Former Democrat governor says he’s never felt this unsafe in NYC
New York City Councilman Joe Borelli (R) on the crisis of high crime facing New York
Former New York Democratic Gov. David Paterson admitted that he has never felt less safe in New York City and discussed Democrats’ "blind spot" on crime in a recent radio interview.
Discussing the upcoming midterm elections in the state on Sunday’s "The Cats Roundtable with John Catsimatidis," Paterson said issues related to crime still appear to be the most important to New Yorkers, as they have been in previous election cycles. He also expressed hope that candidates would take those concerns into account.
"For the first time in my life—even in the late eighties and nineties when the crime rate was killing 2,000 people a year, I never felt as unsafe as I do now just walking around and God forbid, sometimes we take the subway home from WABC, and you’re hearing about an assault on the subway almost every other day," he said.
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Paterson added that there is a small percentage of people within the county jail system in New York that are repeat offenders, getting arrested "20, 30, 50 times," and suggested that element is where changes to the criminal justice system need to be made.
He also described state Democrats’ handling of crime as a "blind spot" that could expose them to major losses this November.
"Mayor Adams says that New York City has a brand—it does have a brand if we don’t start adjusting to some of the situations that we’re in right now," Paterson said. "That brand is not going to carry the weight and the tremendous allure that New York City has always offered to the country."
The New York City Police Department on Friday announced the latest statistics on crime in the Big Apple.
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The NYPD said the number of carjackings and burglaries in September was up from the same time last year. Meanwhile, citywide shooting incidents decreased by 13.2%, and the number of murders citywide decreased for September by 23.5%.
Still, overall index crime in the Big Apple increased by 15.2% for the month, with five of the seven major index-crime categories seeing increases.
Gun arrests have risen by 7.4%, and the number citywide in the first three quarters of 2022 stands at a 27-year-high.
A number of New York City crimes have garnered national media coverage in recent weeks, especially within the city’s subway system, including a man stabbed to death commuting home to Brooklyn, a man pushed onto the subway tracks in an unprovoked attack, and a gang of women in neon-green bodysuits who attacked and robbed two women on the train near Times Square.
Fox News’ Julia Musto contributed to this report.
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