Bill de Blasio (D) said some pretty interesting things today. First there's this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Bill de Blasio thinks the NYPD can be reprogrammed to respect the Constitution -- and he's talking literally.
In an interview with The Huffington Post on Friday, the city public advocate and mayoral race frontrunner suggested ways in which the police force could improve its relations with the city's communities and continue to bring down crime.
There's no one reason why there are so many fewer murders now than in the bad old days of the 1980s, de Blasio said. But he believes an "exceedingly effective, large police force," as well as community participation in the form of neighborhood associations and tenant patrols, have all played a part.
"But I will say, despite all the tremendous progress which must be sustained, there's still the nagging problem of police-community relations, that really is troubled in a lot of neighborhoods," he said. "I think if you resolve that you actually open the door for another wave of increasing safety."
Changes to CompStat may help achieve that, de Blasio said. CompStat is the NYPD's computer-based approach to managing crime by statistically monitoring, and it has been widely credited with helping reduce violence in the city over the last two decades.
CompStat can be reprogrammed to prioritize a "clearer capacity of our police force to achieve public safety while respecting constitutional rights," de Blasio said, adding that he's even talked with former police commissioner Bill Bratton to make sure that's possible.
For example, CompStat could be adjusted in response to U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin's August decision that the use of stop and frisk violated the Constitution.
"You can actually plug that set of ideals into CompStat," he said. "Which will inevitably mean, of course because of the judge's decision, the federal decision as well, you will bring down the number of stops." - Huffington Post, 10/21/13
He also said this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
While mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg sent his police force after guns on the streets, launched sting operations against gun shows, and pumped millions of dollars of his own money into defeating gun control opponents at the polls.
His name is now uttered as a curse on right-wing talk radio. But Democratic mayoral nominee Bill de Blasio told HuffPost in an interview Friday that Bloomberg's laudable approach on gun control was ultimately hampered by his politics.
"I think he's been right on gun control, right on immigration reform and right on climate change. I think in several cases there was a sort of incompleteness to the approach," de Blasio said.
"I think on gun control we have to go after the money supply to manufacturers of guns and ammunition," he said, suggesting cutting off public pension investments to those companies so they can't "fund the industry that then turns around and funds the NRA." - Huffington Post, 10/21/13
Two very interesting points I must say. I look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments. By the way, de Blasio has joined New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on this issue:
http://www.nydailynews.com/...
Democratic mayoral front-runner Bill de Blasio will join Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's bid to force smart phone manufacturers to protect customers from thieves who steal phones, scrub them clean and sell them on the black market.
De Blasio in his role as city public advocate has joined the Secure Our Smartphone coalition created several months ago by Schneiderman and San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon. De Blasio has sent a letter to Apple, Google/Motorola, Samsung and Microsoft calling on them to create and install technology to protect smartphone users.
"These are dangerous crimes, often committed at the point of a knife or a gun," de Blasio said. "We can stop this trend in its tracks, but we need manufacturers' help to do it. With better theft deterrence, we can prevent these crimes before they can happen."
Letting customers shut down their phones would make them worthless on the black market and reduce "Apple picking" - the fastest-growing street crime in New York City. Schneiderman says 20% of the robberies committed in 2012 in the city involved smartphones and tablets, a 40% increase from the year before. - New York Daily News, 10/21/13
de Blasio also has some big changes in mind as soon as he takes office:
http://www.crainsnewyork.com/...
Back in March, the public advocate said at a candidates' forum that he would ban carriage horses from Central Park "within the first week" of taking office. Assuming the City Council passes its bill to do so, more than 300 drivers and stable workers employed by the $15 million industry will be doing something else early next year.
They wouldn't be the only ones. David Yassky, head of the Taxi and Limousine Commission, would also be gone. Mr. de Blasio, who has raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars from taxi medallion owners opposed to Mr. Bloomberg's reforms of their business, said in a recent interview that he wouldn't keep Mr. Yassky.
Mr. de Blasio would also likely sack New York City Housing Authority Chairman John Rhea. In a recent interview with the Daily News, the candidate slammed the troubled agency's leadership and vowed to "rework the operational approach at NYCHA." And he reiterated last week that he would replace Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
This month, he delivered a more tempered pledge to "review" all decisions made by the Bloomberg administration in its waning days, from charter-school approvals to the actions of the Police Department's demographic unit. - Crain's New York Business, 10/21/13
By the way, I'd like to give a shout out to the women have been helping run de Blasio's killer campaign:
http://www.politico.com/...
They operate behind the scenes and only reluctantly speak to reporters about their roles. But the successful journey of Bill de Blasio, who’s likely to become Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s successor, rested in large measure on the trio – Emma Wolfe, Anna Greenberg and Rebecca Kirszner Katz.
Wolfe, who has been with de Blasio since 2009 in different capacities, is a veteran and widely-praised organizer, who has kept a deliberately low profile in a city filled with operatives looking for attention. Among the key strategies she helped devise was relying on an entirely volunteer operation to gather the more than 65,000 signatures de Blasio collected to get on the Democratic primary ballot – more than five times the number needed — and engaging voters early on.
