President Joe Biden traveled to New York City on Thursday to discuss his administration’s efforts to combat crime and gun violence.
“We can't expect you to do every single solitary thing that needs to be done to keep the community safe,” Biden told officers assembled at One Police Plaza, the headquarters of the New York Police Department, on Thursday. “It's time to fund community policing to protect and serve the community.”
Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland first attended a meeting at the NYPD headquarters in Manhattan before visiting with community violence intervention leaders in Queens.
"We’re not about defunding, we’re about funding and providing the additional services need beyond someone with a gun strapped to their hip," Biden said, debunking the "defund the police" message that has dogged Democrats in recent years. "We need more social workers, we need more mental health workers."
"We need more people who, when you're called on these scenes that someone's about to jump off a roof, it's not just someone standing there with a weapon," Biden continued. "It's someone who also knows how to talk to people, talk them down."
Biden also called for increased funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the U.S. Marshals, adding: "I'm confident that [if] we fund these programs we will see a reduction in violence."
They were joined by Mayor Eric Adams, Gov. Kathy Hochul, several members of the city's congressional delegation and other local leaders.
"The Justice Department will use every tool at our disposal to protect our communities," Garland said following Biden's remarks. "We will hold perpetrators of violent crime and gun violence accountable. We will work alongside the communities most affected by that violence. And we will work together to build a public trust that is essential to public safety."
"As in times of crises, both large and small the American people look to law enforcement every day like the heroes who are with us today," Garland said of the gathered members of New York's finest.
"The president is here because he knows what the American people want — justice, safety and prosperity and they deserve every bit of it," Adams said of Biden, adding: "He knows that public safety, and justice are the bedrock of our economy, our democracy and our society."
The president's visit comes less than two weeks after the shooting deaths of two New York Police Department officers, who were killed while responding to a call in Harlem. NYPD Detective Wilbert Mora, 27, was laid to rest at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Wednesday, with thousands of officers gathering inside and outside to pay their respects. His partner, Jason Rivera, 22, was laid to rest five days prior at the same historic church.
As the city has grappled with the deaths of the two young officers, their loved ones called for action.
"How many more Wilberts, how many more Jasons, how many more officers have to lose their lives for this system to change?" Mora's sister, Karina, asked in Spanish while delivering a eulogy during his service. "How many more lives of those who protect us have to be seized from us by violence and crime? The officers of the NYPD protect us, but who protects them? Take action, enough is enough."
Biden commended the fallen officers in his address, and met with the families of Officers Mora and Rivera prior to the event to "express his heartfelt condolences for their loss," per the White House.
Ahead of the trip, the White House announced additional actions to reduce gun crime and make communities safer, building on the comprehensive strategy to tackle gun crime President Biden announced last summer.
The new actions include:
- Prioritizing combating violent crime by directing every U.S. Attorney’s Office nationwide to increase resources dedicated to district-specific violent crime strategies
- Cracking down on the so-called “Iron Pipeline”, the illegal flow of guns sold in the south, transported up the East Coast, and found at crime scenes in cities from Baltimore to New York City
- Launching a National Ghost Gun Enforcement Initiative, which will train a national cadre of prosecutors and disseminate investigation and prosecution tools to help bring cases against those who use ghost guns (privately made firearms that are usually untraceable because they lack identifying serial numbers) to commit crimes
- Prioritizing federal prosecutions of those who criminally sell or transfer firearms that are used in violent crimes, including unlicensed dealers who sell guns to criminals without the required background checks
The administration will also add new resources to so-called strike forces set up to tackle gun trafficking, according to senior administration officials.
Last year, the DOJ established law enforcement strike forces to focus on guns heading into five cities, including NYC, via the so-called “Iron Pipeline” along I-95 up the East Coast. They have already launched 540 investigations, and seized nearly 3,100 weapons, according to a White House fact sheet.
Previewing the president's trip, senior administration official described New York as a city that has “successfully deployed many strategies like those the president supports” to address gun violence.
While at NYPD headquarters, Biden participated in a meeting of New York City’s Gun Violence Strategic Partnership, which involves law enforcement agencies coming together to share intelligence. A fact sheet provided by the White House described the group as “one model of the strategies” the Department of Justice hopes to replicate.
"I want to help every major city follow New York’s lead [to] put together partnerships like this one,” Biden said of the program. “Every day here in New York City – like this meeting today – federal, state and local law enforcement meet to share intelligence about arrests, shootings from the day before and work to take those shooters off the streets as quickly as possible."
Biden noted that he directed the Justice Department to "work with state and local law enforcement" to develop partnerships similar to the one in New York.
"We know that the best anti-violent crime strategies are tailored to the needs of and are developed by and in partnership with individual communities," Garland said of Biden's directive.
In an interview with CNN Thursday morning, Adams said he wanted Biden to "acknowledge and see what I call the rivers that are feeding the sea of violence in our city and in our country."
“What the President wants to really say is that he has the backs of communities. He understands what it means to keep your family safe … and that is what he's working very hard to do,” White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told Spectrum News NY1 a day before the visit.
As part of his visit, Biden also touted steps his White House has already taken, including allowing cities to use hundreds of billions of dollars from last year’s COVID relief legislation to hire new police officers and enhance community policing efforts.
A senior administration official said the White House will also continue to lean on Congress to pass hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for community policing and community violence intervention programs as part of the federal budget.
Biden, Mayor Adams and Gov. Hochul then toured a New York public school Thursday afternoon to "discuss community violence intervention programs with local leaders," per the White House.
The president largely listened as members of the Community Capacity Development program described how they reduced violence in neighborhood schools, where Adams thanked Biden for getting an "up close and personal look at the human justice model" used in New York.
Biden, in turn, stressed the importance of parent intervention in early childhood education, saying in part: "I don't know of a school that in fact is doing well that does not have more parent participation."
Shortly after 6 p.m., Mayor Adams held a news conference at City Hall, where he echoed his sentiments from earlier in the day, while also stressing the importance of city, state and federal leaders working in concert with community-based organizations and law enforcement to prevent gun violence.
“Historically, there has been a division between the city agencies, the police department and the crisis management teams, and that is where we have gone wrong,” Adams said. “That’s the same division we saw at the city, state and federal level on going after the shooters and those trigger pullers.”
“And so we’re seeing the bridging together of all of our resources to stop crime, prevent crime and build healthier children and families in the city,” Adams added.
Biden and Adams
The president’s trip will mark the latest in a series of meeting a between Biden and Adams.
Adams has already visited the White House twice in the past year: Once for a meeting on gun crime, and another time for a conversation about infrastructure. The two also have spoken over the phone a number of times.
The mayor has on more than one occasion referred to himself as the "Biden of Brooklyn," and just recently boasted that Biden would call him his favorite mayor if asked.
Asked about the mayor’s relationship with Biden, Jean-Pierre said the “president respects the mayor and the work that he's trying to do … They have a growing relationship that’s still new.”
In a midterm election year, Adams could also prove politically beneficial for Biden, specifically his “tough-on-crime” approach, serving as a buffer against Republican attacks over the rise in violent crime.