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CityAndStateNY.com
March 21, 2022
“It’s better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.” – New York City Health and Mental Hygiene Department Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi, on his last day in office, via Twitter New York City Mayor Eric Adams is bringing back a controversial police unit to tackle gun violence in areas of the city that have seen a rise in gun-related crimes.
NYPD’S ANTICRIME UNIT IS OFFICIALLY BACK
Making good on his campaign promise, New York City Mayor Eric Adams officially rolled out the revamped anti-crime unit of the NYPD, which his predecessor Bill de Blasio had disbanded due to its controversial history. The
previous iteration consisted of plainclothes officers who were involved in a disproportionate number of deadly shootings. The new unit of uniformed officers will focus more specifically on guns as concerns over increasing crime rates and high-profile incidents grow. The deployment comes after a short delay, with
the first wave getting sent to areas that have seen an increase in gun violence in recent years, with the rest of the roughly 500-member unit to be deployed as they complete their training.
STATE LAWMAKERS RESPOND TO THE GOVERNOR’S
TWO YEARS LATER Last week marked two years since New York shut down to control the spread of the coronavirus. New York was hit earlier and harder than almost any other part of the country, with nearly 55,000 deaths since March 2020. Hospitalizations and deaths plummeted with the arrival of effective vaccines. As we embark on our third pandemic year, health experts warned that loosening restrictions should not mean getting complacent, as new variants could still pose a risk.
“WHAT??????????????? ????????????????????? ????????????????????? ????????” – Global Strategy Group President Jefrey Pollock, in an email response to a draft memo from former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s team fighting back against a scathing editorial in The New York Times, via Vice
Budget season is alive and well in Albany as state lawmakers passed their one-house nonbinding budget resolutions in response to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s initial fiscal plan. Both the state Senate and the Assembly proposed budgets that differed in a number of key aspects compared to what came out of the Executive Chamber. They both include more spending despite the already high price tag of Hochul’s plan thanks to a surplus from federal pandemic aid. Lawmakers also removed many of the governor’s nonfiscal policy items, perhaps most notably a bill to legalize to-go cocktails, although they also dropped other big-ticket items like term limits for statewide elected officials with a promise to revisit the issues as separate items after the budget. Both chambers also proposed funding for universal child care as well as an extension of state-funded health care to undocumented New Yorkers, both of which Hochul did not include.
HOCHUL DECIDES TO TAKE ON BAIL REFORM
After repeatedly insisting that she would defer to the state Legislature on the matter, Hochul has changed course and has decided she would like to revisit the bail reform law from 2019 in order to make more crime bail
ED REED/MAYORAL PHOTOGRAPHY OFFICE; NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND MENTAL HYGIENE; GLOBAL STRATEGY GROUP; ANDREW LICHTENSTEIN/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES
BUDGET
