Dear John,
In August 2020, NYC witnessed a 166% increase in shooting incidents -- 242 compared to 91 from August 2019, while murders are up 47% -- 53 versus 36. This is thanks to Governor Cuomo, Mayor deBlasio and the Democrats in the NYS Legislature whose coddling of criminals, anti-police policies and the dangerous elimination of police funding has created a dangerous environment throughout our state, and especially in New York City.
The official NYPD crime statistics were recently released for the month of August, and New York City notched another huge increase as the NYPD is coping with the lowest number of cops on the streets in six years.
Why is the NYPD seeing a dramatic drop in officers? It is due to the combination of Mayor deBlasio’s $1 billion defund-the-police budget cuts, no overtime, no new police class, and a dramatic increase in the number of police officers retiring. They have calculated that there are approximately 2,000-4,000 less officers out on the streets on any given week.
The violence is terrifying residents and families in the community are afraid. People are moving out of the city in droves, and the Democrats and those aiding them in the media are working hard to ignore this problem.
While Cuomo, deBlasio and the NYS Democrats have clearly walked away from law enforcement, I am proud to say the New York State Republican Party backs the blue. We want every person in every corner of the state to hear us loud and clear: our feet are planted firmly on the thin blue line with the brave heroes who risk their lives to keep us safe every day.
Our law enforcement does a job that deserves our respect and our thanks. We need to DEFEND the police, not DEFUND the police, and we will continue to do everything that we can to stop this radical agenda that is destroying the fabric of our society and the safety of our communities.
Sincerely,
