New York City’s former police commissioner is sounding the alarm on crime in the Big Apple, warning the “progressive left” has “captured” policymakers in the state and created a violent trend that’s unlikely to stop anytime soon.
Bill Bratton, who served two years as the city’s police commissioner, cast doubt on the likelihood that criminal-enabling policies will be overturned as long as far-left city and state officials remain in power.
“Don’t hold your breath waiting for any changes here in New York City or New York State,” Bratton told “America’s Newsroom” Wednesday. “The state and the city council have been captured by the progressive left, and it’s unlikely that the voters are going to take them out of office anytime soon, and that’s where it has to change because they create the laws and the ordinances.”
“Right now, those laws and ordinances are creating the chaos that you just described in the New York court systems and the New York criminal justice system,” he continued.
Bratton, who also led the LAPD during his career, spoke after a group of Venezuelan migrants were arrested last week for allegedly attacking officers during an attempted shoplifting incident at an Upper East Side Target.
Fox News’ Alexis McAdams reported that four out of the five migrant suspects have since been released without bail. She also noted that the New York Post previously reported two of the suspects had prior criminal records and injured officers while trying to flee the scene.
Bratton noted that although overall crime is down this year, it is still up significantly from several years ago, pointing to similar crime headlines making waves across the city.
“In 2016 17, 18, they were the safest three years in the history of New York City. That began to turn around from the worst year of 1990, and then for the next 25 years, we got it right,” Bratton said. “But then starting in 2018, the legislature in New York City and in Albany changed many of the laws on the criminal justice reform, and that began the crime turnaround.”
“It was accelerated during the COVID years, so even though the city is celebrating that so far this year, overall reported crime is down by 9%, sounds pretty good, overall crime in the city is still up 40% from what it was five years ago, so you’ve got hard numbers to look at,” he continued.
Mayor Eric Adams touted crime reductions earlier this year in a public safety address, including a 12% drop in homicides and a 25% decrease in shootings between 2022 and 2023. He added that “New Yorkers are breathing easier” because of his administration’s efforts to reduce crime.
While crime has trended downward since the pandemic, some offenses are still much higher, including homicides, which were up 21% at the end of last year compared to 2019, according to NYPD data. Robberies and felony assaults have risen 26% and 35%, respectively, and motor vehicle thefts nearly tripled.
But Bratton argued one of the real issues at hand isn’t being addressed by policymakers – the city’s “quality of life crime” or “broken windows.”
“What’s not being addressed every day is the chaos on the city streets, the aggressive begging… the street prostitution issues, the quality of life, the fear… on the subways, the erratic behavior of a large part of the homeless population or mentally ill,” Bratton said.
“It’s the same issue that we dealt with effectively back in the 90s, because when I took over the transit police and the city police in ’94 under Giuliani, we went after serious crime effectively, but we also went after quality of life crime, the so-called broken windows.”
“The city is handicapped in attempting to deal with it. … The DAs won’t prosecute for it and the laws don’t allow for punishment.”
Fox News’ Megan Myers and Teny Sahakian contributed to this report.