Mayor de Blasio spotlighted NYPD heroes Thursday night in an unusual nighttime State of the City speech in The Bronx, where he unveiled plans to create the nation’s first retirement-savings program for private-sector employees.
As he spoke — and discussed how shootings were down 34 percent last month — news was coming in that two cops had been shot just a few miles away.
The pension proposal — a collaboration between de Blasio, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Public Advocate Letitia James — would allow workers at companies with 10 or more employees to enroll in self-funded retirement plans.
“Fewer than half of all working New Yorkers have access to a plan that can help them save for the retirement years,” the mayor said at Lehman College. “We absolutely do not accept a status quo where people work all their lives only to be left with nothing.”
Contributions would come exclusively from the employees — not employers or the city.
The plan would be phased in over a period of years.
Before reeling off a series of new initiatives, the mayor took time to recognize hero cops and other city workers in the audience, including rookie Officer Keith Gorden, who saved the life of a fellow officer “just yesterday” by performing the Heimlich maneuver.
The mayor also pointed to two cops who delivered a baby on the LIE, Anthony Barton and Michael Pyzikiewicz, and to Officer Christian Campoverde, who talked down a would-be suicide.
The mayor also touted that, “This past month was the safest January on record,” at around the same time that Officers Diara Cruz and Patrick Espaillat were shot in a Bronx housing project.
“Murders went down 45 percent and shootings went down 34 percent,” he continued.
But he also said the NYPD will soon require officers to undergo “implicit bias” training to help them “identify, understand and change unconscious behaviors that may affect their policing.”
After delivering his remarks, the mayor rushed to Lincoln Hospital to visit the shot officers and their families.