‘Woke’ policing has turned the Big Apple rotten… don’t let it wreck London too

 “WOKE” policing has left New York in the grip of a crime wave that has been compared to the crack epidemic of the 1980s.

And in a warning to the UK, experts have urged Home Secretary Priti Patel to “choose wisely” when mulling over a replacement for the capital’s departing Met Police chief Cressida Dick.

The crimewave has seen cops killed on the streets, stores raided and serious offences hit a five-year high
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The crimewave has seen cops killed on the streets, stores raided and serious offences hit a five-year high
Crime has surged since district attorney Alvin Bragg issued a memo instructing cops to only seek jail time for the most serious offences
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Crime has surged since district attorney Alvin Bragg issued a memo instructing cops to only seek jail time for the most serious offencesCredit: The Mega Agency

A soft-touch successor could leave London in a similarly woeful state, warns Republican politician Rob Astorino, who ran for governor of New York in 2014.

He told The Sun on Sunday: “Choose wisely, because it can have deadly consequences.

"In New York we’re seeing a deterioration of society because progressives are hell-bent on ruining our cities and our society.

"If you pick a soft-on-crime head of law enforcement, it’s very predictable what will happen.

"The results will always be the same — and not in a good way.”

Crime has surged since newly elected district attorney Alvin Bragg, who sets the agenda for the city’s prosecutors, issued a memo on January 3 instructing them to only seek jail time for the most serious offences.

Shootings last month increased by a staggering 32 per cent over January 2021, while rape incidents and robberies rose by 27 and 33 per cent respectively.

His order was blasted by political opponents and after an outcry Bragg, a Democrat, was forced into a U-turn.The crimewave has seen cops killed on the streets, luxury stores raided and serious offences including rape and murder hit a five-year high.

Former police chief Bill Bratton, who helped clean up New York in the Nineties, says liberal policies have gone “too far” and helped to increase crime.

In 2019, New York eliminated cash bail to reduce the number of people in pretrial detention.

But four in ten of those released reoffended. Bratton claims the “criminal justice system ground to a halt” during the pandemic.

He said: “There was a desire to release people from prison because of concerns about spreading the virus.

“It allowed the acceleration of something the progressive Left had been seeking for years — to reduce the prison population.”

Since 2008, New York’s jail population has halved. In 2021 it stood at 31,000.

But NYPD statistics show every major type of crime increased last year.

Hanging in the balance

Seven of its officers have been shot since the start of the year, including four in a 72-hour period.

Among them were Jason Rivera, 22, and Wilbert Mora, 27, shot dead after responding to a domestic call in Harlem.

Jason’s widow Dominique said: “We are not safe any more, not even members of the (police) service.”

The task of cleaning up the city falls to new Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat and former police captain.

On his first day in office, Adams called 911 to report a fight. A police car came and left without making any arrests.

Adams campaigned on law and order and is just the second black mayor in New York’s history.

Covid also added to the crimewave. Use of the subway plunged by 90 per cent and with fewer people on the streets, those around felt less safe.

Some of the most shocking crimes have been on the subway, where two people were shoved on to the tracks, one of whom died.

Martial Simon, 61, a homeless man with a history of mental health and violence issues, has been charged with second-degree murder.

Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in May 2020 reflected a “fracturing” of relations between law enforcement and the community.

Mayor Adams plans to bring back a controversial anti-gun unit his predecessor Bill de Blasio scrapped because it disproportionately targeted black and Hispanic people.

He also wants more officers on the subway and in precincts with the most crime.

But Bratton doubts the city council, which in 2020 cut a billion dollars from the NYPD’s annual six billion-dollar budget, would approve hiring more cops.

This cautionary tale comes with the future of London’s policing hanging in the balance.

Rumoured candidates to replace Dick include former head of Merseyside Police Andy Cooke, who has argued violent criminals are “not inherently bad people”, and former counter-terrorism chief Neil Basu, who suggested homegrown terrorism was fuelled by a lack of social mobility.

Senior Tory MP David Davis warned last night: “We must learn the lessons from New York when selecting the next Met Commissioner.

“Of course it’s important that racism and sexism in the Met are tackled.

"But law and order should not be sacrificed, or we could well see such violence here.”

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