AOC vs. Adams: One Is Right on Crime
IN Corona, one section of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Queens and Bronx district, murder has increased 42 percent and rape 66 percent over the past two years. In this precinct, the 42nd, robberies have risen by 21 percent, per CompStat. Will Ocasio-Cortez deny these statistics? The Democrat doubts the existence of mass smash-and-grab robberies around the country: “A lot of these organized retail thefts are not actually panning out,” she asserted this month.
In my New York City neighborhood and countless other urban locations, Walgreens has many products locked up because thefts make leaving them open on the shelf no longer feasible. The chain, a top robbery target, stated, “Organized retail crime is one of the top challenges facing” the company.
“Respectfully, the congresswoman has no idea what she is talking about. Both the data and stack of video evidence make clear that this is a growing problem in need of solutions,” said Retail Industry Leaders Association spokesman Jason Brewer. “If she is not concerned with organized theft and increasingly violent attacks on retail employees, she should just say that.”
New Yorkers are concerned. And
Eric Adams’ win signals they’ve had it with the far left on law and order.
AOC wants police defunded and says, “If we want to reduce violent crime, if we want to reduce the number of people in our jails, the answer is to stop building more of them.”
Her view is the view of the radical left, and it is completely absurd.
Is this crime denial? Or is this using words to spark provocation?
Shall we close the jails to the most violent criminals, who tear apart families and communities? Shall we close them to lower-level offenders,
Shall we close the jails to the most violent criminals, who tear apart families?’
for whom jail time might provide a deterrent to committing future crimes? Should we close jails to the gang member who recently killed a Columbia University grad student?
Education, strong families, jobs and addressing mental-health issues are necessities to stop crime, but they are longer-term solutions. And we have not addressed them correctly or adequately.
Defunding police and letting felons out of jail is not a solution unless stoking chaos, increased crime and anarchy is your objective.
The irony is that the more crime committed, and frequently by repeat offenders, the more public opinion shifts to supporting more police and more jail time.
A December Siena poll found New Yorkers are most concerned about crime and economic development.
According to a recent Pew Research Center piece, “Americans’ attitudes about police funding in their own community have shifted significantly” amid “mounting public concern about violent crime.”
Forty-seven percent of adults “say spending on policing in their area should be increased,” up from 31 percent in June 2020. “That includes 21 percent who say funding for their local police should be increased a lot, up from 11 percent” last summer.
Support for reducing police spending fell 10 points, from 25 to 15.
Gothamites confirmed this sentiment shift by electing Eric Adams mayor. Adams understood that black Americans — even more than whites and Hispanics — have changed their minds significantly about decreasing police funding.
Black Americans often have greater concern about rising crime rates because their communities tend to bear the brunt of increasing violence. Polls regularly indicate that for all Americans, worry about violent crime far outstrips climatechange and budget-deficits concern.
Denying citizens a measure of safety will add to the economic burdens our city must face. Denying children safe, quality educational opportunities will affect them for the rest of their lives.
Adams does not deny the crime crisis or believe defunding police and tearing down jails will solve it.
And he seeks to improve the education system. “Poor education and lack of preparation lead to incarceration,” he’s correctly said.
To increase public safety, there must be true police reform including greater transparency. Adams will diversify the NYPD and add officers who will respect and protect New Yorkers. He will make it easier for good cops to identify bad cops. And he will get guns off the street, bringing back anti-crime units.
Adams knows he must go to Albany and lobby the Legislature to change bail laws so violent criminals don’t go back on the streets immediately and commit more crime.
He made a good choice for NYPD commissioner, but it’s always the mayor himself who decides administration policy on policing. Unlike AOC, Adams is not a crime denier.