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G.O.P. Rivals Trade Insults in Chaotic N.Y.C. Mayoral Debate
Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, and Fernando Mateo, a restaurateur, yelled at each other repeatedly during the free-wheeling virtual debate.They fought over almost everything, hurled insults back and forth and caused so much general chaos that both had their microphones cut off at different times.And if that wasn’t enough, the two Republicans running for mayor of New York City even brought props — a photograph and a stuffed bear — to their first major debate on Wednesday.It wasn’t as if the two candidates, Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, and Fernando Mateo, a local businessman, lacked common ground: They agreed that public safety was the most critical issue facing the city and have pledged to “re-fund the police” and to add officers to the department, instead of defunding the police as some Democrats want to do.But for the most part, the men avoided policy discussion in favor of unveiled criticisms of each other. It began with Mr. Sliwa criticizing Mr. Mateo for his fund-raising efforts for Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat.“Bill de Blasio single-handedly destroyed this city,” Mr. Sliwa said, before holding up a photo of Mr. de Blasio and Mr. Mateo together.“Along with you,” Mr. Mateo, a restaurateur, shouted back, repeatedly.They continued to yell during the virtual debate even while muted, pointing their fingers toward their cameras.The candidates were once friends, but the race has turned bitter ahead of the Republican primary on June 22. Mr. Mateo called Mr. Sliwa, who joined the Republican Party last year, a “compulsive liar” and a comedian.“Curtis, you’re a clown, and you’re making a mockery of this very important primary,” Mr. Mateo said.The crowded Democratic primary has received far more attention and is likely to decide the next mayor in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than six to one. Still, Mr. Sliwa and Mr. Mateo are fighting hard to become the face of the Republican Party in the general election in November.There were some brief agreement on policy issues: Both want to raise the cap on charter schools and get rid of speed cameras. Both said police officers should not have to live in the city, and both want to keep the Specialized High School Admissions Test as the only criteria for entry to elite high schools.Mr. Sliwa repeatedly accused Mr. Mateo of not riding the subway — “there is no subway stop in Irvington,” he said, referring to the village in Westchester County where Mr. Mateo owns a home.Mr. Mateo, oddly, accused Mr. Sliwa of being a subway rider as if that were an insult in a city that had nearly six million daily subway riders before the pandemic took a toll on ridership.They disagreed over whether President Donald J. Trump won the 2020 election. Mr. Mateo said he did; Mr. Sliwa said he did not. Mr. Mateo voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 and 2020; Mr. Sliwa did not.“I have had a love-hate relationship with former President Donald Trump going back 30 years,” Mr. Sliwa said.Both candidates said they supported a decision by Representative Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican from Staten Island, to vote to not certify the 2020 presidential election results.Mr. Sliwa and Mr. Mateo are first-time candidates and publicity hounds who have appeared in the tabloids for years. Mr. Sliwa, 67, became a celebrity in the 1980s as the founder of the Guardian Angels and was a radio host known for outrageous comments. He has staged a series of attention-grabbing events — including a mask-burning ceremony as members of the Trammps sang their 1976 disco hit, “Disco Inferno,” and a 24-hour subway tour where he visited the site of a bloody stabbing.Mr. Mateo, 63, was born in the Dominican Republic and wants to be the city’s first Hispanic mayor. He is perhaps best known for his “Toys for Guns” program in the 1990s, and he ran a carpet business and led groups that advocated for livery drivers and bodega owners..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-9s9ecg{margin-bottom:15px;}.css-1jiwgt1{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:justify;-webkit-justify-content:space-between;-ms-flex-pack:justify;justify-content:space-between;margin-bottom:1.25rem;}.css-8o2i8v{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:column;-ms-flex-direction:column;flex-direction:column;-webkit-align-self:flex-end;-ms-flex-item-align:end;align-self:flex-end;}.css-8o2i8v p{margin-bottom:0;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-1rh1sk1{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-1rh1sk1 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-1rh1sk1 em{font-style:italic;}.css-1rh1sk1 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccc;text-decoration-color:#ccc;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}An earlier debate hosted by WABC-AM this spring turned nasty when Mr. Sliwa brought up the fund-raising issue. Mr. Mateo claimed that he had damaging information on Mr. Sliwa.“I have enough dirt to cover your body 18 feet over,” Mr. Mateo said.At the debate on Wednesday, Mr. Mateo said he had bundled money for Mr. de Blasio, but that he did nothing illegal. He compared it to other Republicans who had donated to Democrats in the past, like Mr. Trump, who gave money to Hillary Clinton, and the billionaire John Catsimatidis, who gave to Mr. de Blasio.“That’s what we do when we’re in business,” he said.Mr. Mateo and Mr. Sliwa had been friends for 40 years, and Mr. Mateo once installed carpet in Mr. Sliwa’s home. But the feud began when they both entered the race.The Republican Party has been weakened in the city in recent years, and its leaders are split between the two candidates. The Manhattan, Queens and Bronx parties endorsed Mr. Mateo. The Staten Island and Brooklyn parties backed Mr. Sliwa.Mr. Mateo has raised more money — about $520,000 — and says he will qualify for public matching funds soon. Mr. Sliwa has raised about $315,000.The top Democratic candidates have raised far more. Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, has collected more than $9 million through private and public funds.With less money for television advertising, the Republicans have been trying to get in front of news cameras as much as possible. Mr. Sliwa is “pure showbiz, and he’s awfully good at it,” said Kenneth Sherrill, a professor emeritus of political science at Hunter College.“The name of the game in the Republican primary is going to be name recognition,” he said, “and that generates pressure to be more and more outrageous to get more and more free publicity.”Near the end of the hourlong debate, Mr. Mateo suddenly introduced his own prop: “Trumpy Bear” — a stuffed animal wearing a red tie and featuring Trump-like hair. Then he criticized Mr. Sliwa’s living arrangements.“He lives in a 320-square-foot apartment with 13 cats,” Mr. Mateo said.“Fifteen rescue cats,” Mr. Sliwa corrected him. More
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NYC Mayoral Debate: Republican Rivals Trade Insults
Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, and Fernando Mateo, a restaurateur, yelled at each other repeatedly during the free-wheeling virtual debate.They fought over almost everything, hurled insults back and forth and caused so much general chaos that both had their microphones cut off at different times.And if that wasn’t enough, the two Republicans running for mayor of New York City even brought props — a photograph and a stuffed bear — to their first major debate on Wednesday.It wasn’t as if the two candidates, Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, and Fernando Mateo, a local businessman, lacked common ground: They agreed that public safety was the most critical issue facing the city and have pledged to “re-fund the police” and to add officers to the department, instead of defunding the police as some Democrats want to do.But for the most part, the men avoided policy discussion in favor of unveiled criticisms of each other. It began with Mr. Sliwa criticizing Mr. Mateo for his fund-raising efforts for Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat.“Bill de Blasio single-handedly destroyed this city,” Mr. Sliwa said, before holding up a photo of Mr. de Blasio and Mr. Mateo together.“Along with you,” Mr. Mateo, a restaurateur, shouted back, repeatedly.They continued to yell during the virtual debate even while muted, pointing their fingers toward their cameras.The candidates were once friends, but the race has turned bitter ahead of the Republican primary on June 22. Mr. Mateo called Mr. Sliwa, who joined the Republican Party last year, a “compulsive liar” and a comedian.“Curtis, you’re a clown, and you’re making a mockery of this very important primary,” Mr. Mateo said.The crowded Democratic primary has received far more attention and is likely to decide the next mayor in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than six to one. Still, Mr. Sliwa and Mr. Mateo are fighting hard to become the face of the Republican Party in the general election in November.There were some brief agreement on policy issues: Both want to raise the cap on charter schools and get rid of speed cameras. Both said police officers should not have to live in the city, and both want to keep the Specialized High School Admissions Test as the only criteria for entry to elite high schools.Mr. Sliwa repeatedly accused Mr. Mateo of not riding the subway — “there is no subway stop in Irvington,” he said, referring to the village in Westchester County where Mr. Mateo owns a home.Mr. Mateo, oddly, accused Mr. Sliwa of being a subway rider as if that were an insult in a city that had nearly six million daily subway riders before the pandemic took a toll on ridership.They disagreed over whether President Donald J. Trump won the 2020 election. Mr. Mateo said he did; Mr. Sliwa said he did not. Mr. Mateo voted for Mr. Trump in 2016 and 2020; Mr. Sliwa did not.“I have had a love-hate relationship with former President Donald Trump going back 30 years,” Mr. Sliwa said.Both candidates said they supported a decision by Representative Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican from Staten Island, to vote to not certify the 2020 presidential election results.Mr. Sliwa and Mr. Mateo are first-time candidates and publicity hounds who have appeared in the tabloids for years. Mr. Sliwa, 67, became a celebrity in the 1980s as the founder of the Guardian Angels and was a radio host known for outrageous comments. He has staged a series of attention-grabbing events — including a mask-burning ceremony as members of the Trammps sang their 1976 disco hit, “Disco Inferno,” and a 24-hour subway tour where he visited the site of a bloody stabbing.Mr. Mateo, 63, was born in the Dominican Republic and wants to be the city’s first Hispanic mayor. He is perhaps best known for his “Toys for Guns” program in the 1990s, and he ran a carpet business and led groups that advocated for livery drivers and bodega owners..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-9s9ecg{margin-bottom:15px;}.css-1jiwgt1{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:justify;-webkit-justify-content:space-between;-ms-flex-pack:justify;justify-content:space-between;margin-bottom:1.25rem;}.css-8o2i8v{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:column;-ms-flex-direction:column;flex-direction:column;-webkit-align-self:flex-end;-ms-flex-item-align:end;align-self:flex-end;}.css-8o2i8v p{margin-bottom:0;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-1rh1sk1{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-1rh1sk1 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-1rh1sk1 em{font-style:italic;}.css-1rh1sk1 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccc;text-decoration-color:#ccc;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}An earlier debate hosted by WABC-AM this spring turned nasty when Mr. Sliwa brought up the fund-raising issue. Mr. Mateo claimed that he had damaging information on Mr. Sliwa.