Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik has an explanation for why there has been a spike in violent crime under Mayor Bill De Blasio. Liberal policies are reversing gains made against violent crime and those who engage in anti-police rhetoric are helping to hamstring police.
Appearing on “Fox & Friends: Weekend” with host Ed Henry, Kerik blamed Mayor Bill DeBlasio and the City Council for a recent spike in violent crime. Murder investigations in 2019 spiked to 9.4 percent this year.
“I don’t blame the NYPD. I blame the mayor. I blame the City Council. I blame the people that promote this anti-cop rhetoric,” Kerik said. “They took stop-question-and-frisk away from the cops. They took enforcement out of law enforcement.”
Recently, a college freshman girl was robbed and murdered on her way to class. A 13-year-old boy was arrested and charged with the crime.
Kerik believes the killing is a graphic example of a decline in “the quality of life in New York City.”
“We’re going right back to where we were,” he told Henry. “… This homicide is reminiscent of the things that went on back in the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s, and people ignore it.”
Not “people.” The city’s liberal elite, who live in well-patrolled safe neighborhoods, see criminals preying on the innocent as a small price to pay for “tolerance” and “understanding” criminals.
Kerik said he felt badly for former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s police commissioner, Ray Kelly, during the stop-and-frisk era.
“You know, they continued the policies that [Rudy] Giuliani put in place. It was aggressive policing, and I do understand that Mayor Bloomberg enhanced the stop-and-frisk, those numbers, substantially. Probably too much. There wasn’t enough oversight there. [The stops] can be abused,” Kerik said.
“But, at the end of the day, the men and women in the NYPD have to have the ability to do the job that they are here to do. And, when you take the tools away to do that job, crime is going to rise,” he said.
There is a balance that has to be maintained between civil liberties and public safety. No one is denying that. But when the pendulum swings too far either way, the public isn’t being served.
Bill De Blasio and the city council think nothing of making the jobs of police more difficult, or even impossible. In fact, they agree with activists who think that police should virtually stop “policing” certain “minor” crimes. Some have even called for disarming the police.
All of this not only prevents the cops from protecting the community but puts a bullseye on their backs. While the number of murders of police is down this year, part of that decline could be less policing of high crime areas as several major cities have initiated rules for cops that are so onerous that police try to avoid conflict at the expense of keeping the public safe.
Most police continue to put themselves in harm’s way. But when prominent politicians start sounding like anti-police activists, you have to wonder how long that will continue.
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