Democrat mayors have surrendered to “domestic terrorists”
October 15, 2020 – CREDIT: Law Enforcement Today
NEW YORK, NY– Democrat mayors have surrendered to “domestic terrorists”, said Howard Safir, former New York City police commissioner and fire commissioner. The former top cop in America’s largest city is zeroing in on the problem of domestic terrorism currently raging across the country and he has a clear cut answer: Democrat leaders have ceded to looters and vandals.
Howard Safir made several remarks in an interview with SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily, with host Alex Marlow on Monday. He said:
City councils and Democrat mayors have surrendered America’s largest cities to “domestic terrorists.”
He continued:
“It’s the Democratic cities who have basically ceded their cities to what got called ‘peaceful protesters’ but are really people who are vandals and looters, and in some cases, not only assault people but are murderers.”
Safir does not just talk the talk. He lived it. The 78-year-old is a law enforcement veteran of 35-years. According to Page Six, Safir led the New York City Police Department as NYPD Commissioner from 1996 to 2000.
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During that time, he navigated the killing of Amadou Diallo in 1999. Officers shot the 22-year-old unarmed street peddler, sending the city into chaos.
He also oversaw the outrage that followed the 1997 arrest of Abner Louima. People accused police of torturing the security guard, and the city then also erupted into looting and racial tension.
In a July interview with Page Six, Safir said:
“When cops committed a criminal offense, I worked with the community. I called in leaders of the other side plus an equivalent number from the police department.
We worked with each other. We achieved some peaceful solution. And there was no violence. With Diallo, the cops killed an innocent man. Not intentional. A mistake. We made that clear.
There was anger and hate, but no violence. It stayed peaceful. It was either that — or be arrested.”
In other words, the man knows law enforcement and he has led a major department through turbulent times of racial unrest, rioting and looting. It is an experience-based perspective that very few have.
In his more recent interview with SiriusXM, he called attention to the events that have been unfolding in Chicago, Minneapolis and Seattle. These cities have been targeted by leftist groups like Antifa and Black Lives Matter.
As riots erupted over the summer months, all three cities saw intense violence and grave destruction. So far, the estimated cost is hundreds of millions of dollars and rising.
Safir said:
“You look at Seattle, you look at Minneapolis, you look at Chicago, and places like that where basically they have given their cities to these, what I call, domestic terrorists.”
He said as news media outlets have covered the outbreaks of anarchy, they have “falsely framed” law enforcement as being naturally driven by racism. Safir told the radio program:
“The mainstream media has been pushing this false narrative that has been introduced by Antifa and Black Lives Matter that there’s a pandemic of police racism and abuse, which could not be further from the truth. They’re just putting out false information.”
The former police commissioner weighed in on the domino effect of the riots. Additionally, he commented on what happens off the streets and in the offices of the politicians who determine how much funding police departments receive.
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He said the “oppressive mandates” imposed on police officers by local governments in Democrat run cities are compromising the efficiency of the police. In turn, he believes the hostility toward law enforcement and lack of support from city leaders is damaging police recruitment, chasing away potential recruits.
Safir said even the Democratic vice presidential candidate has a record of targeting police. He said:
“Kamala Harris-if you look at her record when she was the prosecutor in San Francisco-did not go after [violent] protesters or people who destroyed property. She went after the cops.”
He added that her anti-police sentiment is causing, and will continue to cause, lasting damage:
“That’s what’s happening with the messages that are being sent by mayors and governors in these Democratic states, who are more interested in protesters than they are in the good citizens.”
In a conclusive statement to his powerful interview, Safir focused on the real victims in these supposed “progressive” cities. He said this:
“If you look at what’s happened in these big cities, who are the victims of this vandalism and of this destruction and [these] assaults?
It’s the minority communities who are being very poorly served by these protesters, and if you look at homicides across the country, what about the 5,500 black Americans who have been killed by other black Americans? Those lives matter too.”