Vicky Arias, FISM News
Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) recently announced his intention to declare a “crime emergency” in the state of New York on his first day in office, if elected as the state’s governor.
Polls show the gap between Zeldin and current New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) continuing to narrow. Polling aggregator, RealClearPolitics, updated the status of the race to “toss-up” on Saturday, an unexpected change for the deep blue state. Just a week prior, the contest was deemed to be “likely democratic.”
In an interview with Maria Bartiromo on Sunday, Zeldin commented on his plans to combat crime in New York.
“I want to do everything I possibly can in the first 100 minutes. I mean, I want to have a very active day one,” Zeldin said.
I just announced a couple days ago that as soon as I am sworn into office, I’m going to be declaring a crime emergency here in the state of New York. I’m going to suspend New York’s cashless bail laws and some other pro-criminal laws that have been passed, [and] force the legislature to come to the table to negotiate an improvement because we have to take back our streets. We need law abiding New Yorkers back in control of New York streets instead of criminals.
NY gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin: "As soon as I am sworn into office, I am going to be declaring a crime emergency here in the State of New York." pic.twitter.com/3PvLpmPDdl
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) October 16, 2022
Zeldin continued, commenting that he plans to remove Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg from office “for his refusal to enforce the law.” In January, Bragg sent a memo to his staff explaining changes in certain policies and procedures. The memo stated that effective January 3, 2022, various crimes including “the act of refusing to pay the fare for public transportation,” trespassing, resisting arrest, and prostitution would not be prosecuted.
The New York City Police Department reported that in September 2022, overall crime in New York City is up by 15.2 percent compared to the same time last year.
The Boston Herald explained that “the buzzwords of New York City crime circa 2022 [are] random and unprovoked.”
Across New York City and its boroughs, violent attacks are being reported.
A 74-year-old woman was randomly punched to the ground in August, a man arbitrarily stabbed two others in sidewalk attacks in July, and a group of masked criminals robbed and attacked victims in an ambush on a Madison Square subway train in October.
The Daily Wire reported that crime is the top issue for New Yorkers, and given Zeldin’s tough-on-crime stance, he may just become the blue state’s first elected Republican governor in 15 years.