How the Left fuelled New York City's violent crime wave | Midterms dispatch

do you think that the police here in New York have ever been more hated during my career now this is the worst I've ever seen it violent crime is surging in New York City a random man on a bike like punched me in the face and I was like bleeding everywhere let me go back home I don't want to be here I'm here to find out why Garrick sharvin has done more to destroy policing in this country than I think in any single event in my life I'll be speaking with the NYPD do you feel people respect the police here in the Bronx today's day and age absolutely not and those who wanted to fund them you actually want to abolish the police yeah do you find the police no I agree with that I'll also be asking whether the Republicans have a shot at winning the governorship for the first time in nearly 20 years it could possibly see a republican Governor which would be the biggest election in the country this year my name is Stephen Edgington and I'm a reporter from The Daily Telegraph in this final episode of three films exploring the U.S midterm elections I'm here in New York investigating how Progressive politicians have fueled the violent crime wave in summary it was a nightmare Dante's Inferno might be a better description [Music] my first stop was in one of New York City's most violent neighborhoods the Bronx there I met up with deputy chief Eric Hernandez I started our discussion by asking how much change Eric had seen in crime levels in recent years a dramatic change more people were moving into New York City and we had significant crime reductions and then unfortunately we have gone backwards significantly not to the levels of the late 80s early 90s but an alarming trend of violence throughout our city that has really really been highlighted throughout the country how much can you blame the increase in violent crime on the rise of the BLM riots for example and other activist movements who are anti-place and anti-cop I don't know what level I would say that I would blame it on that particular thing there is no secret that there is a significant anti-police element that has become that much more visible I wouldn't point that any one particular thing such as my BLM or anything but when you see what has happened during the the Riots of 2020 it is alarming do you think that the police here in New York have ever been more hated by some of the public during my career now this is the worst I've ever seen it in 30 years I've never seen this kind of dynamic and the belief there is a belief by some people that the police are actively killing people of color the reality is that when you look at the total number of police shootings in general regardless of who the uh the the suspect is or what the racial dynamic they are it is such a very very tiny component of the hundreds of thousands if not millions of police encounters that we experience with citizens throughout the year so the narrative that was created was that the police were killing literally thousands of people that's factually not true Eric had set me up with a ride along from one of his officers known as Chuck has worked in the NYPD for 17 years and has seen his fair share of violent crime do you think this area here at the Bronx now it's getting a bit dark is it safe to walk around here uh I would not bring my family here we have a lot of homeless there's a lot of mentally unstable people who I feel really could benefit from some sort of institutionalization you can see up and down the streets their their behavior pacing back and forth you know sometimes they're just yelling at themselves or sometimes obvious that they are intoxicated or under the influence of something I feel New York was safer the areas that I've worked in were safer earlier in my career than they are today yeah so you see there's this crime scene tape around this vehicle here yeah so my my the best guess would be that some sort of crime happened here possibly a shooting and these officers are securing the crime scene either waiting for evidence collection or the crime scene unit to come process can you tell us about the shooting that happened which shooting the one that got you so the desk job if you oh um sorry that's right so in 2011 I was working um in the street narcotics enforcement unit we received a call for a an assault in progress and when we got there we witnessed a man assaulting a woman on the third story balcony of a private apartment building he was punching her several times and it appeared he was trying to grab her legs and throw her over the balcony I had drawn my firearm I was ordering him to stop the assault at which time he turned to me and and stated that he was going to kill her at that time I saw that in his hand that he I believed he was punching her with he had a very large knife and I quickly calculated that those punches were all stab wounds stabs he was stabbing her repeatedly and I could see she was bleeding profusely so I fired my weapon twice striking him twice and he stabbed her again would I shot him a third time unfortunately she had succumbed to her wounds and did not make it eventually he was taken into custody he actually survived what happened to you after the shooting it was a deemed a good shooting I was justified my gun wasn't removed or anything like that but the city sees you as a liability at that point and I'm very fortunate that the timing of my shooting there was no racially motivated shootings around that time that were deemed that way by the media or or anything if my incident was to happen today it'd be one of the first things that the news outlets post the race and nationality of myself and or the the the other parties involved do you feel people respect the police here in the Bronx today's day and age absolutely not no why not what's the problem when I got on I felt like the