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Donovan defends NYPD over Sessions comment

April 25, 2017 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle
U.S. Rep. Dan Donovan says the only words the NYPD deserves to hear are “job well done” in response to Jeff Sessions' comments. AP file Photo/Alex Brandon
U.S. Rep. Dan Donovan says the only words the NYPD deserves to hear are “job well done” in response to Jeff Sessions' comments. AP file Photo/Alex Brandon
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In the wake of a controversial stand by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in which the country’s highest law enforcement officer appeared to be accusing NYPD of being soft on crime, U.S. Rep. Dan Donovan has come to the defense of cops.

“I’m not a supporter of sanctuary cities. I spent most of my career as a prosecutor, and we can’t pick and choose which laws to follow. But the brave men and women of the NYPD, many of whom live in my district, have made New York the safest big city in America. They risk everything to protect millions of families, including mine,” Donovan said in a statement.

Donovan (R-C-Southwest Brooklyn-Staten Island), the former Staten Island district attorney, spoke out after the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a press release detailing the Trump administration’s plan to withhold federal funding from New York and other so-called sanctuary cities that do not question the immigration status of citizens during encounters with police.

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“New York City continues to see gang murder after gang murder, the predictable consequence of the city’s soft on crime stance,” a statement in the DOJ press release read. The release was issued on April 21.

Far from getting “soft” on crime, the work done by police has helped to lower the city’s felony crime rate to the lowest rate it has ever been, according to the NYPD.

There were 101,606 crimes committed in New York in 2016, a four percent decrease from 2015.

There was a 12 percent decline in the number of shootings as well as decreases in murders, robberies, rapes, grand larcenies and burglaries in 2016 as compared to the previous year, according to the NYPD’s statistics.

Police Commissioner James O’Neill was quick to fire back at Sessions, calling the DOJ press release “insulting,” the New York Post reported.

In a thinly veiled swipe at Sessions, Donovan said cops should be congratulated. “I’m proud of their work, and the only words about their crime-fighting abilities uttered by people who aren’t from here should be: ‘Job well-done,’” he stated.

Donovan serves on the House Committee on Homeland Security and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

On April 23, two days after the controversial press release, Sessions appeared to be backpedaling.

In an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” the attorney general said he did not mean to insult NYPD, but believes that if New York wants to be safer, it should dump the sanctuary city policy.

 


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