“I have enough dirt to cover your body 18 feet over,” Mr. Mateo said.At the debate on Wednesday, Mr. Mateo said he had bundled money for Mr. de Blasio, but that he did nothing illegal. He compared it to other Republicans who had donated to Democrats in the past, like Mr. Trump, who gave money to Hillary Clinton, and the billionaire John Catsimatidis, who gave to Mr. de Blasio.“That’s what we do when we’re in business,” he said.Mr. Mateo and Mr. Sliwa had been friends for 40 years, and Mr. Mateo once installed carpet in Mr. Sliwa’s home. But the feud began when they both entered the race.The Republican Party has been weakened in the city in recent years, and its leaders are split between the two candidates. The Manhattan, Queens and Bronx parties endorsed Mr. Mateo. The Staten Island and Brooklyn parties backed Mr. Sliwa.Mr. Mateo has raised more money — about $520,000 — and says he will qualify for public matching funds soon. Mr. Sliwa has raised about $315,000.The top Democratic candidates have raised far more. Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, has collected more than $9 million through private and public funds.With less money for television advertising, the Republicans have been trying to get in front of news cameras as much as possible. Mr. Sliwa is “pure showbiz, and he’s awfully good at it,” said Kenneth Sherrill, a professor emeritus of political science at Hunter College.“The name of the game in the Republican primary is going to be name recognition,” he said, “and that generates pressure to be more and more outrageous to get more and more free publicity.”Near the end of the hourlong debate, Mr. Mateo suddenly introduced his own prop: “Trumpy Bear” — a stuffed animal wearing a red tie and featuring Trump-like hair. Then he criticized Mr. Sliwa’s living arrangements.“He lives in a 320-square-foot apartment with 13 cats,” Mr. Mateo said.“Fifteen rescue cats,” Mr. Sliwa corrected him. More
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With Violence Rising, Can a Gentler Prosecutor Keep His Seat?
PHILADELPHIA — When Larry Krasner was elected Philadelphia’s district attorney in 2017, his story made him one of the most visible of a new wave of progressive prosecutors: A lawyer who had sued the police for civil rights violations 75 times had become a top law enforcement official in one of America’s largest cities.Mr. Krasner promised to stop prosecuting drug possession and prostitution and to hold the police accountable for misconduct. But even as he wrote a triumphal book about his election and starred in a PBS documentary series, homicides and gun violence in Philadelphia were rising to levels not seen since the 1990s.Now Mr. Krasner, 60, is facing a primary challenge from a veteran prosecutor he fired, who is arguing that Mr. Krasner has made the city less safe.Public concern about racism and overincarceration in the criminal justice system during the past decade drove progressive prosecutors like Mr. Krasner, who promote less punitive approaches, into office. But that was after a long period of declining crime. Philadelphia’s Democratic primary on Tuesday poses a test of whether such candidates can continue to win elections when gun violence has risen in cities around the country.The police have seized upon the statistics to promote Mr. Krasner’s opponent, Carlos Vega, 64. Earlier this month, the police union parked a soft-serve ice cream truck outside the district attorney’s office to emphasize that Mr. Krasner had been soft on crime. (In response, Mr. Krasner’s campaign released a statement of support from Ben Cohen, of Ben and Jerry’s.)The union has given $25,200 to Mr. Vega’s campaign and has encouraged Republican voters to register as Democrats in order to vote Mr. Krasner out. Minutes after the candidates concluded their only televised debate in early May, a car streaked down Spruce Street, its rear window embossed with the message, “All Real Cops Agree. Fire Krasner.”Eight people were wounded by gunfire outside a transit station in Philadelphia in February. The city’s homicides rose 40 percent last year.Tom Gralish/The Philadelphia Inquirer, via Associated PressIn his first election, Mr. Krasner attracted a coalition of young progressives, labor unions and moderate Black voters. His road to victory has not changed. But the math may have: According to the state, more than 6,300 Republicans in Philadelphia County have become Democrats in the aftermath of the presidential election, which could mean an influx of more conservative primary voters. (That said, Mr. Krasner won his first primary by a margin of nearly 28,000 votes while running against six other Democrats.)Opponents hope that the sharp rise in gun crime over the last two years has made Mr. Krasner vulnerable. Overall, violent crime is down in Philadelphia. But between 2019 and 2020, the number of homicides rose from 356 to 499, a 40 percent increase.Mr. Krasner blames the pandemic. Mr. Vega blames Mr. Krasner.“We are arresting people with guns and there are no consequences,” Mr. Vega said. “There is a revolving door.”He said he would take a more aggressive approach toward what he said was a small group of people that were causing the violence, and would prosecute violent crimes more harshly than his opponent.Criminologists said it would be impossible to substantiate the claim that Mr. Krasner’s policies had led to more gun crime. They point out that gun violence rose sharply in many cities last year, regardless of whether their prosecutors were considered progressive.Theories for the rise in gun violence include pandemic-related factors like a halt to social services and a slowdown in the court system. Another possible factor could be a police pullback in the face of increased public scrutiny, said Richard Berk, a professor of criminology and statistics at the University of Pennsylvania, who cautioned against jumping to conclusions.Mr. Vega, a prosecutor for more than three decades, was fired by Mr. Krasner when he took office.Caroline Gutman for The New York TimesMr. Krasner said the pandemic had offered an opportunity for “a throwback culture” to “claw its way back in.” But he said that the tough-on-crime posturing of previous district attorneys had been “nonsense.”