‘Enough Is Enough’: Police Funerals Mark a Make-or-Break Moment for Our Country as Well as Our City

The funeral of Officer Wilbert Mora marked another incredibly sad and tragic farewell to a cop killed in the line of duty. Mora was a partner of Detective Jason Rivera, whose funeral was held last Friday. The funeral was held in a completely packed house in St. Patrick Cathedral here in New York.Talking about this, the sadness quickly turns to anger at the total systemic leadership failure of the political and law enforcement agencies in New York. Today, as was the case last Friday, Fifth Avenue was filled with thousands of New York’s finest mourning and honoring their two former colleagues.I believe, just as was the case last Friday, the huge turnout by the blue line of New York’s finest is making a strong and serious statement: “Enough is enough.”These two funerals should be game-changers here in Gotham. They’re a local story, but it is a national story as well. With respect to crime, courts, and jails, there is simply too much permissiveness plaguing this country.With all the loose talk over the past two years of “defunding the police” and in some cases even ending police departments, of instinctively blaming cops whenever there’s conflict on the streets, of coddling criminals and forgetting victims, be those victims civilians or cops, blue states actually permitting smash and grab looting — a problem that’s getting worse, not better — and with more than a dozen major cities in blue states experiencing record homicide rates, this question looms: Who is looking out for the ordinary working Americans who form the majority and the backbone of this country and who are staunch supporters of the police and law and order?It is they, not these anti-police left-wing radicals, who in the long-run are going to win this battle against crime. Right now, though, it is tough-going. And I’ll say, as somebody who’s lived in New York City since 1973, with a bit of time off in Washington, this is a demoralizing period.I see it, I hear it from friends. Everybody’s talking about it. It is not good. Just in January of this new year alone, 33 officers have been shot, and 6 have been killed. That’s in the first month.Over the past 12 months, New York City crime has spiked nearly 39%. The neighborhoods aren’t safe. Schools aren’t safe. Subways aren’t safe. Businesses aren’t safe. This is a terrible state of affairs.The past mayoral administration was anti-cop. Literally, anti-police. The new governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, so far is no better. New Mayor, Eric Adams, wants judges to set bail and Ms. Hochul will not agree. No bail, no jail, District Attorney Alvin Bragg says.Governor Hochul met with him and walked out with an opaque statement, “safety and justice must go hand and hand.” What in the world does that mean? She should have given him a highly visible public dressing down. She should have said that without immediate change she would fire him. But she didn’t.The socialist legislature, both the Assembly and the Senate run by far-left Democrats will not help. Mayor Adams wants more bail, and more jail. He’s putting plainclothes police back on the streets but the political establishment here is not supporting it. Instead they are nit-picking him, ankle-biting him.A teenage rapper named C-Blu shot a cop, was arrested, and then set free on an affordable bail. The mayor was insisting that the kid should still be in jail. The business community met with the DA, Mr. Bragg, and my pal Steve Schwarzman spoke up and said folks won’t come back to work unless the crime wave is stopped.Steve is right. Crime is a security issue. It’s also a big economic issue. People are fleeing the city and the state in some large measure because of crime. Businesses close and move elsewhere. Young people out of school look for jobs elsewhere around the country.I remember talking to Rudy Giuliani way back in the 1990s, when he moved forcefully to end the crime wave, that high-crime was a tax hike and low-crime was like a tax cut. New York City and state have to cut taxes as well to keep businesses here and attract new ones, but crime is really the first step.If you want to reform the city, it’s tough on crime, school choice, and cut taxes. That’s an easy policy prescription. Ultimately, who is accountable? Who is responsible? and ultimately it’s the political class that is in charge. They have failed us, at the city and the state levels.We have a new mayor and let us be hopeful. The governor has to be replaced. The legislature’s got to be replaced and somehow the city council has to be overcome. As a diehard New Yorker it makes me sad. I want a comeback here. I want a new New York.I want law and order. Respect cops and all uniformed services. I want to open businesses, to open office buildings, to open the schools. This is a crime story today. It’s an economic story, but it’s even much larger than that. This is a make or break moment for this city. And really, it’s a make or break moment for this whole country.________From Mr. Kudlow’s broadcast on Fox Business News.

‘Enough Is Enough’: Police Funerals Mark a Make-or-Break Moment for Our Country as Well as Our City

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