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June 3, 2021 - Dennis Prager Show
05:53
Seth Barron: The Last Days of New York
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The politicians have elected their own voters.
They've driven out the people who couldn't stand the taxes, the crime, the corruption, and you're left with people who can tolerate it.
And the people who can tolerate it aren't necessarily going to be voting in a law-and-order technocrat anytime soon.
Does the average New Yorker know how the murder rate has increased?
I think so.
Yes.
It's hard to miss.
I mean, the murder rate has gone up.
I mean, the murder rate is pretty much isolated into certain, you know, high crime areas.
But certainly people know that street crime is up, that...
Homelessness and drug addicts are definitely more emboldened.
You see this all over the place, people stealing from drug stores, general street violence is up, and a general sense of chaos and disorder is descended upon the city.
And this is all by design, really.
By the removal, the steady removal and alienation of the police from doing their job, which they had done quite well.
This was all built, put into place by the progressive ascendancy, as I call it, of which Bill de Blasio is fruit, flower, and fragrance.
So this was like 10 years in the making, at least.
So does the average New Yorker, now that you tell me that the average New Yorker is aware of the increase in violent crime, if I ask the average New Yorker, do you hold Bill de Blasio in any way or in any important way responsible for this, what would the answer be?
Well, I think a lot of people, if they were honest, would say, yeah, he hasn't done a great job.
You know, at the same time, there are people who are going to say, oh, no, no, no, it's because of structural inequalities and poverty.
And, you know, the usual liberal balderdash we've been hearing since the 60s about root causes and, you know, the lack of opportunity.
But I think if people were honest, they would have to, yeah, say, sure, Bill de Blasio and the movement that he represents has responsibility for this.
But it won't affect their voting.
Forgive me one second.
It won't affect their voting.
They'll still vote Democrat.
Oh, yeah.
They'll absolutely vote Democrat.
I do believe that in the last year, people have woken up a bit to...
And in the current primary campaign for the Democratic nomination, the candidates who are at least voicing a more sensible approach to law and order are at the top.
I'm not saying that they're perfect, but the people who really want to abolish prisons, dismantle the police, they're not polling very well.
People are waking up to this.
Of course, you know, it doesn't take that many votes to win an election in New York City.
But the people who are paying attention, I think, are kind of waking up a little bit.
But the problem is, you know, as we know, you can have everybody vote one way.
It doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to change the structure of Vegas.
The liberals, the progressives...
They have control of the city and its institutions, and resting it away from them is not going to be as easy as just one election.
That's a good point.
I mean, we saw this on the federal level in 2016. You can win an election.
Yes, but the bureaucracy remains.
That is exactly right.
Right.
What is the attrition rate in the New York City Police Department?
You know, that's a very good question.
I don't have that now.
It's not as bad as it's been in some cities like Portland and Seattle and Minneapolis where people are just fleeing.
We haven't seen, you know, de Blasio has managed the police department and he's never completely turned his back on them in the same way that some of these other mayors did.
And I think they're adding people.
They are adding people.
I mean, New York City still has a fair amount of money to hire police officers, and it's a pretty good job, generally.
But, yeah, I definitely think retirements are up.
We're not at a crisis point yet in terms of staffing.
And it's a very large department.
All right.
We're going to do a part two, but I want to remind everybody.
Look, anything that Heather MacDonald writes the foreword to is obviously important.
It's an important book, my friends.
Seth Barron, The Last Days of New York, A Reporter's True Tale.
It is up at DennisPrager.com.
And I will have you back.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
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