“There’s absolutely no scientific support for the notion that all that ranting and raving about the death penalty ever made anybody even a little bit safer,” he said.Mr. Krasner announced his first run in 2017, weeks after Donald J. Trump’s presidential inauguration. Amanda McIllmurray, a progressive organizer in Philadelphia, said that Mr. Krasner, who had no experience as a prosecutor, was seen as someone who might counter the president’s emphasis on law and order.“He really gave a lot of people hope at a time where we were feeling a lot of despair,” she said.Once in office, Mr. Krasner fired more than two dozen veterans including Mr. Vega, who had been a prosecutor for more than three decades.Mr. Krasner also lowered the number of people in the city’s jail by more than 30 percent, stopped prosecuting some low-level crimes and asked judges for less severe sentences.But even some of his supporters say that he can be tactless and reluctant to accept criticism, and that he has backed away from promises to eliminate cash bail and to stop holding juveniles in adult jails.“We’re at the point now where he’s not open to being challenged on how he can do better from leftists,” said A’Brianna Morgan, a police and prison abolitionist.Mr. Krasner attracted a coalition of young progressives, labor unions and moderate Black voters to win in 2017.Charles Fox/The Philadelphia Inquirer, via Associated PressMr. Krasner said that he had done a good job getting rid of “dumb, low bails for broke people on nonserious offenses,” but that he was restricted by bail laws on more serious crime, and that he had resolved a vast majority of juvenile cases in juvenile court.And he has cast Mr. Vega as an embodiment of the establishment he sought to upend. He points to Mr. Vega’s role in the retrial of Anthony Wright, a man who was wrongfully convicted of rape and murder and spent 25 years in prison before his conviction was vacated.The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, then led by Seth Williams, mounted a new trial of Mr. Wright, making him the only client of the Innocence Project ever to be retried after DNA evidence indicated his innocence. Mr. Vega was one of the prosecutors in the retrial.Mr. Vega said that it had not been his decision to retry the case but that he thought the witness testimony had been strong enough to do so. (Mr. Wright was found innocent.)Peter Neufeld, a founder of the Innocence Project, said that Mr. Vega’s actions during the retrial had been unethical and that he had misled the public about the extent of his involvement.Mr. Vega is backed by more than a hundred of his fellow ex-prosecutors, including Ed Rendell, a former Philadelphia district attorney who later became the mayor of Philadelphia and the governor of Pennsylvania.He is also supported by a number of victims’ family members who feel that Mr. Krasner has been too lenient. Among them is Aleida Garcia, whose son was murdered in 2015. Mr. Vega handled the case until 2018, at which point Mr. Krasner fired him without alerting the family. Though her son’s killer was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, Ms. Garcia was frustrated by the way Mr. Krasner’s office handled the case.“The victims don’t have a lot of say,” she said.Supporters of Mr. Vega, who is backed by Ed Rendell, the former Philadelphia mayor and Pennsylvania governor.Caroline Gutman for The New York TimesMr. Krasner is relying on the coalition that backed him four years ago, including more support from a PAC associated with George Soros, which poured $1.7 million into his first race. He has raised $887,000 since Mr. Vega entered the race. Mr. Vega has raised $734,000. The winner of the Democratic primary will be heavily favored in the November general election against the Republican candidate, Charles Peruto Jr., a defense lawyer who says that public safety is more important than civil rights. Mr. Peruto has said he will drop out of the race if Mr. Vega wins the primary.A test for Mr. Vega will be if he can cut into Mr. Krasner’s support in neighborhoods where the gun violence is taking place, including the northern and western parts of the city. State Senator Vincent J. Hughes, whose district includes several neighborhoods experiencing violence, said he expected his constituents to continue to support Mr. Krasner and oppose the police union, the Fraternal Order of Police, or F.O.P.“They see Larry Krasner as not being afraid of the F.O.P., not being afraid to work toward justice in the truest sense of the word,” he said.Mr. Krasner said he knew that he could not claim a perfect record. He described sidewalk encounters in which voters referred to him as “trying to be fair,” saying that the phrasing initially puzzled him.“I could not figure out why the hell they were saying ‘trying,’” he said. “But when I heard it time and time again, I finally came to the conclusion that the reason they’re saying that is they don’t expect you to be perfect. They know you’re going to mess it up some of the time. They just can’t even believe you’re trying.” More
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Winners and Losers of the N.Y.C. Mayoral Debate
Welcome to the Times Opinion scorecard for New York City’s first mayoral debate of 2021, which featured the eight leading Democratic candidates on Thursday night. A mix of Times writers and outside political experts assessed the contenders’ performances and ranked them on a scale of one to 10: one means the candidate probably didn’t belong […] More
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Mayoral Candidates Respond to the Shooting in Times Square
