Dennis Prager Show - Seth Barron: The Last Days of New York
Aired: 2021-06-03
Duration: 05:53


=== Crime and Removal Impact (02:11) ===

[00:00:00]  The politicians have elected their own voters.
[00:00:03]  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.
[00:00:15]  And the people who can tolerate it aren't necessarily going to be voting in a law-and-order technocrat anytime soon.
[00:00:25]  Does the average New Yorker know how the murder rate has increased?
[00:00:32]  I think so.
[00:00:34]  Yes.
[00:00:34]  It's hard to miss.
[00:00:36]  I mean, the murder rate has gone up.
[00:00:38]  I mean, the murder rate is pretty much isolated into certain, you know, high crime areas.
[00:00:45]  But certainly people know that street crime is up, that...
[00:00:52]  Homelessness and drug addicts are definitely more emboldened.
[00:01:01]  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.
[00:01:16]  And this is all by design, really.
[00:01:20]  By the removal, the steady removal and alienation of the police from doing their job, which they had done quite well.
[00:01:34]  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.
[00:01:44]  So this was like 10 years in the making, at least.
[00:01:48]  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?

=== Waking Up in New York (03:39) ===

[00:02:13]  Well, I think a lot of people, if they were honest, would say, yeah, he hasn't done a great job.
[00:02:21]  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.
[00:02:29]  And, you know, the usual liberal balderdash we've been hearing since the 60s about root causes and, you know, the lack of opportunity.
[00:02:40]  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.
[00:02:50]  But it won't affect their voting.
[00:02:53]  Forgive me one second.
[00:02:54]  It won't affect their voting.
[00:02:55]  They'll still vote Democrat.
[00:02:58]  Oh, yeah.
[00:02:59]  They'll absolutely vote Democrat.
[00:03:01]  I do believe that in the last year, people have woken up a bit to...
[00:03:11]  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.
[00:03:27]  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.
[00:03:39]  People are waking up to this.
[00:03:41]  Of course, you know, it doesn't take that many votes to win an election in New York City.
[00:03:46]  But the people who are paying attention, I think, are kind of waking up a little bit.
[00:03:51]  But the problem is, you know, as we know, you can have everybody vote one way.
[00:03:57]  It doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to change the structure of Vegas.
[00:04:02]  The liberals, the progressives...
[00:04:05]  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.
[00:04:13]  That's a good point.
[00:04:17]  I mean, we saw this on the federal level in 2016. You can win an election.
[00:04:23]  Yes, but the bureaucracy remains.
[00:04:25]  That is exactly right.
[00:04:27]  Right.
[00:04:28]  What is the attrition rate in the New York City Police Department?
[00:04:36]  You know, that's a very good question.
[00:04:38]  I don't have that now.
[00:04:40]  It's not as bad as it's been in some cities like Portland and Seattle and Minneapolis where people are just fleeing.
[00:04:49]  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.
[00:05:02]  And I think they're adding people.
[00:05:04]  They are adding people.
[00:05:05]  I mean, New York City still has a fair amount of money to hire police officers, and it's a pretty good job, generally.
[00:05:12]  But, yeah, I definitely think retirements are up.
[00:05:17]  We're not at a crisis point yet in terms of staffing.
[00:05:23]  And it's a very large department.
[00:05:25]  All right.
[00:05:26]  We're going to do a part two, but I want to remind everybody.
[00:05:30]  Look, anything that Heather MacDonald writes the foreword to is obviously important.
[00:05:36]  It's an important book, my friends.
[00:05:39]  Seth Barron, The Last Days of New York, A Reporter's True Tale.
[00:05:44]  It is up at DennisPrager.com.
[00:05:47]  And I will have you back.
[00:05:48]  Thank you, sir.
[00:05:51]  Thank you.
[00:05:52]  You're welcome.