Business Leaders to de Blasio: Stop the Crime Wave Now

New York City survived the 9-11 attack and came back to flourish under Giuliani and Bloomberg.  But now, under the “progressive” and anti-police regime of Bill de Blasio, crime is surging.  Businesses are plenty worried about the City’s future and are letting de Blasio know it’s time to get a grip.

As the WSJ reports:

More than 160 business leaders, including executives at Citigroup Inc., Mastercard Inc. and Nasdaq Inc., have signed a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio warning of New York City’s deteriorating condition in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and growing anxiety over public safety, cleanliness and other quality-of-life issues….

The [City’s] budget reduced or eliminated services like garbage pickups and graffiti removal, as well as shifted nearly $1 billion in funding away from the New York Police Department. The city still faces a $9 billion deficit over the next two years and may have to lay off 22,000 government workers in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, the city has seen a surge in violent crimes and thefts over the summer as officials loosened restrictions to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.

For the four-week period that ended Sunday, the city recorded 55 homicides, up 49% from 37 in the same period last year, according to NYPD data. The city also had 222 shooting incidents during those four weeks, more than double the 90 shootings a year earlier.

de Blasio’s response, as the article makes clear, is not to rethink his criminal justice and policing policies in light of their disastrous results, but to complain that the state legislature, overwhelmingly controlled by his own party, has not authorized him to borrow yet more money.

The whole WSJ article is here.