Latest news with #DefundthePolice
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Heated exchange erupts over Andrew Cuomo's ‘Defund the Police' attacks in first NYC mayoral debate
Mayoral frontrunner Andrew Cuomo tried to make political bank during the heated Democratic mayoral primary Wednesday — by calling out his opponents' past support for the 'Defund the Police' movement. The former governor claimed the eight other candidates onstage during the highly-anticipated WNBC, WNJU and Politico New York debate had called for less money to flow to police. 'We wouldn't need more police if we didn't defund them in the first place,' Cuomo said. The attack prompted the Rev. Michael Blake – who emerged as the debate's breakout star in its first hour – to call out Cuomo for allegedly saying 'defund the police' when he served as governor. Blake pushed Cuomo to admit he used those three words. 'Are you saying you never said 'defund the police?'' he pressed. 'I used the words 'defund the police,'' Cuomo was forced to reply. 'I said I don't support 'defund the police.'' Cuomo gave the 'defund' movement legitimacy in 2021 while still in office when he said it was one of two schools of thought with the other option giving more money to law enforcement. The 'defund' attacks didn't just center around Cuomo. Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, who is gaining Cuomo in the polls, was criticized by longshot candidate Whitney Tilson for past X post that called the NYPD 'wicked & corrupt.' The resurfaced post from 2020 is still live on Mamdani's account. It responded to a ProPublica investigation about alleged abuses by the NYPD's vice squad. 'There is no negotiating with an institution this wicked & corrupt,' Mamdani had posted. 'Defund it. Dismantle it. End the cycle of violence.' Mamdani responded to the attacks by calling NYPD a critical part of public safety in the city and arguing rank-and-file cops don't want to be handling mental health calls that other professionals can better handle. The two top Democratic candidates — Cuomo and Mamdani — also battled over President Trump. 'I am the last person on this stage that Mr. Trump wants to see as mayor,' Cuomo said when asked how he will deal with the president. Trump would cut through Mamdani 'like a hot knife through butter' if the socialist is elected mayor, Cuomo argued. Moments later, Mamdani also sought to add that the Trump-foe feather to his cap. 'I am Donald Trump's worst nightmare, as a progressive Muslim immigrant who actually fights for the things that I believe in and the difference between myself and Andrew Cuomo,' he said.
New York Post
6 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Heated exchange erupts over Cuomo's ‘Defund the Police' attacks
Andrew Cuomo and Michael Blake sparred over the 'Defund the Police' movement in a heated moment. The ex-governor criticized the other candidates on stage, claiming everyone called for less money to flow to police. Cuomo claimed that every other candidate on the debate stage called for less money to the NYPD. Stephen Yang Advertisement 'We wouldn't need more police if we didn't defund them in the first place,' he said. Blake called out Cuomo for saying defund the police when he led the state. The reverend then pushed Cuomo to admit he used the words 'defund the police.'
New York Post
22-05-2025
- New York Post
Miranda Devine: Anguished mom gets justice after refusing to stay silent about gang preying on young gay men
It was the almost perfect crime. Hell's Kitchen gay bars wanted to keep it quiet so customers weren't scared away. New York Democrats wanted to keep it quiet to downplay law-and-order issues before a crucial gubernatorial election in November 2022. The cops were already overwhelmed with crime and struggling with the aftermath of COVID and 'Defund the Police' madness. Advertisement But the mother of one of the victims, Linda Clary, refused to be quiet. She knew that there was a gang preying on young gay men in Hell's Kitchen. She didn't want anyone else to die like her son John Umberger, 33, had died in the early hours of May 29, 2022, drugged with fentanyl, his final moments captured by his snickering killers on a 14-second video that sealed their fate. Clary refused to remain silent and came to The Post to warn the gay community of predators on the prowl. Advertisement She was blessed with one detective who joined the dots between her son's murder and the similar unsolved death of Julio Ramirez, 25, who had been found dead in a cab a month earlier after being drugged and robbed. In the end, Detective Randy Rose and his partner, Detective Alex Argiro, cracked the case of the gay-bar 'roofie' killers, interviewed dozens of living victims, and put five of the predators behind bars. Jayqwan Hamilton, 37, Robert Demaio, 36, and Jacob Barroso, 32, were convicted of murder, robbery, burglary, and conspiracy to rob and drug people outside Manhattan nightclubs, which led to the deaths of Umberger and Ramirez. 