Mayor de Blasio Fails to Explain How His “Innovative” Policing Strategies Could Not Deter a 97% Uptick in Hate Crimes This Year

 By Yehudit Garmaise

In his last weeks in office, Mayor Bill de Blasio has been celebrating his “innovations in policing” that will “be built upon for years to come,” this morning BoroPark24 asked him what he thinks Precision Policing and Neighborhood Policing are failing to do to prevent hate crimes, which rose a startling 97% increase over last year.

While 251 hate crimes were perpetrated in November 2020: that number jumped to 494 last month, and Jews, who were the targets of 179 of those hate crimes, were by far the most frequently attacked.

When asked about how Precision Policing and Neighborhood Policing even try to combat this year’s flood of hate crimes in New York City, the mayor did not even attempt to explain. Instead, he reverted to his usual, banal, and obvious generalizations about anti-Semitism and blame on pandemic for the increased crime in the city.

“It’s not just this horrible stretch we have been through with COVID and its relationship to an increase in crime: including hate crimes,” responded Mayor de Blasio, who reverted to his usual blame on COVID for the crime spikes in New York City.

“The problem of anti-Semitism is deep and intense around the entire world,” said mayor, stating the obvious, while veering far from the question about his policing innovations. “I always say, some people had the hope or the illusion that [anti-Semitism] was stamped out after World War II, and in fact, it was only dormant in a lot of countries. In the west, in particular, so many people acted like they were so civilized, so tolerant, and so inclusive, but the anti-Semitism was bubbling right below the surface, and it now has manifested in many countries, very deeply and dangerously.”

“That is to me, the profound problem we have to confront,” said the mayor without once mentioning his “innovative” strategies of Precision Policing and Neighborhood Policing. “We have to stamp out anti-Semitism in a really fundamental way, and that is going to take years of hard work.”

“I believe the combination of the government and the police standing strong with the community and other communities standing together with the Jewish community is the way to push that back, fight that back in the here and now.

“And I believe in consequences. Anyone who commits a hate crime, the NYPD finds them, we hold them accountable, and there will be serious penalties.

“You do all that, we will turn this. I really believe it. We have seen upticks before, and we have seen how we fight them back and get them back down. That is what we have to do again, and I am quite certain that is what we are going to do.”

But what about how Precision Policing and Neighborhood Policing address hate crimes?

The mayor never even attempted to explain.

Photo: Flickr