[Want to get New York Today by email? Here’s the sign-up.]It’s Tuesday. Weather: Sunny early, turning cloudy and breezy later, with scattered showers. High in the mid-60s. Alternate-side parking: In effect until Thursday (Solemnity of the Ascension and Eid al-Fitr). Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesA shooting near Seventh Avenue and West 45th Street on Saturday afternoon left three bystanders wounded: a 4-year-old Brooklyn girl who was shopping for toys with her family, a 23-year-old tourist from Rhode Island and a 43-year-old woman from New Jersey.But coming six weeks before the June 22 mayoral primary, and as the city is gearing up to welcome back throngs of tourists, the episode quickly became more than just a disturbing act of violence in one of New York City’s most familiar locales.Mayoral candidates said the shooting was emblematic of the city’s growing crime problem and moved quickly to showcase how they would address the issue.[The shooting became a flash point in the race for mayor, further cementing public safety as a top political issue.]Eric AdamsMr. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, said he would hire officers with the skills and temperament to work in a plainclothes anti-violence unit. Mayor Bill de Blasio disbanded such a unit last year. Mr. Adams would also create a special citywide prosecutor for illegal-gun cases.“This gun violence has been real for countless New Yorkers for years, and as the chief executive, the mayor of the city, we can’t wait until crises happen in the center of Manhattan,” he said. “We have to respond before then.”Kathryn GarciaMs. Garcia, a former sanitation commissioner, said she would increase community policing and boost an N.Y.P.D. division focused on identifying people or groups that traffic or sell illegal guns.“We must see the full picture and prioritize efforts to prevent the underlying causes of crime, including access to jobs, housing, education, and by working with violence prevention programs at the community level,” she said.Andrew YangMr. Yang, a former presidential candidate, said he would reinstitute the plainclothes unit and populate it with better-trained officers with clean records. He said New York could not afford to “defund the police.”“Nothing works in our city without public safety, and for public safety, we need the police,” Mr. Yang said. “My message to the N.Y.P.D. is this: New York needs you. Your city needs you.”Raymond J. McGuireMr. McGuire, a former Citi executive, said the city should increase the number of officers focused on reducing the number of guns available to people. He said courts should keep repeat offenders off the streets.“As gun violence continues to rise in our city at alarming rates, the fix isn’t to defund and disarm, leaving the most vulnerable and often forgotten neighborhoods unprotected,” he said, “nor is the answer going back to Giuliani-era police tactics like some have suggested.”Maya WileyMs. Wiley, a former counsel to Mr. de Blasio, said she would invest in “trauma-informed” mental health care and in summer youth employment programs.“We will right-size the New York City Police Department to focus on its job so it does it effectively and efficiently, because we have a police department that’s the size of an army,” she said.Dianne MoralesMs. Morales, a nonprofit executive, has said she wants to more than halve the Police Department’s operating budget.“We need bigger solutions than the police,” she said on Twitter. “We have enough resources to finally address the conditions that got us here. This is our time to do just that.”Scott StringerMr. Stringer, the New York City comptroller, said on Twitter, “Once again we are witness to another terrible tragedy.”“Enough,” he continued. “We must end gun violence in our communities, get guns off our streets, and enact change to keep New Yorkers safe.”Shaun DonovanMr. Donovan, a former White House budget director, said in a recent television interview that officers should be more focused on addressing gun violence than on ticketing motorists or addressing mental health issues.“N.Y.C. will never truly recover if we fail to address the pandemic of gun violence that continues to grip our city and country,” he said in a statement on Monday.Read more about the mayor’s race:Yang’s Latest Endorsement Shows Momentum With a Key Voting BlocMost of Stringer’s Supporters Have Fled. Not the Teachers’ Union.From The TimesAs Cuomo Fights for Survival, He Revives His Combative ImageThe Strange New Life of Vaccine SitesRough Trade Record Store Has an Unlikely New Home: 30 RockWant more news? Check out our full coverage.The Mini Crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.What we’re readingA team of advisers — and fame, charisma and hustle — have helped make Andrew Yang a front-runner in the New York City mayoral race. [New York Magazine]In an unprovoked attack, a tourist was stabbed with a screwdriver by a stranger on a subway train in Manhattan. [Daily News]A bill signed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo restoring voting rights to formerly incarcerated people expands the number of eligible voters for the primary election. [Gothamist].css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1dg6kl4{margin-top:5px;margin-bottom:15px;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-1rh1sk1{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-1rh1sk1 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-1rh1sk1 em{font-style:italic;}.css-1rh1sk1 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccc;text-decoration-color:#ccc;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}And finally: Pop-up vaccinations in subway stations Vaccinations have helped drive down Covid-19 positivity rates and hospitalizations across New York State. