New York City won’t surrender to criminality like Portland and Seattle, ex-NYPD Police Commissioner Howard Safir told Fox News.
The city’s former top cop was responding to Black Lives Matter co-founder Hawk Newsome’s predictions of “bloodshed” if incoming Mayor Eric Adams reinstates an undercover police unit to target gun violence.
Former New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir August 8, 2000, when he announced his resignation as Commissioner. Safir, whose department has overseen dramatic drops in crime but suffered criticism over it’s tactics, resigned to take a job with a private sector security firm. (Reuters)
“What Newsome said about there being riots and bloodshed, he has a vast misunderstanding of the NYPD,” said Safir, who was appointed police commissioner in 1996 by then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
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“It’s not Portland, it’s not Seattle, it’s not Minneapolis,” he said. “If Black Lives Matter commits crimes on the street, they will be arrested.”
Police abandoned the East Precinct in Seattle during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations there, and the area, rebranded as the Autonomous Zone, became the site of several shootings.
New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) and New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir (L) during a news conference. (Reuters)
After a tense sit-down Wednesday with the incoming mayor, Newsome told reporters that if Adams brought back the NYPD’s Anti-Crime Unit “there will be riots, there will be fire and there will be bloodshed.”
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But Adams announced the next day the resurrection of the plainclothes unit. Newsome said the move would lead to police brutality that will trigger widespread unrest and crime”>violence<
He called the status quo unacceptable.
“It’s a disgrace,” Safir said. “Crime has gone up in almost every category since de Blasio has been mayor. When I was the commissioner we were the safest large city in America.”
Fox News’ Andrew Murray contributed to this report.
