WATCH: De Blasio Brags About Emptying NYC Jails Amid Violent Crime Spike: ‘We Are Safer For It’

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New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday boasted about how few people are in the city’s jails amid a spike in violent crime.

The video: De Blasio made the remarks at a public signing ceremony in the Bronx for a package of six police reform bills.

What de Blasio said: The mayor touted the new laws, which ban chokeholds and require the creation of a centralized database of complaints about police officers.

  • De Blasio said that by signing the legislation he was honoring the Black Lives Matter movement, which had made them possible.
  • “People said that if we reduced incarceration and ended the era of mass incarceration, we would be endangered. It was the other way around, my friends,” he said
  • “We now have fewer people in our jails than any time since World War II, and we are safer for it and better for it.”

At a press conference on Thursday, De Blasio slammed a major New York Police Department union, whose leadership he has long feuded with.

  • The mayor said the Sergeants Benevolent Association “foment hatred” and that he has “no respect for the leadership of the SBA.”

Should de Blasio really be celebrating? NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea and others have blamed the surging violence on recent criminal justice reforms, including a new bail law and other measures meant to reduce the jail population.

  • Some experts have instead pointed to an annual summer trend that they speculate has been exacerbated by the pandemic

According to NYPD statistics, shootings in New York City increased by 130 percent in June compared to the same month last year.

  • The number of homicides simultaneously went up by 30 percent, to 39 from 30.
  • Between July 3 and 5 alone, the city saw 44 shootings with 63 victims.

Meanwhile, the mayor has formed a task force to stop the use of illegal fireworks.

By We'll Do It Live