40-to-life for killers On Wednesday, Hamilton and Demaio were sentenced to 40 years to life while Barroso was sentenced to 20 years to life. Advertisement In March, two other men in the case, Shane Hoskins and Andre Butts, were sentenced to eight years in jail for their roles in the scheme. During the investigation, police realized there was a second criminal gang preying on revelers at bars on the Lower East Side around the same time using similar methods. Prosecutors say Kenwood Allen, who has pleaded not guilty, killed four people in 15 days. He allegedly drugged his victims with fentanyl before stealing their credit cards and leaving them for dead on the street. One of those victims was Lady Gaga's fashion designer Kathryn Gallagher, 35. 'This was a cold and calculated pattern,' said New York Criminal Court Judge Felicia Mennin before handing down the sentences to a courtroom packed with the victims' family and friends Wednesday. 'I pity your lack of humanity and empathy for your fellow human beings.' Advertisement As Clary sat in court surrounded by friends, she felt gratitude. The trial had been an ordeal, with the video of her son dying shown to the jury along with a longer video of the killers toasting each other as they celebrated in the Upper East Side townhouse Umberger had just moved into to begin his new life in New York. The gregarious Washington, DC, political consultant had last used his credit card that night at the Q NYC, a multistory gay nightclub on Eighth Avenue. His body was not found for four days. This photo provided by Linda Clary shows her son John Umberger at a rooftop bar in New York, on May 27, 2022. AP As excruciating as it was to watch her son die on screen, she says the video '100% made an impact on the jury . . . Just the depraved indifference to human life . . . To snicker, toast and laugh and not skip a beat before they went out to buy tennis shoes . . . They kept it on their phones, fortunately, and it was used as evidence. They had no shame.' She wanted to get into the witness box Wednesday and explain what John meant to her, the four days of silence after he went missing, and the silence she lives with now. But she choked up and instead read aloud excerpts of some of the myriad victim impact statements his friends and family had lodged with the court. 'It was truly a beautiful thing but so tragic,' she said. These were some of the tributes to John and reproaches to his killers given to the court: 'John was the kind of person who actually lit up a room,' said family friend Tracy Coll West. 'He dripped with optimism, goodness and the kind of love that comes straight from God. I don't mean that figuratively, he had a light around him that you could actually see . . . At his funeral, his mother mentioned that she had found thank you letters that John had written to God.' Advertisement John's biological father, Alick Campbell, who flew in from the UK: 'I will say this, only because his mother may not feel able to mention it. In all my 60 years — I have never met a son who was more dutiful or loving of his mother than John was. He would call her most days — he was always there for her — in moments of joy and especially when life threw it difficulties in her way. He was her rock and gave her as solid a love as any human is capable of — which leaves such an unfathomable hole.' 'Uncaring. Unmoved' Eolene Boyd, John's godmother, said: 'No mother should have to think about their child, their larger-than-life first-born, being left to die. Alone. Without those who loved him to be with him as he breathed his last. Instead, surrounded by people robbing him of his life and belongings and dignity. Uncaring. Unmoved by another person's plight and struggle to continue to live. This callousness is unfathomable to me.' Joanna Dematatis, a friend from childhood: 'These callous men took from the world a bright, innocent life, someone who devoted himself to encouraging others, lifting them up, and leading with heart. For what? A Gucci bag? A pair of Nikes? Their senseless greed and lack of humanity is sickening.' John's best friend, Lauren Doyle: 'The men with him could have called 911 — but instead they used their phones to film John dying. I don't have the words to describe how difficult it was to watch my friend turn blue, unable to breathe, unable to move — completely helpless . . . The extreme disregard for life and utter lack of empathy shown to John in his last moments were shocking. Advertisement 'And yet, had John not suffered as he did, I strongly believe we wouldn't be sitting here today contemplating justice for this case. Gay men were being hunted for sport, and it wasn't until John's death that detectives and prosecutors began to connect the dots. His murder exposed a pattern of violence that had gone unnoticed for far too long.' It's true that without the perseverance of his mother and Detective Rose, the predators would have continued their evil game, and other people likely would have died. The system worked this time.
