The month of June has set the safety of New York City back decades, according to NYPD Chief of Department Terrence Monahan.
“The violence, the shootings are up: We haven’t seen this many since 1996, this many,” Monahan told Sunday’s “The Cats Roundtable” WABC 770 AM-N.Y. “And there are a lot of different reasons for it — starting off with bail reform putting people out on the streets, moving to COVID, releasing everyone from Rikers to the George Floyd protests.
“The animosity toward police has been absolutely unbelievable. And cops are a little confused right now on what the communities want them to do.”
The increased violence in New York City requires the City Council to give the NYPD clear direction on how they want their city ” to be policed,” Monahan added to host John Catsimatidis.
“As I look out there right now, the violence going on, it’s not a good sign,” Monahan said. “And we need some clarity from the City Council and the communities we serve exactly how they want to be policed.”
One point of contention has been the effort to take away the chokehold from officers fighting for their lives with criminals resisting arrest.
“We approached [the City Council] and told them we needed a minor change in the way that law was written so that police officers could still do that their job safely without having to worry about fighting with the subject and being arrested for a criminal act,” he added. “The idea that if somebody is fighting with you and you put your knee on their back, if you sit on them or put your knee on their back, you’re a committing a criminal act, even if you’re fighting for your life.”
The language of “that dangerous, dangerous law” makes things unsafe for police officers, he added.
“It took us years and years to get crime down to the level we have it. And to watch it shoot up as it has over the last week or so, it’s bad.”
