NYC Mayor Eric Adams interview about upsetting rise of criminality in the city

0
9

INT: We’re all trying to get back to work. And we’ve had a number of executives in New York talking about more folks getting back into the office. Still lots of work to go. But one of the issues that they continue to talk about is, you know, so very well is the issue of crime in New York. And I wanted to sort of start there in terms of how you’re thinking about crime. There was some comments that you made recently saying you think it’s been overplayed. The New York Post this morning, I don’t if you saw they put you on a unicorn horse this morning. Unicorn. Unicorn, horse, Fantasyland, they said, I don’t know if you saw this, but I think executives and employees are thinking about this as a real issue.

Eric Adams: And this is how we have to approach this when it talks about talk about public safety. I learned from my days of policing during the early mid eighties, early nineties, is that you have to deal with actual crime, which we are dealing with in the city. But you also have to make sure people are feeling safe because you don’t have to be a victim of a crime. But if you’re watching someone that’s dealing with mental health illness that is loud and disruptive on your subway system, you feel the anxiety. And so we know we have real crime to deal with. That is why I focused on gun violence. We have witnessed a substantial double digit decrease in homicides, decrease in shootings. We have a record high of gun arrests. We moved over 5000 guns off our streets. We have really in the subway system a thousand new cops. We want to omnipresence. So we’re going after those violent individuals. And we know we also must make New Yorkers feel safe while we deal with the actual numbers.

INT: Mr. Mayor, how are you feeling about that? I take the subway, I’d say on average, probably close to three times a day these days just because it’s so efficient. But I also have moments where I see people out there and I’m thinking, oh, this is not this is not a good situation. And I sort of edge one way or the other.

Eric Adams: And that is so important what you’re saying, because when I’m in the system and I am in the system a lot, the subway system, and I noticed if someone is disorderly, someone is loud, they did not have to do something directly to me. But I’m feeling anxious because I just read about someone being shoved on the subway track. So that’s an anxious feeling, anxious feeling that I am having. That is why we’re having a major summit this weekend with everyone around the criminal justice and mental health issues where even those who criticize our policies would be there, those who are in support. We must approach this in a unified way to deal with those the mental health issues that people are facing. What you’re seeing a large number of some of the violent acts that are happening because of those small number of people with mental health issues, we must deal with the actual crimes. The city must be safe, but we also must make sure that people are not feeling that anxiety.

INT: Mr. Mayor, as a former policeman, I know you’ve probably kicked this theory around again and again, the broken window theory. And there are something to it, obviously, that, you know, if the small things get overlooked, if there’s cashless bo, if people, you know, they get arrested, they’re out immediately because there’s no room or it’s a minor crime. That’s sort of what gives everyone the feeling that, you know, there’s there’s no consequences. Do you think something needs to be done in terms of the bail reform? Even Letitia James is now conceding maybe that there should be some some reform at this point. Are prosecutors seen as way too lenient? I think you need to start there. I don’t think you can just say, well, it’s the media is covering all these things and it just seems worse than it actually is.

Eric Adams: Well, listen, you are 100% right when you talk about the you use the term broken windows. I’m a big believer in quality of life. Let’s look at some of them. Number one, the overwhelming number or the large number of paper plates, stolen plates that were on our roadways, No one looked at many of the people who had these car vehicles, cars that were not authorised for committing robberies and other violent acts. We zeroed in on them. We zeroed in on the illegal dirt bikes that were being used to do robberies and violent crimes. We removed a thousands off our streets. We’re zeroing in on those who are fair beaters. Many of them were not paying their fair and they were committing robberies and other violent crimes. And our subway system, we’re going after those quality of life crimes, going into stores, stealing things, walking out. But once we make the apprehension, because the rest are up in this city and the subway system, we have a 47% increase in arrests year over year. Officers are doing their jobs. But once we apprehend people, we must send a strong message in our criminal justice system. It won’t be a catch repeat action that’s taking place right now. And we’re hoping that’s what the summit this weekend is able to accomplish. How do we deal with this bottleneck? How do we deal with dangerous people still on our streets?

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here