Imagine how much worse it could be, says Ray Kelly
Briefing: Bloomberg and Kelly. Azi Paybarah via flickr
7:51 am Jul. 9, 2012
After acknowledging a hard-to-ignore spike in gun violence in New York City, police commissioner Ray Kelly said the city would be a lot worse off if the NYPD weren't using "proactive" methods to combat crime.
"What do people think the city would be like if we weren’t doing what we’re doing?" Kelly said in an interview with columnist Mike Lupica, who is an enthusiastic supporter of the commissioner.
Kelly's argument is subtly adjusted from the usual end-of-story statistical observation that New York is America's safest big city, essentially moving from things couldn't be much better to things could be much worse.
The Post also puts a crime-related story on the front page, noting that one of the judges who decided to throw out a gun conviction of a suspect after finding that the NYPD conducted an improper stop-and-frisk is the wife of the Bronx district attorney.
In the 19th paragraph of the same story, it is noted that another judge who made a similar ruling is married to "Bloomberg's deputy mayor for legal matters."
Events
Andrew Cuomo is in Albany and has no public schedule.
10 a.m. Michael Bloomberg announced plans for a housing design competition, at 536 LaGuardia Place in Manhattan.
8 p.m. City Council candidate Ben Kallos has a fund-raiser at Manchester Pub, 920 Second Avenue in Manhattan.[Facebook]
2012
Barack Obama hasn't done enough to improve the economy and his "excuses are getting old," according to one city tabloid. [Daily News]
Flashback: Last summer, Daily News publisher Mort Zuckerman wrote an op-ed blaming Obama for the stalled economy. [Wall Street Journal]
One reason the economy is stalling: The auto industry's bailout and stimulus packages were a success, but Republican-led opposition blocked a transportation bill that could have put people back to work fixing the nation's infrastructure. [Buffalo News]
"There’s enough interest in stopping Obama that you don’t need to hire entertainment and celebrity chefs," said a Romney fund-raiser. [Jim Rutenberg]
Pictures from an anti-Romney protest outside David Koch's estate. [Christopher Robbins]
David Axelrod's argument that Mitt Romney is "secretive" is weakened by the fact that Attorney General Eric Holder invoked the Fifth Amendment during the Fast and Furious investigation. [New York Post]
A history of Mitt Romney's vacation spot, Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro. [Nick Liptak]
NY-13
Final Count (so far): Rep. Charles Rangel leads State Senator Adriano Espaillat by 990 votes. [Corinne Lestch, Celeste Katz and Tina Moore]
"Charles Rangel Defeats Adriano Espaillat Again" [Alexandra Gratereaux]
It won't be finalized until a court approves the results. [Ivan Pereira]
A Board of Elections spokeswoman referred to Rangel's lead as his "margin of victory." [Henry Goldman]
The Village Voice is ready to call Rangel the winner. [John Surico]
"Rangel Wins" [AP / NBC]
A libertarian magazine says the race is an argument for requiring voter ID. [Jonathan Tobin]
2013
Christine Quinn has the most Twitter followers; Scott Stringer has the most Facebook likes; and nobody is following Anthony Weiner's social media strategy. [Howard Michael Saul]
A chart. [WSJ]
Flashback: Quinn got her 10,000th Twitter follower last month. [Capital]
Can having run Hillary Clinton's 2000 senate campaign and advising Andrew Cuomo's 2002 campaign end up hurting Bill de Blasio? [Andrew Hawkins and Shane Dixon Kavanaugh]
John Liu hit a double playing stickball. [Gary Shapiro]
Brooklyn D.A.
"He's actually harming people," said Abraham George, a declared challenger to incumbent Charles Hynes. [Janon Fisher]
George was referring to Hynes' prosecution strategy in the Orthodox Jewish community. [Jose Martinez]
City Hall
Some education officials advocated spending $100,000 to help transport a single student with severe disabilities. [David Seifman]
"Youngest person who passed me was 25 and the oldest was 71 -- and all ages in between." [Howard Wolfson]
City Council
Domenic Recchia, Diana Reyna, David Greenfield and others tried steering some of the Council's $50 million in member items to 39 groups that did not qualify for funding because they lost their I.R.S. tax-exempt status. [Benjamin Lesser]
The story raises questions about whether reforms instituted by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn were effective. [Daily News]
Albany
What if the state decided not to back bonds issued by authorities here? [Nicole Gelinas]
Andrew Cuomo's schedule said he was in the New York City area but he was fishing in Hamptons Bay. [Jon Campbell]
Law Enforcement
Shootings in New York City are up 11 percent this year. "More stop-and-frisk. Tougher drug laws. The alternative is more blood in the streets." [New York Post]
A three-year-old was struck by a stray bullet in Bed-Stuy. [Doug Auer and Larry Celona]
Ray Kelly: "What do people think the city would be like if we weren’t doing what we’re doing?" and "Ask people who lived here in the ’90s what they think about what we’ve done." [Mike Lupica]
Suffolk Country tries stemming the flow of illegal guns. [Will van Sant and Kevin Deutsch]
Inside the street gangs of Newburgh. [Doyle Murphy]
There have been 730 shootings so far this year, up from 653 last year. [Pervaiz Shallwani and Alison Fox]
The Bronx D.A.'s wife is one of the judges who decided to throw out the gun arrest of a young man because the stop-an-frisk was improperly conducted.
Also: Bloomberg's deputy mayor for legal affairs is married to judge Nelson Roman, who made a similar ruling. [Philip Messing]
Con Ed
The company isn't disclosing specific locations of blackouts in order to protect repair workers. [Annie Karni]
Watch film of a Con Ed explosion in Midtown, reportedly caused by "the heat." [Daniel Prendergast and Rebecca Harshbarger]
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