If there’s a lesson to be learned from the Democratic mayoral primary —
and there definitely is one! — it’s that it’s easy to ignore street
violence when there’s very little street violence to be seen. Such is the
oblivious attitude of mostly white Manhattanites who voted against Eric
Adams, the only real law-and-order candidate in the race.
The de Blasio-era rise in violence did not impact all areas of Gotham
equally. Not even close.
Inhabitants of lower-income, high-crime, mostly minority neighborhoods
turned out for Adams in huge numbers, up to 70 percent of votes. The only
major candidate who pledged crime-fighting strategies with real teeth, he
earned the New York Post’s endorsement for making public safety his
campaign’s centerpiece.
Meanwhile, the neighborhoods that voted for Kathryn Garcia (and her wishy-
washy crime-fighting strategy of replacing the NYPD’s “warrior culture”
with a “guardian mindset,” whatever that means) are among the city’s least
dangerous, as shown by NYPD CompStat data for each of the city’s 77
precincts.
Adams, who was himself a cop for 22 years, wants to put more officers on
the street and bring back undercover anti-crime units. He even suggested
that stop-and-frisk — horrors! — can be part of a legitimate law-
enforcement strategy.
If you listen to “progressives,” black and Hispanic New Yorkers — some of
whom have indeed endured police abuses — ought to recoil over Adams’
positions. Fortunately, those minority voters instead heeded the evidence
witnessed by their own eyes.
The leftist media is scrambling to explain away Adams’ triumph in terms of
a “platform that was part law-and-order, part police reform,” as The New
York Times put it. But Adams’ voters feared a stray bullet entering their
living rooms more than they did rogue actions by a handful of bad cops.
While every candidate pledged to curb errant officers, only Adams pledged
to go after the bad guys on the streets.
The sections of Manhattan that voted for Garcia are the safest bubble
within the bubble. Despite a few widely reported outrages, such as a
tourist hit by a stray bullet in Times Square and nightly mayhem in
Washington Square Park, most Manhattan districts are barely any more
dangerous than they were prior to 2020, when misguided anti-bail laws and
anti-cop sentiment allowed criminals to run free.
Guess how many murders have happened so far this year in my own vast,
Upper East Side 19th Precinct, extending from East 59th to 96th street and
from the East River to Central Park. Exactly one, along with three
shootings. Garcia took most of the election districts here, with 36-45
percent of the votes compared to 15-22 percent for Adams.
In the 6th Precinct, which covers central Greenwich Village and the West
Village, this year’s “toll” to date is zero murders, three shootings.
Garcia swept this area with up to 52 percent of votes versus single
figures for Adams. Even far-left police-defunder Maya Wiley finished well
ahead of Adams with around 20 percent.
The Village’s cozy confines happen to be home to New York Times Executive
Editor Dean Baquet. Although Baquet doesn’t write editorials, it’s a
matter of record that his paper endorsed Garcia and her goal of “reforming
the New York Police Department.”
The historically far-left Upper West Side between West 60th and 86th
streets, the 20th Precinct, saw zero murders and just one shooting to date
this year, and Garcia handily beat Adams here with 44-53 percent of votes
in most districts. The precinct known as Midtown South, which includes
Times Square, had only a single homicide and nine shootings, and Adams
lost to both Garcia and Wiley by several percentage points there.
Similarly, the woke wonderland of Brooklyn’s Park Slope, the 78th
Precinct, saw zero murders and one shooting so far in 2021 and Adams
mustered barely single digits against both Garcia and Wiley.
On the other hand, Adams’ narrow, 8,400-vote margin over Garcia was built
on support from neighborhoods where chronic bloodshed is a way of life.
Their residents want more, not less, police protection notwithstanding
Wiley’s assertion that defunding cops was what people of color really
craved.
In the 75th Precinct of Brooklyn’s East New York, which has seen nine
murders and 34 shootings in 2021, Adams clobbered all others with up to
77.9 percent of the vote. He also took up to 60 percent in the Southwest
Bronx’s 44th Precinct where there were eight murders and 44 shootings so
far this year.
My childhood neighborhood of Ocean Hill-Brownsville, in the 73d Precinct,
saw eight murders and 35 shootings since Jan. 1, most of them in
Brownsville’s gang-infested housing projects. The gigantic Broadway
Junction subway station, both elevated and underground, is one of the
scariest of the system’s 472 stations and a source of dread for all who
use it. Adams pulled nearly 75 percent in some of this precinct’s voting
districts.
Adams himself attributed his victory to a “a five-borough movement of
working-class New Yorkers coming together for a safer, stronger, healthier
city.” Former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton, who spearheaded the drop in
crime under former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and all-too-briefly maintained it
under Bill de Blasio, called it “good news for New York City.”
It’s the best news of all for neighborhoods where bullets rule — even if
my deep-thinking Manhattan neighbors haven’t a clue as to why.
https://nypost.com/2021/07/10/eric-adams-win-in-high-crime-areas-proves-
liberals-are-out-of-touch/