City activists and leaders demanded New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea to reassemble its anti-crime unit after 28 people died in shootings in June, along with a growing amount in July.
Several black community leaders gathered in Brooklyn on Tuesday and called upon the mayor, the City Council, and clergy leaders to end violence ravaging their communities.
The activists disparaged the police reforms proposed by city officials and accused them of urging anti-cop activists such as Black Lives Matter to dictate city policy. They called upon de Blasio not to sign the police reform bill that the City Council just passed.
“The African American community is saying we don’t want crime here. Ninety-five percent of the people here are decent, law-abiding citizens, and the law is for the lawless,” Bishop Gerald Seabrooks told reporters Tuesday following a spate of five shootings early Monday night in Canarsie. “So, please, mayor, take your handcuffs off of the police. Let them police with professionalism, respect, and courtesy.”
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a former NYPD officer, said at the Monday press conference that a slowdown in policing communities facing gun violence is unacceptable.
“You are sworn to serve to protect the city,” Adams said.
The NYPD, with the approval of de Blasio, disbanded the anti-crime unit, which focused on seizing illegal guns from the streets last month. The mayor and the commissioner are facing pressure from activists to reverse this decision and bring the unit back to the streets. The mayor defended the decision to disband the unit for a second day this week.
“There’s two types of community activists. There’s the community activists that are real community activists. They’re the people that live in those communities,” said former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik. “They want anti-crime, because they have to live there. Now you have community activists that are from outside — the outsiders. Those are usually the guys jacking up the crowds against the cops.”
