We must back the blue to take back our streets

Most New Yorkers want the same thing: a safe, affordable place to raise a family, one where our children can play outside without worry. Many of us commute to New York City, and felt safe for a period in “America’s safest big city,” thanks to the hard work of the New York City Police Department and the “broken windows” model of policing.
The broken windows theory holds that visible signs of crime and civil disorder encourage further crime and disorder, including serious crimes. The theory suggests that policing methods that target minor crimes such as graffiti, public drinking, trespassing and fare evasion bring an atmosphere of order and lawfulness.
This model took New York City from the murder capital of the country in 1970s to record low crime rates in the early ’90s, creating a renaissance and a booming metropolitan area. New York was back, and home prices skyrocketed in Nassau County. The county’s crime rates plummeted, and our close proximity to the city made Nassau the place to raise a family. The media at the time praised our law enforcement, our elected officials had their backs, and if you wanted to be elected district attorney, you had to be tough on crime.
But something changed, and the media, and some elected officials, turned. We had grown used to our safe neighborhoods, and many forgot, or were too young to remember, the high crime of yesterday. A new movement was on its way to change our system. The first step was not enforcing low-level crimes. Some elected officials ran successfully on the platform of less enforcement.
Next up were changes in Albany in criminal justice reform, often referred to as “bail reform.” This law took away judicial discretion in setting bail for misdemeanors and “non-violent” felonies, including stalking, assault without serious injury, burglary, many drug offenses, and even some kinds of arson and robbery.

Stripping judicial discretion was a major shift. Judges could no longer set bail for these charges, nor could they determine the suspects’ risk to the public or the likelihood that they would repeat the crimes. Albany passed this legislation without input from law enforcement professionals, judges or district attorneys.
Lawmakers went even further, passing changes that many consider witness intimidation. What’s more, with changes in discovery laws, prosecutors must now provide to the defense the names and contact information of victims and witnesses. The defense is free to contact them, including victims of sexual assault and witnesses to gang violence. Do you doubt this causes victims and witnesses to no longer want to cooperate out of fear or intimidation?
Soon the movement demonized the brave men and women of our law enforcement. Calls to “defund the police” began. It became reality when Mayor Bill de Blasio passed a budget that gutted the NYPD budget by $1 billion and disbanded the department’s plainclothes anti-crime units. The result was virtually instantaneous: Violent crime skyrocketed. Shootings, carjackings and homicides rose fast.
Now we are faced with a national crime wave that has also affected New York City, not long ago that safest big city in America, but where many no longer feel safe. It feels like the Gotham of old. Many are concerned that the crime wave could move east, to our backyard.
So how can we fix this? We start by electing tough-on-crime district attorneys like we did last election cycle. We must send elected officials to Albany who will demand the repeal of “bail reform,” return judicial discretion and allow victims of crime to feel protected again.
We also must send representatives to Washington who will stand up for our law enforcement and change the national narrative. We must all stand up for our police officers. The anti-law enforcement, pro-criminal agenda must end. We must fund and defend our police, not defund them. We must provide the tools, funding and public support to the police to help them do the job of protecting us.
It takes someone special to place him or herself in harm’s way for the benefit of others. We must defend those who protect us. The time is now, and together we can turn this around.

Christopher Carini is a Town of Hempstead councilman representing the 5th District. He served for 22 years as an officer with the NYPD, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department and the Port Authority Police Department of New York and New Jersey.