By Ilana Siyance
Whether they like it or not, candidates running for NYC mayor are repeatedly encountering the topic of public safety. With an alarming increase in crime in New York City, voters seem unwavering in their focus on the issue.
In the first major mayoral debate, which took place on May 13, the fieriest exchanges revolved around crime. Just hours after the debate, police reported a series of subway slashing and violence, with four MTA riders being attacked. As reported by the NY Times, on the next day, regardless of their agendas, all the candidates were driven to outline their plans for making NYC a safer place. Only five weeks remain till the June 22 primary, and voters are looking to weed out contenders from the crowded list of candidates, based on their views on how to stop crime.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a retired police captain, said he would like to see a heavier police presents in the subways. “Progress cannot be derailed by crime,” Mr. Adams wrote. “If New Yorkers themselves cannot rely on our public transportation to keep them safe, then tourists will not return and not the businesses that depend on them.” On Tuesday, Adams also added that the NYPD should move officers out of desk jobs and onto the streets. “Too many officers are performing clerical duties, and they are in units that do not directly impact public safety,” Adams said.
Adams and Andrew Yang both oppose defunding of the police. Yang, an entrepreneur, said during his appearance on Good Morning New York, that police are key to “drive our ability to improve what’s going on our streets, in the subway”.
Other Democratic candidates took another path, expressing the opinion that social services for people with mental illness, not more police officers, would be the key. This was the opinion of City Comptroller Scott M. Stringer, as well as Maya Wiley, a former counsel to Mr. de Blasio and civil-rights lawyer. “We will be cycling people from the subways to Rikers,” the city’s jail complex, “back and forth and at a tremendous financial cost,” said Stringer, highlighting the need for social services and supportive housing. Ms. Wiley went so far at the debate as to say that she would take $1 billion from the Police Department “to create trauma-informed care in our schools, because when we do that violence goes down and graduation rates go up.”
Other candidates, including Shaun Donovan and Kathryn Garcia, stressed plans to get guns off the streets, in response to the recent shootings.