By Bernadette Hogan, Haley Brown and Gabrielle Fonrouge April 25, 2022 7:02pm Updated
New York lawmakers Monday said “we need to do more” after The Post revealed that four suspects busted by Mayor Eric Adams’ new anti-gun unit were released back on the street within hours of their arrests.
“We took the easy way out, and we took it around the edges, but it’s not enough,” said a Democratic state senator who spoke on the condition of anonymity — referring to Albany’s ill-fated efforts to curb crime by making modest changes to the state’s controversial bail-reform law.
“We took a good first step, but we didn’t complete everything. We need to do more.”
On Sunday, The Post detailed arrest data from the NYPD’s new Neighborhood Safety Teams — a key pillar of Mayor Eric Adams’ fight to curb gun violence — and revealed that four suspects caught with firearms were cut loose thanks to bail reform and lax judges.
City Councilman Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island) said Monday that cops are “doing their job” by arresting people with loaded guns but that their work is still being hampered by the larger criminal-justice system.
“We can talk about ‘gun violence’ all we want, but if we don’t lock people up with those guns, it’s all lefty talking points,” Borelli seethed.
“The debate over bail reform in this year’s budget involved questioning what could leaders get away with without actually hurting them at the polls,” he claimed.
Nick Langworthy, chairman of the New York Republican State Committee, said his colleagues across the aisle have done “nothing to actually make New Yorkers safer.
“The only thing they cared about was creating a talking point to solve their political problem, while violent crime continues to rage on our streets,” Langworthy said.
In an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” that aired late Sunday, Adams even took a shot at his fellow Democratic colleagues and said public-safety reform has swung too far “to the left,” as he vowed to find a middle ground.
“We were so far in the wrong direction of really abusive policing in our city and country that people got so fed up that they turned the ship too far in the wrong direction,” Adams told correspondent Anderson Cooper.
Cooper asked, “Too far to the left, you’re saying?”
“To the left,” the mayor said.
Meanwhile, Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island-Brooklyn) held a press conference in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, on Monday afternoon announcing increased patrols by the Guardian Angels following an uptick in crime reported in her district.
“I think in general people feel a comfort from the Guardian Angels,” Malliotakis told reporters of the makeshift crime patrol.
“But what do I think people really want? More cops on the street.”
Curtis Sliwa, who founded the anti-crime group and unsuccessfully ran against Adams during the 2021 mayoral election, said getting crime under control is critical to the Big Apple’s recovery.
“The constant assaults, the vandalism — the crimes getting reported to me in Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, this entire area of southern Brooklyn, it is not what we’re used to in the Guardian Angels for 43 years,” Sliwa said.
“This is not the kind of neighborhood you would normally see the Guardian Angels accept for a visit.”
He said teams of Guardian Angels will be in the neighborhoods starting Wednesday to meet with business owners and residents and ride the subways.
https://nypost.com/2022/04/25/we-need-to-do-more-pols-react-to-post-expose-on-freed-gun-suspects/