De Blasio blames coronavirus while NYPD chief says new restrictions caused crime wave
It’s a bloody mess.
Mayor Bill de Blasio and his own police brass dueled Monday over the causes of the dramatic surge in gun violence across the Big Apple, which left more than four dozen people dead or injured over the July 4th weekend alone.
The fractures exploded into view as Hizzoner linked the violence to coronavirus disruptions to the economy and court system, while the NYPD argued the surge in shootings should be linked back to early COVID-19 releases from city jails and “insane” reforms passed by City Council they argued has “crippled” the force.
“There’s not one cause for something like this, there’s a lot of different pieces,” de Blasio told reporters during his morning press conference, following a weekend where more than four dozen people were shot or killed. “The court system’s not working, the economy’s not working, people have been pent up for months and months – so many issues underlying this challenge.”
The top spokesman for the court system quickly shot back, telling de Blasio to look “in the mirror” when assessing blame for the deadly weekend that saw nearly 50 people shot, eight fatally.
The bloody holiday weekend followed a violent June that clocked 205 shootings — the most recorded during a June since 1996, according to department stats.
At that same City Hall briefing, NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan, pinned much of the blame for the violence on policies that 1 Police Plaza fiercely opposes: doing away with bail for many non-violent offenses, granting early release to 2,500 Rikers inmates for coronavirus, City Council legislation that would make it a misdemeanor for cops to use chokeholds or kneel on suspects during arrests and the anti-police protests that erupted in the aftermath of George Floyd killing in Minneapolis.
“It’s a combination of things — bail reform, COVID releases from prison, court shutdown, which has Rikers [Island] at half of where they were,” said Monahan.
The NYPD disclosed Monday that 275 of the roughly 2,500 inmates released early from Rikers because of the COVID-19 outbreak have been rearrested on any offense, accounting for 550 criminal charges.
Monahan’s remarks came just hours after Police Commissioner Dermot Shea made similar remarks on New York 1’s morning program.
Both men singled out the Council’s chokehold bill, calling the legislation “insane,” even though de Blasio has said he will sign the bill.
Beyond chokeholds, the legislation also bans maneuvers that would “restricts the flow of air or blood by compressing the windpipe or the carotid arteries on each side of the neck, or sitting, kneeling, or standing on the chest or back in a manner that compresses the diaphragm.”
“Again, we’ve mentioned this insane diaphragm law that the City Council passed,” Monahan at the Mayor’s video conference. “It has our cops hesitant to enforce some of these quality of life issues.”
“They are afraid, if they’re making an arrest, that if their knee goes on the back of someone, that they are fighting their life or that they could be prosecuted – that’s a problem,” he claimed. “It makes our cops take that step back.”
The chief sponsor of the bill, Councilman Rory Lancman (D-Queens), quickly shot back, calling on de Blasio to sack Shea as he defended the measure that he introduced in the aftermath of Eric Garner’s death on Staten Island.
“What’s insane is that the commissioner and senior police leadership are blaming a bill that has not yet become law — prohibiting a practice which the NYPD patrol guide itself has banned,” Lancman (D-Queens) retorted. “If officers are unable to arrest a suspect in a manner consistent with both the patrol guide and soon-to-be New York City law, they have no one to blame except Commissioner Shea and Chief Monahan for failing to train them.”
Lancman told The Post that the kneeling provision of the legislation clarifies and codifies the NYPD Patrol Guide’s own ban on applying “pressure to the throat or windpipe, which may prevent or hinder breathing or reduce intake of air.”
Additional reporting by Tina Moore