police were respected more when there was a bunch of people at three o'clock in the morning hanging out on a street corner we would roll up with a police car flick the lights on and everybody would disperse today they take that opportunity to challenge us and when the stop question and frisk went away we had a lot of people deliberately like reaching in their waistbands just to see what kind of reaction they would get from the police commonly illegal weapons and guns and stuff are carried in people's waistbands or sweatshirt pockets housing I wanted to know how New Yorkers felt about the NYPD and the officers who put their lives on the line to protect the public I took to the streets around Times Square to ask both tourists and locals whether they felt safe in the Big Apple do you think crime has risen in the last few years crime definitely I'm kind of scared to go on the subway sometimes I'm afraid I'm gonna get like pushed or something what about defund the police do you find the police no I agree with that I agree with actually the police I see a lot more cops on the street I see a lot more people like um supporting each other so yes I do feel safe in New York yes I do feel safe in New York what do you think about defund the police I have a lot of police friends so I feel like defunding them isn't that isn't the answer I think it we need to support them more personally do you feel safe in New York City kind of I don't live here but honestly there are too many news about guns and crimes there so it's kind of like it's not safe for me like this morning we were talking about that and I was like let me go back home I don't want to be here as we were walking down a Street near Times Square I approached a group of young men asking if they wish to be interviewed unfortunately we did not capture this on camera however we did record the audio of one of them violently threatening myself and my cameraman demanding our equipment we were lucky enough to walk horridly to a more populated area ignoring the man's threats however the incident was a timely reminder of how nowhere is 100 safe in the streets of New York so do you guys feel safe in New York City sometimes not at night not alone not on the subway and have you experienced crime here yeah I've so a couple things have had happened to me so I was like walking like to the grocery store literally the day I moved here and like a random man on a bike like punched me in the face and like biked away and I was like bleeding everywhere it was like pretty crazy and then I also got ran over by a car like a car like ran over my foot I moved here like a month ago too so it's like yeah it's like New York is like definitely tough I've experienced it being a young woman in the city is very dangerous as well I remember like my first time visiting New York I was like walking around at night and I got like Street assaulted and harassed like this guy like came up behind me he like poked my ass and he was like he was like Hey like like just screaming like kind of vulgar things at me and I was like I didn't know what to do in that moment I remember one time I was going to college and just because someone was having a bad day I bumped into them and had like really dark glasses I didn't even know her and she picked me up no lie she uh had a Snapple bottle and she pushed down my face and I did ask was going to school at the end of the day everybody got a weapon on them here you have to have a weapon on you like if you want to be safe unfortunately you have to have a weapon on you are you guys armed now excuse me are you armed now have you got a weapon now [Laughter] I kind of tried to file a police report but then I was like they're not going to do anything they've never done anything like I think it's more important to direct that funding towards like mental health wouldn't you guys prefer more police people to protect you I mean against assault and stuff like that I mean if they actually did protect myself more than they could protect me it's like this shit's still going to be the same I'm Still The One defending myself I have to wait for you to come I wondered whether the visceral hatred from some members of the public towards the police was having an impact on the morale of NYPD officers to find out I visited the police in college John J where I met up with a retired NYPD officer turned Professor I entered the New York City Police Department in 1992. and I retired in 2012. looking at the recent spike in violent crime particularly in cities like New York how much can we blame the BLM riots for this and the death of George Floyd we're not going to blame the brm riots per se right but George Floyd incident let's just take let's talk talk about that case Derek charvin has done more to destroy policing in this country than I think in any single event in my life and I've seen a couple of police incidents that were really terrible but this one you know kind of like Takes the Cake and it came at a time where the movement was to this anti-police environment rhetoric that we saw and this was just there there quote unquote like time to seize control and that's basically what they did why do you think so many officers in the NYPD are retiring early not only have you had a lot of these reforms but you've had legislation to go against them right there's they want to remove qualified immunity or they move remove qualified immunity which would make it easier to personally sue a police officer where you could be held liable even if you were right you could still be sued and the second thing is we've had in New York state by the city council pass What's called the diaphragm law which is basically if you try to arrest somebody and you make any effort to go around the neck press on the chest on the back and you obstruct the breathing on somebody we have district attorneys that are looking to arrest the