(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden and New York Mayor Eric Adams promoted increased federal support for police and a crackdown on illegal guns to fight crime on Thursday, policies that risk aggravating a divide with liberals who seek an overhaul of U.S. law enforcement.
Adams, who took office last month, shares Biden's opposition to the “defund the police” movement promoted by some progressives in the Democratic Party. They support putting more cops on the street with better training to cut down on violence in encounters with civilians -- policies that some liberals say don't go far enough to prevent killings by police.
There were more than 1,100 such deaths in the U.S. last year, according to Mapping Police Violence, a nonprofit data project.
“The answer is not to abandon our streets,” Biden said at New York Police Department headquarters. “We're not about defunding. We're about funding, and providing the additional services you need beyond someone with a gun strapped to their shoulder.”
Biden, who traveled to New York to meet with Adams as well as Governor Kathy Hochul, has frequently sought to show support for police. During a visit to the site of a collapsed bridge in Pittsburgh last Friday, he remarked to officers at the scene that “we're going to give you guys more money.”
Biden said Thursday the Justice Department would issue final rules in the spring to regulate unmarked firearms or so-called “ghost guns.” He also said all U.S. attorneys are being directed to prioritize combating gun trafficking across state lines and city boundaries.
Senior administration officials told reporters in a briefing before Biden's trip that he would press Congress to spend $300 million more in fiscal 2023 to hire police and $200 million more for community violence prevention programs.
Biden and Adams are “presenting themselves as middle-of-the-road reformers when it comes to criminal justice and public safety,” said Scott Roberts, senior director of criminal-justice campaigns at Color of Change, a racial-justice group. “Overall, these are politicians who have deeply bought into this failed strategy of continuing to invest more and more dollars into policing.”
The senior administration officials, who declined to be identified as a condition of the briefing, said New York had enacted many successful policing strategies that Biden supports.
Biden believes “effective, accountable community policing helps us fight crime” and “also makes us safer,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters during the flight to New York.
Before departing Washington on Thursday, Biden announced that a raid by U.S. forces in Syria had led to the death of Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi.
Read more: Biden Says ‘Major Terrorist Threat' Eliminated in Syria Raid
Adams's early days in office have been marked by violent crime, including the shooting deaths of two police officers responding to a domestic dispute. For the president, whose approval ratings have slipped badly in the last six months, it's a chance to share the stage with a Democratic politician still enjoying a honeymoon from voters.
“We're here in solidarity to deal with the issue of violence that has become pervasive, and not only in New York City, but in the cities across America,” Adams said alongside Biden. “The president is here because he knows what the American people want: justice, safety and prosperity, and they deserve every bit of it.”
Political Issue
Republicans have sought to blame Democrats for an increase in violent crime over the past two years, seeing another issue that could potentially help them win control of Congress this fall. Polls show that while many voters believe crime has increased in their communities, they regard the issue as far less important than the economy or the pandemic.
Federal Bureau of Investigation data show a nearly 30% increase in murders from 2019 to 2020, with 21,570 homicides tracked nationwide in 2020. The overall violent crime rate was up 5.6% and property crimes were up 8% in 2020. Statistics for 2021 have not yet been released.
In New York, most categories of crime rose from 2020 to 2021, with the overall total for major crimes in the city exceeding 100,000 incidents for the first time since 2016.
But crime rates in New York and across the nation remain well below historic highs.
Read More: NYC Police Overtime Spending Poised to Surge Back
Biden and his allies have sought to shift the conversation about crime to focus on illegal guns they say are enabling more violence. Adams as well as Hochul and Phil Murphy of New Jersey have tried to make that point in recent public events. The Justice Department's crackdown on gun trafficking won't exclude legal and licensed gun dealers who “willfully break the law,” the agency said in a statement before Biden's trip.
Biden said that the gun used to kill the New York police officers, a Glock Inc. handgun with an additional 40-round magazine, shouldn't be legal.
“I don't see any rationale why there should be such a weapon able to be purchased,” he said. “It doesn't violate anybody's Second Amendment rights to deny that.”
Hochul, who took office last year, released her own public safety plan in early January, a three-step proposal that essentially mirrors the plans Biden and Adams have put forth. Her plan calls for an increase in police resources to target guns, a gun consortium that allows for information-sharing within New York and between other states and increased investment in community violence prevention.
Everytown for Gun Safety, which advocates for universal background checks and gun-safety measures, is backed by Michael Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent company Bloomberg LP and a former New York City mayor.
Stalled Bill
Many Democrats -- especially Black voters -- are disappointed with Biden's failure so far to win passage of legislation that would overhaul U.S. policing. The bill -- named for George Floyd, whose May 2020 murder by a police officer set off nationwide protests -- passed the House last March but has been blocked by Senate Republicans.
Prospects for any gun-control legislation aren't any better with a Senate divided 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans.
Psaki said Tuesday that negotiations on the policing legislation are ongoing. She said Thursday that “we're not close” on a police reform executive order “but we are working on it.”
Adams is enjoying a celebrity moment. He's referred to himself as “the new face of the Democratic Party” and in recent weeks has been parodied favorably on NBC's “Saturday Night Live” and featured in multiple national news appearances.
Biden's visit will help burnish that image, though some progressive critics and criminal-justice activists say they regard the president as rubber-stamping anti-crime policies from the new mayor that have failed in the past.
Earlier: NYC to Revive Controversial Anti-Crime Unit Under New Mayor
“These are policies and practices that we know harm Black, Brown and low-income communities,” said Keli Young, the civil rights campaign coordinator for Vocal NY. “With the anti-crime unit, we've seen it harm police officers as well. We're for the safety of everyone, but that requires investment in our communities.”
As one example, different iterations of a plainclothes unit Adams wants to revive racked up more than 7,000 misconduct complaints between 2001 and 2020, according to data from the New York City Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent agency charged with overseeing the Police Department. Its members were responsible for the high-profile killings of Amadou Diallo and Eric Garner, among others.
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