Mayor Bloomberg blasted the Bronx DA’s controversial policy of not prosecuting some trespassing arrests in public housing — saying that the move will bring the city back to its bad old days of crime and disorder.
“If you want to bring crime back to New York, this is probably a good way to do it, ” Hizzoner fumed.
The comments came the day after it was revealed that DA Robert Johnson’s office would no longer prosecute trespassing cases in public housing unless the arresting cops could justify their collars.
“I think the district attorney should really take another look at what he’s doing. Our police officers have to make judgments all the time,” Bloomberg said at a press conference on Staten Island. “They don’t sit in an office and have the benefit of rethinking and doing things at a leisurely pace.”
Johnson’s stance on not honoring stop-and-frisk arrests rankled Bronx cops, who yesterday told the Post that going back to speak with prosecutors was a waste of time.
The DA’s office claimed that they had complaints that public housing tenants — and their friends and relatives — were being arrested for no reason.
The NYPD has denied that.
“In terms of the allegations [that] in public housing some of the cops have been stopping without having any justification we’ve been unable to get one example as I understand it from any of the people that have complained,” Bloomberg said.