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Monday that the number of hospitalizations statewide was 2,016, the lowest since Nov. 15. The statewide seven-day average rate of positive test results announced by the state on Sunday — 1.45 percent — was the lowest since Oct. 28.But Mr. Cuomo warned that the pace of vaccinations was tapering off, both in New York and nationwide, potentially allowing the coronavirus to linger.So New York, like other states and cities, is trying to get creative.Mr. Cuomo announced a new pilot program to boost the flagging vaccination campaign: setting up temporary walk-in vaccination sites at eight subway and train stations for the next few days.From Wednesday to Sunday, the walk-in sites will be open from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 179th Street in Jamaica, Queens; East 180th Street in the Bronx; and at Stillwell Avenue in Coney Island, Brooklyn.Another site will be open from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Broadway Junction in Brooklyn.Sites at the Long Island Rail Road station in Hempstead and a Metro-North Railroad station in Ossining will be open from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.Walk-in vaccination sites will also be open at Penn Station in Manhattan from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. and at Grand Central Terminal from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.People vaccinated at the subway and rail locations can get a free seven-day MetroCard or two free one-way tickets for the Long Island Rail Road or Metro-North. Officials will use the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at the stations, Mr. Cuomo said, adding that the program may be extended.It’s Tuesday — take a ride.Metropolitan Diary: Model citizen Dear Diary:For my daily commute between Chelsea and the East Village, sometimes I walked, but mostly I took the subway.I was on a mission to practice my drawing, and I filled many small sketchbooks with spontaneous portraits of riders as they napped, meditated and read.Some riders enjoyed looking at my pencil marks, and I had many delightful, and occasionally rather meaningful, conversations.One day, I noticed a young man in soldier’s fatigues watching me as I sketched a rider who was reading. When that person left the car, I began to glance around for my next sketching opportunity.The young man in the fatigues placed himself directly across from me, smiled coyly, pointed at himself and posed.He was proud, handsome and a great model. In the few minutes we had, I sketched him with care, hoping he would remain safe.— Robin KappyNew York Today is published weekdays around 6 a.m. Sign up here to get it by email. You can also find it at nytoday.com.What would you like to see more (or less) of? Email us: nytoday@nytimes.com More
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Shootings and Subway Attacks Put Crime at Center of N.Y.C. Mayor’s Race
Rising concerns over crime have led candidates to issue strong appeals for public safety, less than a year after the city was under pressure to defund the police.A shooting in Times Square, a spike in gun violence and a spate of high-profile attacks on subway riders have pushed concerns over crime and public safety to the forefront of the New York City mayor’s race, altering the trajectory of the contest as the June 22 primary approaches.A year after the rise of the “defund the police” movement amid an outcry over racial injustice, the primary will offer one of the first tests of where Democratic voters stand as the country emerges from the pandemic but confronts a rise in gun violence in major cities like New York.The shooting on Saturday in Times Square, the heart of tourism and transit in New York City, injured three bystanders, including a 4-year-old girl, a woman from New Jersey and a Rhode Island tourist who had been hoping to visit the Statue of Liberty.Two of the leading mayoral candidates rushed to the scene.Andrew Yang, the former presidential candidate, held a Sunday morning news conference where he declared that “nothing works in our city without public safety, and for public safety, we need the police.” Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, went to Times Square twice: on Saturday, hours after the shooting, and again the following afternoon.On Monday, Raymond J. McGuire appeared there as well, walking a careful line between calling for stronger policing and discussing how, “as a 6-foot-4, 200-pound Black man in America,” he understands how the police can violate civil rights.The rising concerns over crime have given those candidates a fresh opening to make forceful cases for public safety and the role it plays in New York’s recovery from the pandemic.The moment is also testing whether the most left-wing candidates in the race, whose far-reaching proposals to rein in the power of the New York Police Department reflected widespread protests over racial injustice last year, will resonate in the same way when the city may be at a different kind of inflection point.As of May 2, 132 people have been killed compared with 113 this same time last year, a 17 percent increase, according to Police Department statistics. There have been 416 shooting incidents compared with 227 this time last year, an 83 percent increase.In one sign of just how central matters of public safety are becoming in the race, at least three different candidates plan to discuss the issue on Tuesday. Maya D. Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, is slated to unveil her policing plan; the former federal housing secretary, Shaun Donovan, is expected in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, which has been hit especially hard by gun violence over the last year, to discuss “his plans to eliminate the out-of-state gun pipeline”; and Kathryn Garcia, the city’s former sanitation commissioner, intends to roll out a gun violence prevention proposal.