Former New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said Tuesday that it will be “extraordinarily difficult” to restore law and order to America’s cities after the criminal justice system “collapsed” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our criminal justice system literally collapsed during the coronavirus epidemic [and] is having a hard time recovering,” Bratton told Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.”
A major problem that law enforcement officers face is “the inability, the unwillingness on the part of government to put people in jail,” Bratton said. “There are a lot of very bad people in our society and they need to be separated from the rest of us,” he continued, adding that “the Progressive left is really pushing the idea of alternative types of treatment rather than incarceration.” (RELATED: New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio Blames COVID-19 For Crime Surge)
“I’m sorry, some people need to be locked up,” Bratton said, noting that people who have been arrested on dozens of occasions or who commit crimes with guns should be kept “away from society.”
When asked if the current crime wave in American cities can be reversed, Bratton said, “It’s going to be extraordinarily difficult this time.” He noted that in the mid-1990s, there was a general consensus that law and order needed to be restored and “the public was fed up.” The former commissioner said more police officers were also hired to back the criminal justice campaigns.
He also said there is resistance to law enforcement today.
“Sounds now like most of the prosecutors in the country and our major cities are more focused on effectively defending the criminals than defending the public and victims and that’s part of the problem,” Bratton said. He also suggested it was easier to fight crime when New York City had 800,000 cops in 1995 and much more difficult to do so with the 670,000 officers available today.
“We’re losing them by the thousands. We’re going in the wrong direction, we’re going in many wrong directions at the moment.”
Other cities are experiencing the same phenomenon. (RELATED: It Took Six Months Of Rioting, Millions In Property Damage For Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler To Escalate Law Enforcement Efforts Against Antifa)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JULY 08: Police search a car following a stand-off in front of the 45th Police Precinct in the Bronx on July 08, 2021 in New York City. An armed man in an SUV brandished a gun in front of the precinct with reports of shots fired before he was apprehended. Eric Adams, the democratic winner of the mayoral primary and the likely next mayor of New York City, has promised to step-up searches for illegal guns and to bring back an undercover unit of officers. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
“The Minneapolis Police Department, like every department, has seen a drop in application numbers over the last several years,” Minneapolis Police Department Spokesperson John Elder told the Daily Caller News Foundation in May. “Whereas we have seen a reduction in applications, we still have ample qualified candidates who wish to be Minneapolis Police Officers and Cadets [and the department’s] recruitment efforts are ongoing.”
Although many prominent Democrats have advocated defunding the police, during his run for the presidency, President Joe Biden said he did not support defunding the police and accused former President Donald Trump of wanting to do so. During a recent town hall, Biden also dismissed those who continue to support defunding the police, claiming, “I am the Democratic Party.”