New York’s Crime Surge Influenced New York’s Elections //

Although a red tsunami did not reach New York, there was definitely a shift in state politics.

Gov. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), was defeated by Kathy Hochul, the incumbent Democrat. It was a closely contested race for governor.

New York is, naturally, a state that is always blue. This is a remarkable feat.

Not only that, but also Republicans won U.S. House seats in New York and overtook Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. These races could determine whether Republicans regain the majority, given the House’s partisan balance.

Although this is not a moment of pop-the-champagne for the right or the Republicans in New York it does indicate a decline in Democrat dominance that used to be absolute a few years back. This is even after a lot of people moved to Florida.

Nicole Gelinas, writing for the New York Post , broke down some numbers:

The city’s most conservative borough, Staten Island, was the scene of the former-Gov. Andrew Cuomo won a small victory four years ago, 49% vs 48%. Zeldin won this time by a double-digit margin (67% to 33%).

This may be normal, as Staten Island voters are not as agitated by Donald Trump’s antics as the rest.

Cuomo won Brooklyn 81% to 13% four years ago (third parties won all the rest). Zeldin won 29% of the vote this year to Hochul’s 71%.

Cuomo won Queens 2018 by 78% to 18%. Zeldin won a full third of this year’s vote to Hochuls two-thirds.

Some parts of New York City were actually moved by large margins. The state was delivered by Hochul. There was a high turnout overall in the city and strong showings in the western suburbs.

The economy was a key issue for Republicans, but rising crime was even more important. This was a central point of Zeldin’s campaign in its final days, and with good reason.

New York City was able to get out of its decades-long crime-ridden past thanks to crime-fighting reforms implemented by Rudy Giuliani in 1990. Recent trends suggest that crime will continue to spiral out of control, and that a return to the bad days may be possible.

As it did in many other cities, New York City saw a dramatic rise in violent crime after the George Floyd riots in 2020. The summer saw a decrease in murders compared with 2021, but also a sharp rise in overall crime.

New York Police Department<a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/site/nypd/news/p00056/nypd-citywide-crime-statistics-july-2022#:~:text=Overall%20index%20crime%20in%20New,in%20grand%20larceny%20(4%2C588%20v. The problem is illustrated by the July statistics:

In New York City, index crime increased by 30.5% in July 2022 (11,619 V. 8,906). Six of the seven major categories of index crime saw an increase, with a 40.6% rise in grand theft (4,588 v. 3262), a 37.2% rise in robbery (1,730 v. 1261) and a 25.6% increase burglary (1.325 v. 1.055).

These concerns make it logical that New York’s governor would be laser-focused on reducing crime. It is a bipartisan issue not to be a victim to violent crime. Hochul, instead of seeking solutions to this problem, dismissed the crime surge in a “conspiracy”, while supporting policies that exacerbate it.

Hochul claimed that the crime surge was simply a political ploy to harm Democrats in an interview before the election.

Hochul stated that “These are master manipulators.” “They have this conspiracy going across America trying to convince people that they are not as safe.” Guess what? They are also data deniers and not just election deniers.”

The governor continued by saying that Republican-led States are actually more dangerous and that the “safer place” is the Democratic state.

As explained in The New York Post by Rafael A. Mangual (a Manhattan Institute scholar and author ” Criminal In)Justice: How the Push for Decarceration & Depolicing Gets Wrong and Who It Hurts Most“), the claim that red states have more crime is false.

High levels of crime in certain red states are almost entirely a result of Democrat-run big city governments.

Mangual illustrates this by using the Louisiana example.

The FBI’s uniform crime report for 2019 showed that 544 murders were committed in the state, giving it a murder-rate of 11.7 per 100,000. New Orleans had 121 murders, Baton Rouge had 70, and Shreveport had 35. All three cities had Democratic mayors. These three cities, which had a combined population of 802,702, had a higher 2019 murder rate of 28.1 per 100.

It’s difficult to fool voters about this issue.

People are more likely to notice when crime rates are rising in their communities. It is also difficult to ignore that activist Democrats were the ones who most enthusiastically jumped on the “defund the Police” campaign.

While some news stories about New York’s crime and lawlessness are exaggerated, it is clear that this trend is serious and very concerning. It can take years to reverse a crime surge in a community, neighborhood, or city, even under ideal circumstances.

The “conspiracy” is actually pretending that there isn’t a problem.

While urban crime is largely a result of decisions made in cities and towns, the governor also plays a part. Hochul presented a 10-point “public security” plan in March that would have somewhat curtailed state “bail reform” laws.

These laws became effective in 2020. Since then, crime has increased dramatically. The Manhattan Institute outlined the ugly statistics:

The “bail reform” is not the only reason why the numbers have risen. However, putting more criminals on the streets hasn’t helped. Hochul had the chance to reduce these laws. However, she resigned from the Legislature because progressives were not willing to compromise. no major changes were made.

asked for a special session to address the July bail laws and crime spike when Eric Adams, a Democrat from New York, called for it. Hochul again rebuffed the request.

Hochul is not only failing to take control, she also has the power to remove Alvin Bragg, radical New York City District Attorney, but chose not to do so.

Bragg immediately after his election released a “Day One” memo that highlighted a plan to end the charging of people for serious crimes, including resisting arrest, prostitution and trespassing. After the public outcry, Bragg decided to back down. However, his tenure was not impressive.

Hochul has occasionally criticized Bragg and even threatened him to be removed . However, he ultimately did not take any steps to get rid the district attorney.

Hochul and Democrats were clearly influenced by the soft-on-crime criticism. Hochul eventually toned down her “conspiracy talk” about crime and signaled that she felt your pain. In a blatant move by Hochul & Adams to placate voters, New York cops showed up in New York’s subways weeks before the election.

Will the cops be allowed to continue their duties after the election? We’ll see.

Hochul and company may not do anything about crime, other than token initiatives that soothe voters, but the issue sure seems to have changed New York’s electorate. If Democrats allow this fire to burn, it may do so even more.

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The post How New York’s Crime Surge Shaped New York’s Elections was originally published on The Daily Signal.