NYPD under siege, 'it's going to get a lot worse': Dan Bongino
Dan Bongino reacts to the NYPD 'spiraling out of control' after shootings spike amid calls to defund police
Former NYPD officer and Secret Service agent Dan Bongino warned on “Fox & Friends” on Monday that people in New York City are “are going to get hurt and killed” because of “awful” political leadership.
Bongino made the comment amid growing calls across the country to defund or dismantle police departments following the police-involved death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“We can argue as a country, and we should, about public policy and things like taxes and things like that,” Bongino, a Fox News contributor, said. “If one side, the conservatives, lose the argument, it's probably not going to result in your immediate death or anything like that, thankfully.”
“That's not the case with arguments about policing,” he continued.
“When you attack the police, de-police neighborhoods and outrageously argue to defund the police, people will literally die. Not figuratively. Not some fairy tale movie kind of way. In the real world, people will lose their kids and there is so much going on right now with this.”
He explained that “the abandonment of broken windows policing,” which he said is the abandonment of “aggressive” policing where officers are “pulling criminals off the street,” is going to make things "a lot worse.”
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“It's a real shame because good people are going to get really hurt by this,” Bongino said.
On Sunday, NYPD officers responding to a report of shots fired in Manhattan were met with a large crowd throwing bottles and debris at them, amid an increase in violence in the city, according to multiple reports.
The New York City Police Benevolent Association shared a video that showed the Harlem crowd shouting and throwing multiple glass bottles at a police cruiser. The incident occurred when officers attempted to disperse the group of nearly 500 people.
"This is what a 'light touch' looks like: Police officers responding to a shots fired job in Harlem last night were met with this," the city's largest police union tweeted, referencing comments from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio during George Floyd protests last month.
The incident comes amid an increase in violence in New York City. From last Monday to midnight on Sunday, there were 63 shootings and 85 victims shot, the New York Post reported. Shootings have more than doubled compared to the same time last year.
A New York Post editorial titled “Fresh signs of NYC spiraling out of control,” published on Sunday, noted that one police officer termed the incident in Harlem on Sunday as “complete lawlessness,” which the editorial board wrote is “fast becoming an apt description of much of the city.”
Bongino noted on Monday that during current “attacks on the police you’re seeing actual uniformed officers pulled off the street.”
He added that, “You’re seeing a brain drain at the top where experienced 20- and 30-year police officers, who keep in mind they can retire after 20 to 25 years, many of them, they’re saying, ‘You know, I might have stayed two or three extra years, but it's just not worth it now. There’s no public support.’”
“And finally these political attacks on cops are killing the recruiting,” Bongino went on to say.
“So not only are you losing people at the top and losing people in the middle, your pipeline of young, good quality people who come into the pipeline to be cops, are like, ‘Yeah, I'm going to do something else instead. I don't need this job to be attacked by de Blasio all day. Thanks.’”
Bongino acknowledged that there are some bad police officers and said “the police unions do have to do a better job saying, ‘Listen, this guy is not one of us, I'm sorry, but you have got to go. You are destroying the profession.’”
The NYPD told Fox News on Saturday that 272 officers had filed for retirement between Floyd's death and June 23. That represents a 49 percent increase over the same period in 2019.
Bongino said on Monday that a friend of his, who was a gang officer, recently retired.
“Do you know what he said? ‘Thank God I got out when I did.’ He was going to stay,” Bongino continued. “And you know how much experience is being lost?”
“You could have had him for five more years. Peak experience. Now he’s in the wind and you are going to see hundreds more doing the same thing,” he went on to say, adding that it’s going to lead to more people getting “hurt and killed.”
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Fox News’ David Aaron and Sam Dorman contributed to this report.
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