Mayor Eric Adams has said in recent days that many of New York City’s crime problems are a matter of “perception” fueled by negative news reports in the media. But former NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton says what is actually taking place on the streets of the city tells a different story. Speaking on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program, Bratton suggests that the mayor’s best efforts are not, in fact, addressing the real issues.
“The media is (sic) one part of the problem,” Bratton told Berman and Riedel. “The major part of the problem is what is happening on the streets. You cannot walk in many areas of New York City without bumping into issues that make people fearful. You cannot ignore that, and the mayor actually needs to recognize, people in New York City are fearful in terms of subways, walking in the streets.”
To back up his point, Bratton discussed a photo of Avenue A that someone forwarded to him on Twitter. It looked like it was taken 30 years ago; it was actually taken very recently. “That picture… rang alarm bells for me. Back in 1994, when we began to go after crime… Avenue A was where we started. Alphabet City, it was a mess down there. Open-air drug dealing, homeless problems, the crazies. That’s where we began the New York turn-around miracle on the streets, and we cleaned it up, over 20-some odd years, but looking at that picture… it’s deja vu all over again, as Yogi Berra would say.”
Photo Credit: Getty Images