“Emma basically was the campaign,” Greenberg said on a conference call with all three of the strategists.
Yet Greenberg, a pollster, was also key. She came on comparatively late – de Blasio didn’t conduct his first survey until late last year – but distilled the sense of alienation that African-American residents in particular had from the rest of the city during the Bloomberg era.
Kirszner Katz, a former aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), was one of de Blasio’s first consultants, joining the campaign when he was polling in single digits in public surveys. She helped guide his media strategy, with a focus on niche media with an African-American focus that have a younger readership than more entrenched outlets, such as TheGrio.com, and on softer pieces about his family, and particularly his wife, in outlets like the New York Daily News. - Politico, 10/20/13
And another strong woman is helping fuel de Blasio's winning campaign:
http://www.newsday.com/...
Hillary Clinton will headline a Manhattan fundraiser Monday night for mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio, contributing her political clout to the Democratic front-runner's campaign and underscoring City Hall's significance on the national stage.
The Roosevelt Hotel event, with the price of cocktail reception tickets starting at $1,000 and host committee chairs committed to raising $25,000 each, is among Clinton's first partisan forays since leaving her secretary of state post in February. Clinton, weighing a 2016 presidential run, also has stumped for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe.
To give less-affluent supporters entry to the event, de Blasio's campaign raffled off two tickets.
De Blasio's wife, Chirlane McCray, in an email Saturday to supporters, said Clinton is "an inspiration to women and girls everywhere, and an example of leadership and grace for us all." - Long Island Newsday, 10/20/13
So that's what's been going on on de Blasio's end. Lets check in on Joe Lhota's (R) campaign, shall we?
http://politicker.com/...
Republican candidate Joe Lhota recently snapped at a journalist, accusing him of perpetrating “horse hockey” and suggesting he could be “nothing but a tool” of Bill de Blasio, his front-running opponent in the mayor’s race.
Sitting down for a one-on-one interview with Juan Manuel Benitez on the Spanish-language NY1 Noticias, which aired Friday evening, Mr. Lhota grew infuriated when Mr. Benitez cited anonymous former subordinates who claimed they would never work for Mr. Lhota again. (In his defense, when Politicker profiled Mr. Lhota earlier this year, his former employees had nothing but praise for him.)
“Horse hockey. That’s horse hockey,” Mr. Lhota, a deputy mayor under Rudolph Giuliani, immediately shot back. “You have no evidence whatsoever to say that. The idea that people who worked for me won’t work for me, is absolutely untrue. I dare you to put anybody in front of the camera to say that.”
Mr. Lhota then argued the line of questioning was biased in Mr. de Blasio’s favor. - Politicker, 10/21/13
But don't worry, everything's just "fine":
http://www.nydailynews.com/...
Mayoral hopeful Joe Lhota dismissed criticism of his campaign from members of his own party as sniping from clueless critics in the “cheap seats.”
The Daily News reported Sunday that many GOP operatives are scratching their heads at what they call a poorly run campaign that is trailing Democrat Bill de Blasio by a yawning margin.
“Comments from the cheap seats mean nothing. They’re not in my campaign, they don’t know what’s going on inside my campaign,” Lhota shot back Sunday, dismissing his critics as “empty vessels.”
De Blasio had a less charitable verdict.
“It's not for me to judge, but obviously the voters have not so far been impressed by the approach he's taken,” the Democrat said. - New York Daily News, 10/20/13
And it looks like Lhota is taking a page out of Mitch McConnell's (R. KY) book:
http://politicker.com/...
Republican mayoral hopeful Joe Lhota released a new web ad this afternoon, and, somewhat unusually, it has a loud, synth-heavy dance track.
With Bill de Blasio towering ahead in the public polls, Mr. Lhota’s new video features a compilation of criticism Mr. de Blasio received from his Democratic rivals during the heated primary. Each of the Democrats has since endorsed Mr. de Blasio. - Politicker, 10/21/13
But don't worry, de Blasio is still kicking Lhota's ass in the polls:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
With two weeks to go before the Nov. 5 election, Bill de Blasio, the Democratic nominee, continues to lead Mr. Lhota by an overwhelming margin, according to a Quinnipiac University poll of likely voters released on Monday.
Mr. de Blasio, the current public advocate and a former city councilman from Brooklyn, has the support of 68 percent of likely voters, while Mr. Lhota, a former deputy mayor and chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, also from Brooklyn, has 24 percent. Adolfo Carrión Jr., a former Bronx borough president who is running as the Independence Party candidate, has 2 percent.
In the poll, Mr. de Blasio leads in virtually every demographic group, and is viewed favorably by a three to one ratio. Mr. Lhota, by contrast, is still viewed more unfavorably than favorably.
Voters also seem more aligned with Mr. de Blasio when it comes to identifying with a candidate who addresses their top issues, including creating more jobs, reducing the gap between rich and poor, and improving education. Mr. Lhota has an edge among voters who say that crime is their top concern. - New York Times, 10/21/13
And de Blasio is out with a new ad as well:
The election is Tuesday, November 5th. If you would like to donate or get involved with de Blasio's campaign, you can do so here:
http://www.billdeblasio.com/