cops for this which has led to a lot of videos you might have seen them online where you have five or six cops trying to figure out how they're going to tackle this guy because they're worried about where they put their hands where they where they grab them and it becomes a real problem it's a big deal and if you're a cop and you're worried about now not only getting arrested for doing your job but now you're looking to get sued and I could go to a county where it's better pay better benefits and nicer working conditions yeah let's put it this way if I had if I was working and I had the opportunity to leave and get a job somewhere else I'd be out of here too when we talk about statistics it can turn some people off it can be a bit dehumanizing can you paint me a picture of what it's been like in New York in the last few years to people who haven't been or have never been to New York so in the last two and three quarters years in the subway system I think we we've had 24 homicides in the last two in three quarters years from 2019 I think to 2002 we had 21. so almost 20 years we only had 21 homicides we've had 24 in the last two and three quarters is New York becoming a genuinely dangerous place to live I don't think so all right listen I was like I said I was a cop in the 90s it was dangerous back then and a lot of people say well it's not as bad as it was in the 1990s and I say yes you're right but we shouldn't wait till it gets that bad in order to do something foreign so how bad was New York in the 1990s and how did the city turn it around much of the answer lies with the former commissioner of the NYPD Bill Bratton Bratton was hired in the early 1990s by then mayor Rudy Giuliani to help fix the Spree of homicides and violent crime plaguing the city I sat down with Mr Bratton over video link to discuss his time in the NYPD can you describe what New York was like before you joined the NYPD on the streets a phenomenal amount of documented crime in that year 1990 my first year there were 2245 murders recorded in the city over one half million serious crimes reported in that city of seven and a half million people there were seven thousand locations in the city of Newark in the early 90s where drugs were openly being sold on street corners Parks prostitution was rampant in the Midtown Manhattan in summary it was a nightmare Dante's Inferno might be a better description what is the broken Windows theory of policing broken windows is another term for disorder broken windows is effectively what we would call quality of life crime oftentimes referred to as victimless crime graffiti aggressive begging things that where an individual is not actually assaulted but in which they were put in fear in which they were intimidated I'm a strong proponent and supporter and implementer of broken windows policing the idea that to effectively control crime serious or minor you can't just focus on just serious crime or you just can't focus on minor crime broken windows you have to have a series of initiative strategies a comprehensive set of strategies that address both at the same time can you briefly explain what happened in New York to Crime when you implemented your new broken windows policy it declined dramatically not only serious crime but quality of life crime Giuliani hired me as his first police commissioner and the results in New York were dramatic within i-27 months with him uh overall crime and the city went down by almost 40 percent we got rid of the 7 000 open-air drug locations we got rid of most of the prostitution and what was the impact of that for the next 25 years up until 2019. crime continued to go down in the city of New York quality of life continue to improve and that the visibility of broken windows types of offenses declined so dramatically that tourism went up to 65 million a year by 2018 in 2018 was the safest year in the history of New York City as it relates to Serious crime there are fewer than 100 000 reported crimes 1998 I bet they were 500 000. do I think about 270 murders versus the 2243 but it all felt it all fell apart in 2019. well this is it so it's interesting you say in 2019 things started to change and you can explain your reasons why you think that happened in the United States we have a very serious political divide now in our country we have forces on the far right we have forces on the far left uh on the left the Democratic side Democratic party largely there is uh what is called the progressive left woke Criminal Justice Reform movement that really began to pick up steam in 2019 and not just in my city and state but throughout the country a lot of that was being fueled by a conscious effort to elect District Attorneys who believed that there had been too much mass incarceration too much police enforcement particularly involving minorities to find out more about the impact of these left-wing District Attorneys and why crime has surged in recent years I spoke with Rafael mangual from the Manhattan Institute an organization that was pivotal in promoting the broken windows theory of policing well in 2020 New York City saw a 46 plus percent increase in homicides which is the single largest year-over-year increase in homicides in this City's history why do you think there's been a recent increase in crime in New York I think it's been just a Confluence of really bad policy decisions we have seen incarceration rates drop significantly over the last decade plus we have seen a multitude of reforms all of which are aimed at lowering the transaction costs of committing crime and or raising the transaction costs of enforcing the loss I'm thinking here things like bail before from Discovery reform which you know creates all these new unfunded burdens that prosecutors have to comply with in order to bring a criminal case raise the age legislation which makes it you know almost impossible to hold a 