Law enforcement unions have come down hard on an MSNBC contributor who claimed Monday that the increase in crime in NYC and cities across the nation was the fault of police rather than supporters of the “Defund the Police” movement.
“I think there are a lot of police unions and GOP operatives that would like for us to believe that this recent crime wave has everything to do with this idea of defunding the police,” Brittany Packnett Cunningham told cable news host Stephanie Ruhle.
“But guess what … the police haven’t been defunded. You actually look at the 50 largest cities, law enforcement funding as a share of the general expenditure in each of those cities actually rose slightly from 13.6 percent to 13.7 percent.”
“So, this rising crime is not the fault of the movement, it’s actually the fault of the police and this has been our point all along,” Cunningham added. “Why should we keep funding systems and institutions that keep rendering themselves ineffective? We should be talking about gun control, livable wages, fair housing, education. That’s where we should be moving the money to, to ensure truly safe streets.”
Detectives’ Endowment Association President Paul DiGiacomo told the Post that Cunningham’s statement “doesn’t make common sense.”
“The reality is, prior to defunding [the NYPD], people in this city and state were much safer,” he said. “Crime has skyrocketed, murders are up, shootings are up. I don’t know where they’re getting their facts from.”
Blue Lives Matter NYC founder Joseph Imperatrice blasted Cunningham’s comments as “irresponsible” in a statement to Fox News.
“In my 16 year career as an officer & Founder of BLUE LIVES MATTER-NYC, I have never seen nor imagined we would be living in a time where criminals are justified for their actions and officers are continuously bashed and blamed,” he said.
“The bottom line is that officers need to be allowed to do their job,” Imperatrice went on. “They need to be able to proactively police the streets and have bad guys that are arrested be held behind bars and not re-released to reoffend. There are people out there becoming victims because of irresponsible remarks such as these, they deserve better than that.”
Police Benevolent Association of the New York State Troopers Thomas Mungeer told Fox that “we are now seeing the seeds that these so-called reformers have sown result in a skyrocketing crime rate.
“There is no other way to quantify what’s taking place,” Mungeer added. “Cutting police budgets and police forces and handcuffing police officers from doing their jobs equals unsafe streets for everybody.”
The claim by Cunningham, a former official at the nonprofit Teach for America and a member of then-President Barack Obama’s 21st Century Policing Task Force, appeared to be contradicted by data obtained by the Post Tuesday indicating the number of assaults in New York’s subway system had declined after additional NYPD patrols were sent underground.
The issue of crime has also dominated the Democratic mayoral primary, which was held Tuesday. An Ipsos survey released Monday found that 55 percent of likely primary voters listed “crime or violence” as their top issue. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams received high marks among likely voters, with 39 percent saying the former NYPD captain was best equipped to tackle the problem.