“We’re in a very precarious position,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights leader. “People are afraid of the cops and the robbers. We have both of them that we’ve got to deal with. And anyone that cannot come up with a comprehensive plan that threads the needle of both should not be running for mayor.”Mr. Sharpton said he intends to press mayoral candidates on issues of both overpolicing and gun violence at a forum in coming weeks.More than any other candidate in the race, Mr. Adams offers the clearest test of the potency of a message centered on public safety, which he describes as the “prerequisite” to prosperity. Mr. Adams, a former police officer who has pushed for reforms within the system and says he has been a victim of police brutality himself, has been vocal for weeks about the rise in gun violence. On Monday, he was talking about those issues again, standing outside a Manhattan subway station where a woman was recently assaulted.“This city is out of control,” Mr. Adams said. “That’s what has changed in this mayoral race: People are finally hearing me. We don’t have to live like this.”He and other Democratic candidates contend that there is no conflict between urging a robust police response to crime, and insisting on changes to regulate police misconduct and violence.Even before the Times Square shooting, there were mounting signs that public safety was intensifying as a concern in New York: a Spectrum News NY1/Ipsos poll released late last month found that “crime or violence” was a major concern for New York Democrats, second only to the coronavirus.Jade Lundy, a child-care worker who lives in the Bronx, said she has begun taking more precautions because there seems to be an uptick in crime, which she blamed on economic hardship caused by the pandemic.“I don’t take out my phone anymore,” she said Monday afternoon as she headed for the subway to the Bronx, from Times Square. Ms. Lundy, who recently turned 18, said she plans to vote in the mayoral election and has just begun learning about the candidates.“I want someone who can make us feel safer,” Ms. Lundy said. “Especially for the women. We have it harder out here.”A spate of crimes targeting Asian-Americans have also alarmed New Yorkers across the city, some candidates say..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1dg6kl4{margin-top:5px;margin-bottom:15px;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-1rh1sk1{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-1rh1sk1 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-1rh1sk1 em{font-style:italic;}.css-1rh1sk1 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccc;text-decoration-color:#ccc;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}“That makes them very worried about the city, and particularly for people who have lived here a long time,” said Ms. Garcia, the former sanitation commissioner. For those New Yorkers, she said, some wonder, “Are we back in the ‘70s and ‘80s?”The incidents of violent crime are nowhere near the sky-high numbers of earlier eras in New York, and while shootings and homicides are up, other crimes have been down this spring. Nonetheless, other elected officials also reached for comparisons to the city’s so-called bad old days even as they stressed that they do not believe the current moment is equivalent.“Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, people that lived here, including myself, you know, we witnessed some pretty nasty stuff,” said Representative Adriano Espaillat, a New York Democrat. “We don’t want to slip back to that. So I think that that’s going to be a major issue with this year’s mayoral race.” Mr. Espaillat is currently neutral after pulling his endorsement from the city comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, following an allegation of sexual misconduct, which Mr. Stringer denies.Diana Ayala, a councilwoman representing East Harlem and the Bronx who also rescinded her support of Mr. Stringer, said the response from the mayoral candidates to addressing crime will determine if she endorses anyone else for mayor.“Citywide, people are alarmed at the numbers of shootings but quite frankly, those numbers have been pretty consistent in my district for the last three and a half years,” Ms. Ayala said. “Every summer, even as we speak, we are planning for what’s to come.”Ms. Wiley, who held a news conference on Sunday to decry gun violence, has already released a plan to combat that issue. Her policing plan, according to her campaign, will include proposals like a civilian police commissioner, and ensuring that “final disciplinary authority for police misconduct” will “be in the hands of a new all-civilian neutral body.”She also supports “cutting at least $1 billion from the N.Y.P.D. budget to fund investments in alternatives to policing,” her campaign says. Mr. Stringer has said he supports reallocating $1.1 billion in police funds over four years — while often saying that he does not want a return to the chaos of the 1970s. Mr. Donovan has pledged to cut $3 billion from the police and corrections budget by the end of his first term and direct the money to underserved neighborhoods; Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit executive, wants to cut $3 billion and reallocate those funds as well.Ms. Morales, the most left-wing candidate in the race, was not available for an interview on Monday, but a spokeswoman, Lauren Liles, said Ms. Morales “stands by her emphasis that we need to move away from the false equivalency between policing and public safety.”Many Democrats have also pointed out that Times Square already has a significant police presence, noting that was not enough to prevent a shooting.Mr. McGuire called for a re-examination of bail reform laws in a way that doesn’t violate people’s civil rights.“There’s a difference between someone being thrown into jail for stealing a bag of potato chips and someone who has repeat arrests for gun possession,” Mr. McGuire said. “People arrested in possession of a loaded, illegal firearm cannot be detained by breakfast and walk out of the courthouse and be home by dinner.” More
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After Times Square Shooting, Adams and Yang Stress Support for N.Y.P.D.
