De Blasio Insists There’s No ‘Crackdown’ on Subway Pandhandling
COLIN CAMPBELL
Mayor Bill de Blasio insisted today that any claims of a “crackdown” on panhandling in the city’s subway system are overrated.
Asked by WNYC radio show host Brian Lehrer whether the “crackdown on subway panhandling” was “consistent with your vision of how the NYPD should treat poor people who are basically innocent of crimes?” Mr. de Blasio said he wanted “to reframe the question” before answering.
Mr. de Blasio then argued that the documented spike in panhandling arrests in the first weeks of his tenure was the result of case-by-case decisions by local police commanders, not a larger shift in policy.
“What we’re doing is [where] a particular precinct or particular officer thinks there is aggressive panhandling or anything that violates the law and people’s safety, that’s what we’re addressing,” Mr. de Blasio said on Mr. Lehrer’s show this morning.
http://politicker.com/2014/03/de-blasio-insists-theres-no-crackdown-on-subway-pandhandling/
