28 THE QUEENS COURIER • FEBRUARY 10, 2022 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
editorial
Photo by Leah Millis/REUTERS
President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with the Attorney General Merrick Garland, New York
City Mayor Eric Adams and New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul about gun violence and how to address
it.
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Reach: 6,987 (as of 02/07/2022)
Retire ‘defund’
slogan for good
Th e great journalist Edward R. Murrow
once remarked, “Our major obligation is
not to mistake slogans for solutions.” Th at
credo is true both in journalism and in
real life.
President Joe Biden seemed to echo
those sentiments during his much-anticipated
meeting last week with Mayor
Eric Adams, Governor Kathy Hochul
and other important New York offi cials
looking to tackle the city’s gun violence
problem.
In his opening remarks, the president
referenced the “defund the police” chant
that had been shouted among protesters
during the George Floyd protests just
two summers ago, and became something
of an anthem for progressives looking to
change law enforcement.
While Republicans have weaponized
the slogan “defund the police” to make
Democrats look soft on crime, Biden was
having none of that Th ursday, off ering the
full support of his administration to the
NYPD and to New York City in the battle
to stop gun crime.
“Th e answer is not to defund the police;
it’s to give you the tools, the training and
the funding to be partners, to be protectors,
Biden said.
Th at statement should mark the end
of the “defund the police” movement for
good.
On its face, the slogan was ill-conceived,
because it fostered something wholly
impossible — abolishing policing — rather
than a genuine call for more investment
in communities, as many of its supporters
had intended.
As we’ve said, the city needs the NYPD
to protect and serve the public to the best
of their ability. It needs good cops who
can rebuild the strained relationship with
the communities they serve, and it needs
them to root out those who propagate
the gun violence that injures and kills too
many people, young and old, every day.
Th e January 2022 crime numbers,
announced aft er Biden’s NYPD meeting,
prove their necessity: a 38.5% rise
in major crimes, an astonishing jump.
Shootings were up 31.6% for the month,
two of which resulted in the deaths of two
police offi cers.
We can’t aff ord to sacrifi ce police for
THE QUEENS
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community resources, and vice versa. Th e
state of our city requires a stronger police
presence equipped with all the tools needed
— both in policing and prosecuting
— to stop the violence, reverse the crime
spike and get the criminals locked up.
Moderate Democrats like President
Biden, Mayor Adams and Governor
Hochul realize this and they’ve demonstrated
a commitment to make New York
safer than it is today.
At last, they’ve provided real solutions
to our gun violence problem — not just
talk.
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