New York Post
06-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Duh! Study shows ‘defund the police' resulted in more killings
According to the Major Cities Chiefs Association, a police group that tracks crime levels, murders rose 44% from 2019 to 2021 across 70 of America's largest cities. But then something happened – big city murders fell dramatically from their peak from over 9,600 in 2021 to 6,900 in 2024 – a 39% decline. What explains the dramatic rise and equally shocking reversal? Policing – first the lack thereof and then its return. Our new study of 15 major cities including New York City, Chicago, Austin, Portland and Minneapolis found that murders spiked in the wake of the summer 2020 unrest as police pulled back – making fewer stops and arrests. When policing rebounded in these cities, murders declined dramatically. Across the 15 cities with a combined population of 27 million and a disproportion share of violent crime, police stops and arrests dropped 40% after May 2020, but have since risen –up 37% from their recent lows in 2021 and 2022. Meanwhile, homicides fell 32% from their recent highs. That more policing would cut crime is not only commonsense, it is borne out by numerous academic studies showing proactive policing reduces violent crime. But our study finds recent murder declines are linked to a 're-policing effect.' As arrests and stops rose, homicides declined rapidly. Those cities where policing levels remain low, murder rates remain near highs. Post-George Floyd de-policing – when demoralized, debilitated, and depleted police forces step back from aggressive anti-crime activities fearing political, professional, or personal consequences for doing their jobs – exacerbated the growing violent and serious crime problem. The Defund The Police movement and the officials espousing anti-police sentiments sent a clear message to frontline officers: don't bother. Big city murders saw a 39% decline from their peak of over 9,600 in 2021 to 6,900 in 2024. James Keivom Emboldened criminals stepped into the vacuum and mayhem ensued. By 2021, the CDC recorded over 26,000 homicides nationwide – 7,000 'excess' killings compared to 2019 levels – and more than half of those additional homicides occurred in the 70 largest cities. As the public recoiled at the growing carnage, many local and state officials who had previously supported the 'Defund the Police' agenda and espoused anti-law enforcement sentiments reversed course while others met with electoral defeat. These shifts in opinion and policy resulted in re-policing that empowered law enforcement to crack down on crime through proactive policing. Cops began to make arrests and stops at increasing rates—and murders fell. Big cities murders are back to 2019 totals – thanks to the police. The Big Apple's experience is telling. Murders rose 44% from May 2020 to February 2022 as arrests declined. When NYPD began to re-police – arrests climbed 95% from 2021 to 2024 — murders dropped. Other big (and violent) cities saw the same effect. In New Orleans, which was slow to re-police, murders fell by half from their heights when stops and searches returned to Pre-Floyd levels. Elsewhere, cities like Austin, Minneapolis, and Portland fully embraced 'defund the police' and the anti-cop rhetoric of 2020 and killings skyrocketed as police activity plummeted. After experiencing eye-popping murder spikes, each city has pulled back from the brink. The mayor of Portland has renounced his prior support for police defunding while in Minneapolis voters rejected a ballot measure to abolish the police department in 2021. In those three jurisdictions, re-policing has been slower but steady and murders are falling but remain elevated – suggesting re-policing has a proportionate impact on homicides. Outliers remain. In Dallas and Philadelphia, arrests have ticked up as murders fell but killings had been rising prior to 2020. In the city of Brotherly Love, homicides had risen by 50% from 2015 to 2019 after voters elected an anti-police mayor in 2016 and Soros DA Larry Krasner in 2017. Dallas murders spiked 2019 after a Soros DA took office causing the governor to send in the state police – twice – to quell the violence. Baltimore is a peculiar case, having its 'Floyd' moment five years prior to the summer of 2020 – and the resulting de-policing and homicide spike. Murders rose 65% after the 2015 Freddie Gray incident and remained high for the next eight years. Then the progressive prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby, was replaced by a tough-on-crime DA. As police arrests rose again in 2022, murder rates tumbled to record lows. Every one of the 15 cities has seen its homicide numbers drop since 2021—except Seattle. It is also the only city that did not see any increase in police enforcement. Seattle police make 60% fewer stops than they did in 2019 while the murder rate is 50% higher. The city's experience provides a useful, if tragic, counterfactual, which proves the impact of re-policing on murders. After the disastrous and bloody Defund the Police experiment in de-policing, cops are back on the streets and murders are down. The re-policing effect is real: more policing means less murder. Jason Johnson, former deputy commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department, is the president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund (LELDF). Sean Kennedy is LELDF policy director.
