VIDEO: Governor Cuomo Unveils First Plank of Public Safety Proposal
Watch Full Remarks of Governor Cuomo’s Speech Here
Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo unveiled the first plank of his public safety platform before a packed congregation at Mount Neboh Baptist Church in Harlem. Speaking before parishioners about a city in crisis, the Governor announced plans to hire an additional five-thousand members of the NYPD. The new officers would increase the overall size of the police force by 15 percent – bringing its total size to a near all time high of approximately thirty-nine-thousand – reversing years of decline in the NYPD ranks.
The Governor was introduced by Reverend Dr. Johnnie M. Green, who announced his endorsement of Governor Cuomo for mayor. After his church visit, the Governor made a stop at Melba’s Restaurant in Harlem with Assembly Member Jordan Wright, who also endorsed the Governor in his campaign to save our city.
The transcript of Governor Cuomo’s remarks appear below:
Good morning, God is good. Thank you, family of Mount Neboh for having me back once again, it’s my honor and my pleasure to be here. I want to acknowledge First Lady Jaqueline Green, let’s give her a round of applause. We have the great young Assemblyman Jordan Wright and he’s going to do all sorts of great things for us, and we have Reverend Johnnie Green. Now we don’t always agree, and when we disagree, he wins, but I want to thank the Reverend personally, what he does is not just for the congregation, the city, for the state, he preaches all across the country as you know. So he’s a gift to this country, but I want to thank him for what he’s done for me, for his kindness, his teaching, his counseling, and his guidance. Revered thank you very much for the friendship.
I’m running for mayor as you heard because I believe New York City has a lot of problems, I believe New York City is in crisis, and I don’t think it’s getting any better, I think it’s worse. You look at the affordability problems we have, you just can't afford to live in this city anymore. If you are a working family, you can't find affordable housing problems with migrants, homeless mentally ill who are dangerous, who shouldn't be on the streets, not helping themselves, not helping anyone else, what's going on in the subway system. We have a new president, Donald Trump, who I promise is going to give us challenges. I promise that even if Elon Musk is listening, I'll make that promise. But the number one issue is public safety because nothing works if people don't feel safe. You're not going to get businesses coming to New York if people don't feel safe. You're not going to get people buying homes. You're not going to get young people coming here if people don't feel safe. And people don't feel safe today. Now this problem is a challenge we face, not because it's an act of God.
This is an act of government that has caused this problem. This is what we have done. We have city officials, many of whom now want to be mayor of New York, who uttered the three dumbest public policy words. You can utter cut the police. Cut the police. That's what they did. That's what they said and that's what they did. Why? Because they were pandering to the extremists. And it was popular for some people to say that they called it progressive as progressive thing to do. You look at the word progressive. You have to spell progress before you get to progressive, right? They leave that out. You can't be a progressive if you're not making progress and they are not making progress. As a matter of fact, it was regressive. Do you know who the victims of crime are? 75 percent, Black, brown and poor. That's the population that needs the police.
If you are living in a high rise in Manhattan and you have a doorman and a security guard and you have a driver outside, you're fine. But if you are living in public housing and you hear someone coming through the window in the middle of the night and you dial nine-one-one, you want someone to come. That's what the police are all about. So they cut the police about three thousand, but then they didn't have enough police to do the job. So what did they have to do? They had to have give the police overtime and they now spend 1 billion in overtime for the police because they're short staffed. And what is that doing? Police are getting burned out. Police are quitting. One of the highest attrition rates ever. And we can't even attract new people to be police officers. Now who had it, right? Mayor David Dinkins.
God rest his soul, he becomes mayor and we have a terrible crime problem. Cities first Black mayor, what does he do? He increases the police force. 40 percent. 40 percent. Why? Because he understood who the victims of crime are and who we needed to protect. We should learn from Mayor Dinkins. And I propose today, if I am mayor, I will add five-thousand police to the police force. Which brings us to just about the number that David Dinkins brought to the city. Even though the city has grown now, more five-thousand more police, what is going to cost more money? No, because the overtime is so high, you can hire five-thousand new police officers for half the amount you're now spending in overtime. How crazy is that?
