bad. The city has politically abandoned almost any law enforcement on quality of life crimes, whether it’s plasticine bugs, illegal hawkers, street corner drug dealers, or all the emotionally disturbed people among the homeless,” William Bratton said.

Bratton led the police department under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, when the crime rate dropped, which laid the groundwork for soaring housing prices and New York’s renaming as the “safest big city in America.”

Bratton returned to De Blasio’s government for the first three years in 2014. Although he reduced the aggressive “stop and search” strategy that sowed so much resentment among black and Hispanic communities during Bloomberg’s time, the crime rate continued to decline.

Bratton blames the criminal justice reforms passed by city and state politicians — including the removal of cash bail for many crimes — that caused most of the recovery. He also expressed regret for the murder of Freud by the Minneapolis police in May 2020 and how other such incidents “tipped” the trust with the community of color.

“Whoever ends up elected mayor, it’s going to have to be their first priority because it’s seemingly going to get worse before it gets better,” he said.

For Williams, the public advocate, the analysis ignores the role of the pandemic and the economic and social chaos it caused while closing the courts. For those who only advocate incremental reforms, he pointed out that the Minneapolis Police Department had undergone thorough reforms before Freud was murdered.

“We have to reimagine public safety in the truest form, because what we have been doing is to make the police bear all these responsibilities, but it will not work,” he said.

Adams’ political origin story began with police violence: as a teenager who grew up in Queens, he said that he and his brother were beaten by two white policemen in the basement of the jurisdiction. He said that that experience enabled him to engage in law enforcement work, so he can achieve change from within.

During his 22-year career, he retired as a captain. During this period, he co-founded 100 black organizations that care about law enforcement to solve the problem of racism within the army and build a better relationship with the black community. relationship.

Adams’ campaign has raised some questions, especially regarding his past fundraising activities and recent questions about whether he is really a resident of New Jersey. (He is not, he insists.) He also has an unusual tendency to speak in the third person.

But his reputation as a pragmatist and dealmaker reassures the city’s business elite. He is also ready to deal with the shift in criminal sentiment. A few hours after the Times Square shooting, he held a press conference nearby.

“Gun violence,” he answered this week when asked what his first priority would be if elected mayor. “You look at it over and over again in all places in our city.” He explained that the loss was caused by man, but also Related to the city’s economic recovery: “If a three-year-old child is shot to death in Times Square, no tourists will come to this city.”

Among other changes, Adams proposed to hire more police of color and reduce bureaucracy to send more police to the community.It is quite controversial that he wants to revitalize the special “criminal unit” that was disbanded last year to resolve Gun crimeHe refused to deny “intercept and search”, as long as it is used properly, Willie repeatedly criticized him for this.

“He understands the policing that goes in and out. As a reformer, his advantage is that he understands what can be done, and he can well reject ideas that cannot be done,” Aborn said. Citizen Crime Committee.

But Victoria Davis’ brother Delrawn Small was shot and killed by an off-duty policeman in New York City after a road rage incident in 2016, but she didn’t Do not believe.Davis accused Adams of “playing with fear” and mocked him as “the first choice [candidate] For white people who want to improve but don’t know how to improve”.

In the southern Bronx, a community that has witnessed the most serious criminal activity in New York City for many years, long-time resident and blogger Ed Garcia Conde felt that his neighbors had intergenerational differences.

Garcia Kant said: “The older generation wants to’deliver troops’ and do something for the increase in gun violence, and then the younger generation wants to’disinvest’ the police.” “It will depend on who comes out to vote.”