Councilman Eric Ulrich doesn’t want the NYPD to go soft on stop and frisk and said the recent spike in shootings over the Fourth of July weekend is evidence why the controversial program is needed.
“Stop and Frisk works-it’s as simple as that,” said Councilman Ulrich in a statement released by his campaign for state senate. “We absolutely cannot afford to play politics when it comes to people’s safety. The recent spike in shootings is further evidence that we must be diligent about getting illegal guns off our streets.”
Nine people were killed in a spike in violence over the holiday weekend, and Ulrich joined Mayor Michael Bloomberg in saying this is no reason to question the success of stop and frisk.
Bloomberg called the weekend an “aberration in statistics” when asked about it at a press conference.
Ulrich called the shootings an “unconscionable travesty” but also said in the wake of the violence that it would be foolish to think of abolishing “a successful program that has saved lives and contributed to making New York City the safest big city in America.”
He compared New York with Chicago, saying that city made a mistake when it pulled heavier police presences out of high-crime areas.
He continued, “All you need to do is look to Chicago to see what happens when you abolish successful crime-fighting tactics,” he said. “We cannot allow New York to go the way of Chicago where innocent people are falling victim to gun and gang violence because our police don’t have to tools they need to protect us.”
By Jeremiah Dobruck
j.dobruck@theforumnewsgroup.com
