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Fast Money & Foreign Objects
BY DAVID COLON IN NEWS ON APR 21, 2017 4:29 PM
(Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Escalating its attempts to get New York City and other metropolises to end their sanctuary city policies, the Justice Department sent identical letters to seven cities and the state of California demanding that they end their policies or lose federal funding.
In each of the letters, the Justice Department informs city or state officials that if they don't show proof that they're complying with 8 U.S.C. § 1373, a section of the United States code that makes it illegal to "restrict any government entity or official from sending to, or receiving from, the Immigration and Naturalization Service information regarding the citizenship or immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any individual" they'll maybe lose their federal funding for a grant known as a Byrne Grant.
Byrne Grants give money to municipalities for "technical assistance, training, personnel, equipment, supplies, contractual support, and information systems" relating to criminal justice. They're also, as it tuns out, named after an NYPD officer who was killed on the job.
In a press release announcing that the letters were sent, the Department of Justice chose to single New York City out for what it deemed the city's "soft on crime" policies. "New York City continues to see gang murder after gang murder, the predictable consequence of the city's 'soft on crime' stance," the DOJ wrote, a statement which drew tweets of rebuke from the official NYPD spokesman and former Michael Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser:
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J. Peter Donald
✔@JPeterDonald
Did DOJ really say the NYPD is soft on crime?
2:57 PM - 21 Apr 2017
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Stu Loeser @stuloeser
I'm guessing @TheJusticeDept writer doesn't realize gang murders POTUS reads abt in NYC media & then tweets/talks abt aren't actually in NYC https://twitter.com/nicole_hong/status/855489374154260482 …
3:28 PM - 21 Apr 2017
The NYPD recently announced that they had the safest quarter in the CompStat-era, thanks to an 8.7% drop in recorded crimes in March 2017 compared to March 2016. Last week when discussing the impact that consent decrees had on police forces around the country, Attorney General Jeff Sessions had kinder words for the city's approach to crime (emphasis added)
I do share your concern that these investigations and consent decrees have the... can turn bad. They can reduce morale of the police officers. They can push back against being out on the street in a proactive way. You know New York has proven community-based policing, this CompStat plan, the broken windows, where you're actually arresting even people for smaller crimes — those small crimes turn into violence and death and shootings if police aren't out there.Mayor De Blasio's press secretary Eric Phillips also tweeted a sarcastic response to the DOJ press release:
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Eric Phillips
✔@EricFPhillips
Yeah, in fact, the NYPD is so soft on crime it has figured out how to prevent it better than anyone else in the nation. https://twitter.com/bradheath/status/855489514558640129 …
3:21 PM - 21 Apr 2017
Justice Department Sends Letter Threatening To Withhold Funds From 'Soft On Crime' New York City
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