And the police will have less burnout. There'll be less attrition, be easier to hire new police officers. Now, police officers are not the answer to crime. The real answer to crime is to stop the crime from occurring, begin with. And we have to get to the sources more than anything else. And you have a lot of young men, especially who are at risk, young minority men between eighteen and twenty-four. And we have to give them a positive alternative. We have to give them a positive future. We have to get them a job. And we have to do a private employment sharing program. We have to get them apprenticeships. We have to show them that there's a positive way forward. And of course, the police we hire have to respect the community, have to be disciplined. And there has to be a relationship of mutual trust and respect.
But we can do it. And the last point I want to make is this. We have a lot of people leaving New York, we lost about five hundred thousand New York people who say, I just can't do it anymore. New York is too dangerous, it's too expensive. I'm packing up, I'm leaving. And that my friends is a significant problem because the city is either growing or dying. And if you have people leaving, that is not going to lead to a good outcome. But to the people who are leaving, I say, don't you give up on New York. It is a mistake to quit on New York. We can do these things that we need to do. There is nothing facing us that is insurmountable. We have to make change. Yes. And I'm not saying it's easy. Making change in New York is hard. You go to change a light bulb in New York, it's hard.
You go to change a light bulb and there'll be some committee formed, the committee to preserve old light bulbs and they will sue you for touching the old light bulb, which should be protected and putting in a new light bulb. You'll be sued by the commission for candles that believe we should have candles. So change is hard. Yes, but we know we can do it. And we know we have done it. Do we have to change laws? Yes. Is it going to be easy? No. But have we done it before? Yes, we've done it before. We passed the toughest gun laws in the United States of America in this state. It wasn't easy, but we did it. Highest minimum wage in the United States of America. We passed it here. Best paid family leave program. We passed it here. We can do it. We have to build affordable housing. Building affordable housing is not that hard.
We built public housing in this nation. 1940s, 1950s. What did we forget, what we knew? New York City Housing Authority. One-hundred-seventy-thousand units built back in the fifties and the sixties. We know how to build affordable housing. I did it at HUD as HUD secretary. Not that hard. You take a brick, you take another brick, you put a little cement, you take another brick and put it on top. A little more cement. That's all it is. Of course, we can build affordable housing. We built a new LaGuardia airport. We're building a new JFK airport. We built a new Second Avenue subway, a new Moynihan train station, new Mario Cuomo Bridge. Don't tell me we can't build affordable housing. It's the easiest thing to do. 'Well, I'm afraid of President Trump.' Alright? Be concerned. Not as concerned as the reverend there, that he doesn't want to say anything because he's afraid.
Elon Musk is listening, but be concerned. But you know what? We dealt with President Trump before I was there. I know. And we dealt with President Trump and we did just fine. I'm not saying it's not a challenge. I dealt with him all through COVID, day after day. It was a challenge. But we rose to the occasion. I can tell you that. And if you ever doubt New Yorkers ability to get something done, remember what we did during COVID, which was the darkest hour for all of us. It was a historic life and death challenge. And look at how New Yorkers rose to the occasion. Look at how they came together. Look at how they did things they never did before. So no, don't count New Yorkers out. We're going to have to demand more performance from government. We're going to have to say to politicians, you better stop talking and start doing.
I'm not judging you by your words. I'm judging you by your actions. Before you tell me what you did and what you're going to do, tell me what you did. It's about results that matter. Proverbs 24:12, judgment will be according to our works. Romans 2:11, God judges all equally according to what they have done. What have you accomplished? What have you done? You're in public service to make life better, to make life changes in life. Have you done that? What have you done or have you squandered the opportunity talking about what you think people want to hear, rather than doing what people actually need done. We're going to save our city. Why? Because we were given a precious gift by our parents. They gave us a gift for the city of New York, the best place on the globe. And they put it in our hands.
And they said, we built this place and we now give it to you. And they gave it to us. And our obligation, our legacy, is to make this place a better place while it is in our hands to make it a stronger place, a sweeter place. A place that is more fair and more just. So when we take New York and we hand it to our children, we can say, we are giving you a place better than the place we inherited. And yes, it's the greatest place on the globe, and now it is even better. Believe in New Yorkers, believe in what we can do. We're going to save this city and we're going to bring it to a height never seen before. Thank you and God bless you.
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