16 or 17 year old criminal defendant uh responsible as an adult which means that they're almost never getting lengthy prison sentences yet the less is more act which makes it much more difficult to send people back to prison for violating the terms of their parole you have the Progressive prosecutive Movement where you know in Brooklyn and Manhattan we now have District Attorneys who are explicitly committed to decarceration as an end in itself there are of course many who supports Criminal Justice Reform in New York City to get that point of view I caught up with Tana Geneva an independent journalist who focuses on crime we met in a park overlooking New York's Infamous jail Rikers Island can you explain what Rikers Island is over there what is Rikers Island our Rikers in jails it houses approximately um 10 000 people and 85 percent of them were there pre-trial so they're legally innocent and it's just notorious for overcrowding and abuses and deaths we've had 16 deaths just this year so there is obviously this issue over what's called bail reform so this is people wanting to not put people into Rikers to not put people into jail before their trial begins do you think that that is an issue where we look we people do need to go to jail because they might be repeat offenders they might have had a criminal record and we need to make sure that people are safe you know the victims of crime are safe from these people at the same time as sort of having that balance uh no because um people out on bail commit reoffend um violently it's something like two percent of the time it's extremely rare also we're not talking about the elimination of all bail we're talking about the elimination of cast jail because if you have a lot of money you can pay your bail and then go commit more violence so the issue is that it's not it makes no sense in terms of the dangerous dangerousness of the suspect effect just because they can't pay isn't it worth even with that two percent of re offending to make sure to be on the safe side as it were with this bear reform um no because why don't we consider the public safety of people who are in jail pre-trial AKA legally innocent like I mentioned there was 16 deaths just this year why isn't there public safety an issue so it's the balances between the safety of the public and the safety of the people who have been sort of accused of crimes or awaiting trial I don't want to sound like a crazy hippie but people at Rikers are the public people in prison are the public Tana isn't the only one who supports such reforms back in Manhattan I met with an organization called cop watch Whose sole purpose is to record the police and keep them accountable so you've got this badge here it says Hey cab so it says all cats are beautiful yeah well all cops is that really what it is yeah well all cops are bastards well I'll be honest with you now all right this one that'll good but they still have to listen to their bosses and they still have to commit the acts that their bosses tell them to do how you doing there nice to meet you Stephen how you doing nice to meet you so do you want to explain what we're doing here in the park when we in the Washington Square Park is all about watching police that's what we want to do we want to make sure we can't get rid of them I strictly want to abolish police but that's not going to happen so I won so you actually want to abolish the police yeah I don't even think you know I think they they are the problem especially in in black and brown communities and in my neighborhood we keep us safe the people keep each other safe now am I right in saying that you sued the NYPD I assume that I won 925 000 925 wow and what was that for specifically uh basically because they tried to set me up and I ended up um audio recording for three hours all their activities within the within the police station and we recorded them admitting that I was nowhere near them to even harass me or arrest me and they also was speaking about how they could buy guns and how they would love to buy a gun to plan on me they was trying to find felonies to charge me with uh I mean are we going to go to ride along or what's the plan no yeah we're going to go ride along okay can you explain what's going on in this radio oh yeah yeah right now on there's cars going in uh this is the NYPD dispatch radio so if there's any emergency taking place it would be related through the dispatch radio at the same time they receive it we receive it and we're able to go through these calls do you think there are any good police officers oh no there's a lot of good police officers but can you be good in that uniform in the department nah but it's undeniable that crime's gone up I mean so many people are victims of crime and these people have got to go somewhere they've got to go off the streets right because they can be dangerous to people just the ordering members no I mean crime hat I mean we ain't gonna lie about that crime has been a little bit crazy we've been talking about over the phone how these young kids are running up on old people and robbing them and stuff like that back in the days take it back in our days we're gonna play that you came in my neighborhood and robbed old folks we were going to find you and believe me once we did what we did he wasn't robbing nobody else old in any neighborhood but that's that's vigilante justice just because he got a badge everybody have the law they have the legal system they have to have you know proof of they have to have evidence they go to trial whereas you guys they have evidence to lock me up well there's obviously problems but the thing is you can't rely on vigilante justice I mean you make good at what happens if you got it wrong what happens to the guy of people were lying or if you didn't have the right evidence you may have caused what did they have with them do they have