Manhattan Crime Wave Continues with No End in Sight

BUCK: I would just like to point out to everybody that already in New York City where I am, you have Alvin Bragg, the new DA, under the petition, at least — a recall petition of sorts — to get rid of him. The governor actually can — the governor of New York, Hochul (who seems like an imbecile; this is not gonna happen, but theoretically) could replace him, but that’s not going to happen. The people are already quite upset.

Clay, to give folks a sense of how close to home all it is stuff is, why is everyone talking about crime? Well, sure, the numbers reflect it. So we do this show here in New York City in Midtown in our radio studio right in the middle of the thick of things. Probably the busiest, most crowded neighborhood day to day in all of New York City right around probably a one square mile radius where I’m doing the show right now. And you had a carjacking one block from here one hour after we finished the show.

CLAY: So, to put it in the context of where you guys are, the New York City studio, this is a safe neighborhood, right?

BUCK: It was.

CLAY: If you were describing where you guys are broadcasting from, it would be typically considered safe.

BUCK: It’s gotten worse. It’s gotten a lot worse. Yes, it’s typically considered safe.

CLAY: That would be a pretty safe area?

BUCK: Yes. Historically, Manhattan, when you say going back the last 20 years, Manhattan’s been a very safe place, but it’s getting worse and worse and worse. And for a broad daylight carjacking right in front of a fancy hotel, basically right on Broadway. For anyone who knows New York City, it’s right in the middle of all of it is just crazy, and then there’s another story.

And this one is just… This was rough to see. You had a good Samaritan who — and it’s all on video. New York Post has both these stories. New York Times never covers this stuff ’cause, you know, the people that subscribe to the Times, they’re all out in the Hamptons and talking about how safe New York is while the butler is bringing them their breakfast. But here you have a guy, a vagrant, who actually took…

A Good Samaritan was walking by a guy who looked really cold who’s freezing. In New York City the last few days, it has been in the twenties in the last few days here and it’s all on video and the homeless man that the guy actually, Clay, gave his coat to him in real time, offered him the coat off his back ’cause this guy looked cold. The guy he gave the coat to, assaulted him, punched him in the face, sole his wallet and ran away, and it’s all on video.

And this is the… People always say, you know, “Oh, it’s not about public safety! It’s just about helping people, drug abuse.” No, it’s about public safety, too, actually. We have people camping out and living on the streets and people who are deeply either addicted or mentally ill or both who are not interacting with the state in a way that allows them to get the resources this need. It’s just… People ask me, “Why don’t you just stop and give everybody a $20 bill?” when I walk past them. Not me but what should you do when you walk past someone who needs help? You know, it depends. Depends.

CLAY: So you’ve lived in New York your whole life.

BUCK: Pretty much, yeah.

CLAY: Crime. We know murders are up pretty substantially over the past couple of years. Crime in general, anecdotally, certainly is up. Using an example —

BUCK: Statistically is up, too, dramatically. Yeah.

CLAY: And up in places where people are not used to seeing crime happen, right? What does it compare to in your experience? Do you feel like this is going back in time, the pre-Giuliani era? Is that the kind of vibe you have?

BUCK: It’s heading in that direction for sure, and everyone who lives here and is being honest will tell you that. The worst that New York ever was, was 1991-1992, and you were talking about over 2,000 murders a year New York City, which is… I mean, that’s like the casualties you would expect in a war somewhere over the course of a year, right? That’s crazy. –

CLAY: But it got all the way down to like 250 or 300, right?

BUCK: It became the safest city of its size in like I think the Western Hemisphere, basically — yeah, North and South America. It became one of the safest big cities you could find anywhere, not quite as safe as Tokyo but certainly getting close to it, and it’s trending hard in the other direction. And when you see these things that are happening and you see the numbers piling up.

We have to remind ourselves that there was a change. It’s not just even about BLM. It’s not just about the progressive prosecutors. There was a change in the overriding political philosophy of one of the two political parties in this country that we were too harsh on criminals, that we back police too much, and we needed a fundamental shift away from the “carceral state.”

And what we’re seeing is a lot of people being hurt, attacked, raped, murdered, robbed in places that haven’t experienced these kinds of numbers in a long time. Bad ideas have consequences, Clay, and they certainly have consequences here in New York City, and there should be at least a political accountability for the people that push this crap. Why isn’t every journalist asking AOC every time she speaks? I think she’s probably better from covid now. Every time she pops up, say, “Hey, how do you really feel about defunding police given the rise in murder rates nationwide and here in New York City? You think that was of a good idea?” But they let them get away with it.

CLAY: And, by the way, I’m glad you mentioned this ’cause I was reading this early this morning. I haven’t seen this reported hardly anywhere. This was from the Wall Street Journal. The number of police officers who were killed while on duty hit a 20-year high. So, 73 different police officers were murdered in 2020, which was a 20-year high — which directly reflects, I think, your point, Buck, about the demonization of police that has occurred in this country.

It’s not a surprise that as a result, police were targeted at a level that has not happened nearly in the twenty-first century. Again, Wall Street Journal, 73 different police officers killed while on duty last year, a 20-year high. And obviously this happened all over the country. Highest number since 9/11, Buck, because so many police officers died in the response to 9/11. I haven’t seen that hardly mentioned anywhere contextually. It is a unfortunate marker for the world that we’ve created in a post-George Floyd America.

BUCK: Every career criminal in America knows right now that if you get into a fight with a cop and it’s on video, there will be some moron going on CNN or MSNBC claiming excessive force, police violence. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done before, doesn’t matter what weapons you have on you. If it looks bad on the video for a second, they’re gonna say, “Oh, my God.” Look what happened with the cop who shot the girl in Ohio who was swinging the knife —

CLAY: LeBron James immediately said that he was racist.

BUCK: I meant to get to calls. I’m sorry. Clay and I got deeper into the crime thing. It hits close to home when they’re carjacking maybe 150 yards from where we’re doing the show.