Eric Adams and Andrew Yang, among the front-runners in the New York City mayor’s race, said the shooting underlined the importance of public safety.Within hours of a shooting in Times Square that left three bystanders, including a child, wounded, two news conferences were held near the crime scene: one by the Police Department, one by an elected official.That official was not Mayor Bill de Blasio; the mayor, who is in his last year in office, does not typically appear at shootings where no one has died, a City Hall aide said. The official was Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president who is running to succeed Mr. de Blasio.The symbolism of the moment, and its political upsides, were not lost on Mr. Adams and a leading rival, Andrew Yang, both political moderates. Mr. Yang, the former presidential candidate, held a news conference in Times Square on Sunday morning. Not to be outdone, or even matched, Mr. Adams book-ended Mr. Yang’s appearance with a second Times Square visit on Sunday afternoon.Both men are running as Democrats in a primary that is likely to determine the next mayor of New York City and is just six weeks away. Though many New Yorkers have yet to pay attention to the race, recent polling suggests Mr. Yang and Mr. Adams are vying for first place.The shooting near Seventh Avenue and West 45th Street wounded a 4-year-old girl from Brooklyn in the leg. She was shopping for toys with her family. A 23-year-old Rhode Island tourist who had been hoping to visit the Statue of Liberty was also shot in the leg, and a 43-year-old woman from New Jersey was shot in the foot. The victims did not know each other, the police said.A police official identified the suspect in the shooting as Farrakhan Muhammad, 32, a seller of CDs, and said he had been shooting at his brother, who was not hit. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Mr. Muhammad had prior arrests in incidents in Midtown involving making threats in 2018 and grabbing a man by the neck and throwing him into a garbage can in 2020. It was not immediately clear how the cases were resolved.The shooting was frightening. But from a political perspective, it also seemed tailor-made for moderate mayoral candidates like Mr. Adams and Mr. Yang, who are eager to highlight their rejection of defunding the police, a principle that continues to animate the party’s left. In both candidates’ remarks, they also stressed their belief that New York City’s economy could not recover without public safety.“We’re not going to recover as a city if we turn back time and see an increase in violence, particularly gun violence,” said Mr. Adams, in a blue windbreaker with his name on it.Mr. Yang, who lives nearby, spoke on Mother’s Day, with his wife, Evelyn, in tow.At a Times Square news conference on Sunday, Andrew Yang said that “New York City cannot afford to defund the police.”Ed Jones/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images“My fellow New Yorkers, if there’s one thing I want to say to you it is this: Nothing works in our city without public safety, and for public safety, we need the police,” Mr. Yang said. “My message to the N.Y.P.D. is this: New York needs you. Your city needs you.”“The truth is that New York City cannot afford to defund the police,” he added.Times Square represents the commercial and tourist heart of Manhattan, itself the financial capital of New York City and the nation. The shooting comes as the city is revving up its marketing engine, with the goal of reviving New York City’s tourist trade.In the year before the pandemic, 66.6 million tourists came to town, giving rise to 400,000 tourism-related jobs and an estimated economic impact of $70 billion. Last year, only 22 million tourists came to New York City, and officials estimate it will take years for the industry to recover.The police say more than 460 people have been shot this year in New York City as of May 2, compared with 259 last year and 239 in 2019 at the same point. Mr. de Blasio routinely attributes the rise in shootings to the societal upheaval wrought by the pandemic, which has created mass unemployment, and also blames a slowdown in the court system. Dermot F. Shea, Mr. de Blasio’s police commissioner, tends to blame recent statewide criminal justice reforms, which he says have made it harder to keep those charged with criminal offenses in jail..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1dg6kl4{margin-top:5px;margin-bottom:15px;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-1rh1sk1{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-1rh1sk1 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-1rh1sk1 em{font-style:italic;}.css-1rh1sk1 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccc;text-decoration-color:#ccc;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}Both Mr. Adams and Mr. Yang took the opportunity to highlight their policing agendas, which include reimagining plainclothes anti-violence units. Mr. de Blasio disbanded his plainclothes anti-crime unit, which had been involved in many police shootings, last year. Both also touted their commitment to criminal justice reform.Mr. Yang said he would ensure his plainclothes unit was populated by better-trained officers with clean records. Mr. Adams has said he would hire officers for the unit with the skills and temperament for the job.Other moderate candidates, like the former sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia and the former Citigroup executive Raymond J. McGuire, chimed in with similar themes — that public safety and strong policing need not come at the expense of criminal justice reform.Candidates further to the left talked about the importance of finding alternatives to traditional policing.At a press availability outside a church in Brooklyn, Maya Wiley, a former counsel to Mr. de Blasio who has embraced some of the defund movement’s goals, said she would invest in “trauma-informed” mental health care and summer youth employment programs.Dianne Morales, a nonprofit executive who wants to more than halve the Police Department’s operating budget, said on Twitter that “we need bigger solutions than the police.”The incident prompted Bernard B. Kerik, the former police commissioner under Rudolph W. Giuliani, to suggest that an electoral triumph by either Ms. Wiley, who is Black, or Ms. Morales, who is Afro-Latina, would mean a “catastrophic implosion” for New York City.Ms. Wiley did not take kindly to the remark.“Giuliani’s ex-police commissioner — a convicted fraudster — isn’t even being subtle with a racist trope that Black women would unleash a crime wave if elected,” Ms. Wiley responded. “Don’t get it twisted — as mayor, I’ll move our city forward with an economy that works for all and safe & just streets.”Ashley Southall More