Fox News
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Anthony Weiner says voters don't want what 'Democrats are selling,' talks about comeback as fiery centrist
Infamous ex-New York congressman Anthony Weiner argued in a new profile about his latest political comeback effort that there is a "disconnect" between New York Democrats' brand and what voters actually want. Weiner launched a campaign for New York City Council, a position he held from 1992 to 1998, in December. Weiner was elected to represent New York's 9th Congressional District in 1998 and resigned in 2011 after he posted a photo of himself in his underwear on social media and initially lied about it. The incident was followed by years of sexting scandals, including one that derailed his 2013 New York City mayoral bid, and Weiner was charged with transferring obscene material to a minor in May 2017 after sexting a 15-year-old girl, leading to a prison sentence. The Atlantic's Josh Tyrangiel, who lives in the Manhattan district Weiner hopes to represent, interviewed the disgraced politician about his return to the campaign trail. "Weirdly, the biggest obstacle to Weiner's comeback may be not his past, but his politics," The Atlantic writer said. "He's lived in District 2 since 2011, but it's far from the mostly white, middle-class parts of Queens and Brooklyn he represented as a congressman. Every District 2 council member since the early 1990s has been Hispanic. Just 8 percent of the district's 175,000 residents are registered Republicans. Fresh Defund the Police graffiti appears regularly. Our rats share their pronouns." Weiner, described by Tyrangiel as a centrist who "thinks the neighborhood needs more cops and fewer pot shops," argued that local Democrats are misguided. "If this election is about the most anti-Trump, crazy-making person on the left, you're not going to pick a [Andrew] Cuomo or a Weiner," Weiner said. "Now, I could be completely wrong, but there seems to be a disconnect with the brand that New York Democrats are selling and what people want to buy right now." When asked what evidence he has to believe this, Weiner replied, "I'm in New York with a head on my shoulders seeing what's going on on 14th Street." Tyrangiel summarized that Weiner's campaign is focused around two core assumptions, the first of which is the importance of quality of life issues, like addressing subway-fare evasion, sidewalk scaffolding and the recent proliferation of "missile-like E-bikes in bike lanes." The writer observed, "Technocratic intolerance for disorder was last a thing in New York City during the Bloomberg administration, but it's hardly novel." The second assumption, Tyrangiel said, is that, "Given Democrats' generally foul mood, it's not enough to be moderate. To reach the electorate, moderates must also be angry." "You know, usually we associate firebrands with an extreme kind of thing," Weiner said. "Well, what if the fire is just, like, Ya gotta collect the f---ing garbage, man?" One key aspect Tyrangiel observed from watching the candidate at forums and Zoom meetings is that Weiner is locking horns not just on the issues, but with core constituency groups within his own party. When a union representing medical residents and interns spoke about building more housing near hospitals, Weiner retorted, "Am I going to do that for the firefighters also? Am I going to do that for the guys who work in the sanitation department? You tell me how you expect this to work." The Atlantic writer also noted another exchange where Weiner shredded progressive orthodoxy on homelessness. During one part of the interview, Weiner argued there is a certain authenticity in disagreeing with voters: "Sometimes they actually kind of like it when you say, 'F--- me? F--- you.' That's more of an acknowledgment that you're actually listening to them than just saying 'Yes, I agree.'" In the profile, Weiner revealed he was a sex addict. He and his ex-wife Huma Abedin separated in 2016 and officially divorced earlier this year. Abedin, who was a top aide to Hillary Clinton, is now dating billionaire Democratic megadonor Alex Soros.