anything about my brother lies you see that's the thing that sometimes makes me like say I guess people don't really understand what's going on you know if you stopped a lot of these white folks downtown you're gonna find a lot of them don't have guns a lot of them have drugs you know we know that a lot of them have drugs because in our younger days we used to you know we used to do our thing to survive and believe me so you were you were dealing drugs to them no no better customer than the ones downtown you know have you ever been a victim of crime have you ever been assaulted or robed or anything like that yeah you've been through that you've been initiated we call it initiated yeah When We Were Young I mean we've been initiated okay when we was young yeah we've been beat I mean I've been jumped I've been to have that been beat up and what do you think should happen to the people who who stabbed you and robbed you I mean they should go to prison right [Music] um they'll take care of they got taken care of okay I may sound like a bit of a wuss here but I don't feel prepared to stab someone or to defend myself in that way I haven't got a weapon I've never been trained I'm not used to you know it's just what I mean so what about the people who who don't feel able to protect themselves or defend themselves you must have the right to carry so I should have a gun to protect myself it shouldn't I shouldn't have that's what it takes to check your life if he puts his life in jeopardy by robbing you that's on him he's an adult listen if everybody I mean I believe that everybody was strapped to think about it twice it's like the Western I mean you challenge them be like yo listen so it's about three o'clock we're gonna do this you know what I'm saying but but I mean so I should have a gun instead of the police protecting me right because what about Rob what about women what about children I mean what about people who are the same that's why you have the mouse there and everyone in every family we have our males and that's another thing that happened that the power of the man male power of protecting their woman has been taken away I mean it's great the woman's Independence and stuff like that's a beautiful thing you know but now like I said everything has a program behind it so this Independence causes a woman to feel like they don't need a man with violent crime becoming a major issue for New Yorkers I wanted to find out how it was impacting the campaign for governor in the upcoming midterm elections Ryan goodersky is a republican activist who runs the 1776 project and writes a substack analyzing political Trends how much influences crime having in these midterms do you think it's huge crime is probably the third largest issue in America right now in some states like in New York state it's probably number one you don't have to live in a high crime neighborhood to see crime every single day because it's on everyone's smartphone everyone's Instagram has has probably videos of it or Twitter or Facebook whatever social media you use those videos are shared constantly so the anxiety over crime even in rather low crime areas is always prevalent let's talk about New York specifically so obviously as you mentioned crime has risen a lot here in recent years how much of an impact will that have on the midterms here in New York it's everything it's why this is why the governor's race is within single digits I mean Republicans haven't went average rate since 2002 with George Pataki and even when they won they never got 50 I don't think Pataki ever got 50 maybe one time but he won three times they are competitively Zelda is competitive over the issue of crime can you give us a breakdown of that governor election in New York sure so there's Governor Kathy hokel who is the she was the lieutenant governor of the state and with Andrew Cuomo was the governor he had to step down for sexual assault allegations and she became the governor she was never won an election as her own she was a former one-term congressman from Western New York from the Buffalo area and there's Congressman Lee zeldin who's the Republican from Long Island he has been in Congress for a couple years I would say six or eight and he was a state senator before then very popular on Long Island or in a republican traditionally can get a third of the vote of New York City because Upstate is so Republican it will manage to win zeldin is polling close to a third in New York City and that's why he's within single digits it's on the razor's Edge and it's been moving in Zelda favor every single week that goes by he was 20 points down now he's within four or six points depending on the poll you read it could possibly see a republican Governor which would be the biggest election in in the country this year it's not just in New York City that crime has risen many of America's major cities have been inflicted with surges of violence homelessness and rampant drug use in these midterm elections the Democrats will likely face an uphill struggle as voters make their verdict on the impact of radical District Attorneys and activists who push slogans like defund the police for New York memories of the chaos of the 1990s are still in the past for now foreign [Music]

Channel: The Telegraph

Views: 567,205

Keywords: Telegraph, News, new york city crime, new york city, nyc crime, nyc subway crime, news, new york city subway crime, crime, eric adams, nyc, new york, nypd, nyc shootings, gun violence, nyc gun violence, violent crime nyc, kathy hochul, new york governor kathy hochul, lee zeldin, new york governor, kathy hochul lee zeldin, district attorney, criminal justice reform, defund the police, black lives matter, george floyd, defund the police explained, blm, police reform, police

Id: yKFLN73iF_E

Length: 30min 54sec (1854 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 07 2022