Cities across America have fought crime for decades with great success. They have also handled protests adeptly, and only a handful of times have had to call in the National Guard when real disorder arose in the form of mass looting and violence.
But nothing today even comes close to some of the worst crises any American city has ever faced. New York City exemplifies that.
We are well beyond the post-pandemic crime spike, with murders and shootings reaching historic lows. The NYPD says the city is on track for about 325 homicides this year; to put things in perspective, in 1990, New York averaged more than 2,000 homicides a year.
Over the past 35 years, the NYPD has done a yeoman’s job fighting crime, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Big Apple can overcome its problems without resorting to armed troops.
We are “the safest big city in America,” as Mayor Eric Adams often proclaims, and the NYPD data backs it up. That’s a testament also to the great leadership of Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, a proven leader who has shaken up the department leadership, infused new crime-fighting policies and is working hard to bring more officers into the ranks.
Yet the Trump administration continues to saber-rattle against the city and flirt with the idea of calling in the National Guard against New York and other American cities because, the president purports, crime is out of control. Why?
Are Trump and his administration seriously suggesting that the NYPD and other police departments around the country aren’t doing their jobs?
On Tuesday, City Hall joined dozens of cities across America in a legal brief supporting Portland, OR, in their government’s federal case seeking to keep Trump from sending National Guard troops into their city. It’s sad that it has come to this, yet it is necessary in these fragile times.
Today, New York has National Guard troops in the subways, on standing order from Gov. Kathy Hochul, who deployed them last year to assist the NYPD in combating crime in transit. Hochul made that decision with the consent and request of the city and the MTA; it was not a unilateral decision made without a clear reason.
New York does not need the militarization of its streets without similar consent and request from our elected officials. If there is a genuine crisis beyond the control of the city and state governments — a disaster, natural or man-made, or real civil unrest in which whole neighborhoods are actually burning to the ground — we have every confidence that Mayor Adams and Governor Hochul will make that request.
We do not need armed troops on the streets or potentially assisting ICE in its operations to detain immigrants who don’t have criminal records. Our city is safe and peaceful. Let it remain so.
