Cuomo acknowledges growing violence

Love him or hate him, at least New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo admits that violent crime is rising in New York and needs to be stopped.

Cuomo yesterday said he would be sending a letters to 500 policing jurisdictions in the state to emphasize the urgency of re-imagining their police departments, to make law enforcement work for both the community and the officers.

He put the statistics up on a screen to show the startling crime increase in various communities. Too bad he didn't include Long Island.

"You cannot dismiss these numbers," Cuomo said. "You cannot look at reality and say it doesn't exist.  Because the reality is clear."

He added that New York City statistics show that 90 percent of the victims are black or brown.

His letter, he said, "explains it is imperative to address this urgent crisis. People are dying....This is complicated. This is hard. It's also a matter of life and death."

 
Other politicians across the nation, primarily Democrats, have ignored the growing violence, saying the looting, burning and assaults depicted in videos taken in cities like Chicago, New York City, Seattle and Portland, either didn't happen or are actually "peaceful" protests.

Recently, Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-NY), was asked about  "disavowing the riots going on from Antifa that’s happening in Portland right now?”

Nadler replied, "That’s a myth. A myth that’s only being spread in Washington, DC."

Then there are the editorial writers who said Portland's protests became peaceful after federal law enforcement left the city -- despite subsequent videos of Portland rioters dressed in black and wielding bats chasing ordinary people down the street or pulling a man from a truck and beating him unconscious.

Portland's mayor Ted Wheeler, who originally supported the protestors, last week called them attempted murderers. "When you commit arson with an accelerant in an attempt to burn down a building that is occupied by people who you have intentionally trapped inside, you are not demonstrating, you are attempting to commit murder,” he said.

"Denial doesn’t work," Cuomo said yesterday ."Let’s ignore it and maybe it will go away. Its not going away."

Cuomo also said he doesn't agree with calls for defunding the police.

"You can’t say we don’t need any police and the police department," he said. "Then what happens at 2 in the morning when someone is coming through the window and you hear the glass break?"

The governor said he wants all 500 policing juridictions to put people from all sides at a table and collaborate to design a police department "where the police say they can operate with these policies, where the community says their reforms are necessary for social justice."

"I am trying to force attention and focus and action on this issue. People are getting shot every day. Its getting worse, not better. We have to act,"  Cuomo said.