TURF WAR: Bronx DA Robert Johnson yesterday defends his record after attacks by Mayor Bloomberg. (
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You can vote him out.
Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday that Bronx DA Robert Johnson is “dead wrong” in his handling of trespassing busts — and that voters can have the final say on the matter.
“District attorneys are elected,” Bloomberg said. “District attorneys read newspapers. District attorneys are human beings.”
Johnson, who ran unopposed in last year’s election, isn’t back on a ballot until 2015.
He angered the mayor and many Bronx cops by refusing to go after public-housing trespassers unless officers meet face-to-face with prosecutors.
“I think most people who live in public housing want lower crime. They don’t want to look over their shoulders,” Bloomberg said on his weekly radio appearance on WOR.
“They have a right to live safely and we’re going to provide that right. You don’t do that by making the cops’ job more difficult.”
About 20 percent of all violent crime in the city occurs in public housing, according to the NYPD.
Bloomberg would not discuss Johnson’s questionable record as a prosecutor, as first revealed in yesterday’s Post.
“Look, I don’t need to have a fight with the Bronx DA. I happen to like Bob. He does a lot of good work. I just think he’s dead wrong on this.”
Johnson’s office had the lowest violent-felony conviction rate in 2011 of all New York prosecutors. He also locked up the fewest convicted gun offenders, with only 31 percent seeing jail time.
His office also declined to prosecute more often than any other district attorney.
The embattled prosecutor defended his record outside his Pelham Manor home.
“We’re doing the work we’re supposed to do,” he said, adding that the crime rate in The Bronx has dropped nearly 75 percent during his 23 years in office.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly yesterday said, “The mayor is concerned that backing off because of some sort of change mandated by the district attorney would lessen our ability to police the developments.
“I think it’s totally understandable and an appropriate position.”
Additional reporting by Rebecca Harshbarger